Men are the best recruiters on the planet. Except for women.

Yes, that’s right. Generally, women in recruitment do a better job… and make more money.

I have been a recruiter for 35 years. Hired and trained thousands of them. Owned and run recruiting businesses in more than 20 countries. I should think I have worked with and against many of the best recruiters on the planet.

So I have a bit of a sample to judge from. (and it turns out, the research proves my intuition)

Not every woman. Not every man. Obviously. The best recruiter I ever knew was a guy. Some women are catastrophically hopeless at this job.

But, overall, generally, on average… women do it better.

Here is why;

• I have found women are far better listeners than men. They are more empathetic. It helps, because they get deeper into the candidates true motivation, the client’s real needs… and they make a better match. Bluntly put, many woman recruiters simply care more about the human element. It might not sound ‘commercial’ but actually it means they end up with more satisfied customers, and over time, that pays.
• You are not going to like this guys (and before you lynch me, remember, I am one of you) but women are more resilient than men. Sure, often they show frustration and emotion much more readily than the average guy, who tends to suck it up and try to tough things out. But actually I have found a steel backbone in so many women in this business. They cry a lot, but they bounce back! They keep going. Maybe it’s fear of failure. Maybe it’s just pure inner strength. I can’t count the guys who have lasted 6, maybe 12 months and dropped out, telling all and sundry as they leave to go back into banking or accounting, that “recruiting is not a real job after all”.
• And then there is the money. Mostly, recruiters get paid on results. The more you bill, the more you earn. And in a world where women routinely earn less than men doing the same job, that’s very attractive indeed. Indeed, women have told me straight out. “In this job I can earn more than the person sitting next to me, man or woman, because it’s a level playing field. I bill, I earn. It’s transparent. And I love that!”

So there it is. Overall, woman make better recruiters than men, and indeed I imagine there are far more woman recruiters than men, although I have no statistics on that.

Recent Research on this Topic  <-

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