Headhunters

Recruiters who work for a commission from employers may shape more hiring decisions in the United States than most people realize, yet their influence rarely gets examined. William Finlay and James E. Coverdill set out to study this world, combining interviews with recruiters, direct observation of their work, a close reading of training seminars, lectures and trade newsletters, and a mail survey sent to search firms.

What emerges is a candid and at times disquieting account of how these agents think, what they want, and the methods they use. Once, job candidates paid for placement. Now employers pay, and the search runs in reverse: recruiters look for people to fill positions that already exist. The authors also point out how little scholarly work has been done on what headhunters actually do.

The book is organized around three questions. What do employers gain by handing candidate searches to outside agents? How do headhunters carry out a double sale, persuading employers to buy a candidate while persuading candidates to accept an employer? And which criteria guide their choices among applicants? Finlay and Coverdill place these answers within broader institutional and historical settings, explaining the economic and political motives behind companies' reliance on recruiters, showing the tactics recruiters use on both clients and candidates, and assessing how much their conduct shapes final hiring outcomes.