Recruiter Salary Talk Frustrations (real estate, costs, budget)

[softdev]

I'm about to throw my hands up with these recruiters. It's like dealing with a real estate agent who is constantly trying to talk down your asking price. They've gotten cockier since the economy has soured.

Anyways...anyone here in software? What do you expect a talented software development team lead with management responsibilities to make in this town? And yes, I know about salary.com, but I have little faith in those numbers since my coworkers and I (at two different jobs) have always scored in the top 10%. Seems like those numbers skew very very low.

[Drover]

It's not that they've gotten cocky, it's that they're trying to adjust people's expectations downward to match the current realities of the labor market. They hate this market more than you do. They work on commission and they can barely get people placed for free, much less for a fee.

[coldwine]

What Drover said.

Companies are trying to hire at lower costs because they can't afford higher salaries. It's either that or outsource.

Right now recruiters probably can't place anyone, especially not people like yourself who have management experience and command higher earning power.

[Chicago60614]

Recruiters aren't being cocky, they're freaking out.

[Hendu]

Originally Posted by Drover

It's not that they've gotten cocky, it's that they're trying to adjust people's expectations downward to match the current realities of the labor market. They hate this market more than you do. They work on commission and they can barely get people placed for free, much less for a fee.

Bingo - the recruiters are worried about their own job, and have a strict budget to work with. Unfortunately, candidates even with great experience are not in the drivers seat right now. Hopefully this won't last too much longer.

[ajolotl]

150K with decent bonus potential.

Originally Posted by softdev

Anyways...anyone here in software? What do you expect a talented software development team lead with management responsibilities to make in this town? And yes, I know about salary.com, but I have little faith in those numbers since my coworkers and I (at two different jobs) have always scored in the top 10%. Seems like those numbers skew very very low.

[lincolnparker]

I'd say 120k base, and 20% bonus

[softdev]

Ajolt, lincolnparker, thanks. That's inline with the 125-150k I was expecting.

This recruiter is trying to spin these bs 100k numbers as being the typical going rate. This same thing happened the last time I used a recruiter, in the boom times no less. Every conversation was just a thinly veiled attempt to get me to accept less then I was worth. Yet, I ended up getting more than I was initially looked for.

This is going to take a long time...

[lincolnparker]

Id say keep on trying. You do not want to sell yourself short. 100k sounds more like a senior analyst type of compensation. For a talented IT manager, I would not take anything less than a 140k total comp (base+guaranteed bonus+target bonus+equities, and make sure you can get the first two items as high as possible).

Again, it depends on the organization, I know for a fact that Citi just cut their compensation by 20% across the board.

Another thing is if you use a recruiter, they are getting paid a commission, which will ultimately come out of your total comp. so on average, id say if you use a recruiter, expect to get about 10%-15% less than the going rate.