At the ERE Expo in San Diego, March 15-17, 2010, I’ll be describing what it takes to be a true corporate headhunter. This is a recruiter who can go head to head with his or her external rivals without compromising quality of hire or time to fill. To pull it off though, you’ll have to break some company rules and break from tradition. In the process you will probably aggravate your comp, compliance, legal, and I/O departments, at least at first. Hopefully, your recruiting manager will intercede and act as a buffer as you plow ahead making a positive contribution. 

Third-party recruiters have a huge competitive advantage over their corporate recruiter rivals. For one thing, they can cherry-pick their assignments and thus don’t have nearly as many assignments to work on. For another, they can market their best candidates to multiple clients.