canadian headhunter

Maybe my math is off......

Detroit News had a story yesterday with the title: Headhunter firm builds loyal clients (how's that for an obvious headline?).

The story details a local "executive search" firm unfortunately named "Qualigence' (yuck!). I guess they took Quality and Intelligence and put them together!

Lisa: Look on the bright side, Dad. Did you know that the Chinese use
the same word for "crisis" as they do for "opportunity"?
Homer: Yes! Cris-atunity..

Anyway according to the article the firm did 2600 searches last year. That is a hell of a lot for a 35 person firm - approximately 75 per person. I don't know about you but as a headhunter I think that is a little bit extreme but then again maybe they are good time managers.

We are also told they have revenues of 6 million.

Now according to my math that is an average fee per assignment of $2307.00. According to the firm they tend to focus on positions in the 30-70k range. But with fees like that they must be either discounting like hell or misleading the intrepid reporter.

Could it be they had a profit of 6 million? That might make a little more sense. If not they should consider honing their negotiation skills. A little work bumping their fees up could make for the same revenue with a lot less assignments to complete.

But hold on! 6 Million was the projected growth for this year which will be a 50% increase over last year. And this year they expect to handle 3500 "assignments". That brings the avg fee to $1714.29!

Yikes.

Now I never was very good at math so if someone thinks my arithmetic is screwy please feel free to point out any errors. But if I'm a headhunter working in house at "Qualigence" I am making just over $800.00 per placement - given the rule of thumb at most firms that the fee is split 50/50 between the house and the consultant.

Is that worth going in to work for??