Becoming an IT recruiter....

Being an "IT recruiter" recruiter is tough these days.

One of my friends did this for... wow... 30-40 years... Then one day the guy just notified all his consultants he was closing up shop. I asked why.

Here's what he said.

"Recently I got a job bill (open contract) from the city of Austin."

Then he read the requirements, which... well... the person would have had to have 20-30 years experience to have all the years experience listed in the contract requirements.

Then he said the contract was for $20/hour + there were already 1200 resume submissions.

He said this had become commonplace.

So... the problem with this is the math. After you figure out your percentage to cover your overhead, taxes, client + consultant acquisition, some profit... then... start comparing this to what people will work for on Guru + Upwork + etc...

You may find there are far easier ways to make a living.

My suggestion, if you have any sort of technical experience, then work from home... doing ad-hoc, hourly work that drives to some sort of continuity income.

You list Linux in your tags, so it you do project work + drive to hosting (continuity), you're income will be far higher, for less work.

BTW, this is why I do my own client work now, rather than showing up at client sites, working on a contract basis too.

Way better having 100s of clients paying me every month, than one client paying me every month.

The entire commute + cubical lifestyle just produces to little profit for anyone participating.

<flame on>
This is a tough job to do if you need to look at your own face in the mirror every morning when shaving.

Recruiters know perfectly well what the situation is behind the "opportunity" but have to refrain from telling that to the recruitees, making it sound like a wonderful opportunity with a chance for a career at the client company -- when in truth the situation is:

"This company doesn't want to pay for one of their own employees to learn this skill, because it's a short term need and once the job is over there will be no place for this person in the company.  They also don't want to pay benefits such as retirement, profit sharing or 401K contributions.  So they're fundamentally looking for a sucker who says "$75 an hour isn't bad" and ignores the fact that they must purchase all those add-ons out of their own pocket and will end up making less than they would at McDonalds.

"They could get it cheaper from an Indian or Pakistani code company which is their normal practice, but for this job only they need someone who speaks fluent American English so they're willing to talk to US citizens.

"Oh, and by the way.  In three years when something else is the standard, you'll be obsolete so don't expect any further calls from us recruiting you for your 'valuable skills.'  And you'll have to retrain from scratch on your own money."
</flame off>

Very tough business to get into. It is basically a sales job. Rewards can be good (though very hard to get started) and penalties can be horrid.

Check out : http://www.learnhiring.com/

and their Youtube intro : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1kh2mYSF3E   and note the myriad of categories you need to consider.

and keep reserching : https://www.socialtalent.com/blog/recruitment/8-usa-recruitment-agencies-that-you-need-to-follow-on-twitter-now

See what the big companies are doing : https://www.influxrecruitment.com/who-are-the-top-5-recruitment-in-the-world/
And : https://www.forbes.com/sites/vickyvalet/2018/04/09/americas-best-recruiting-firms-2018/#726134317d16

There is an interesting post in Quora : https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-future-of-a-recruiter-in-a-US-IT-staffing-Company-In-what-areas-can-he-explore-being-a-recruiter - there is a link at the end to a variety of YouTube videos

Think very hard about how you will be "better" in a fairly saturated market.

And some of those ads you see, are often phishing for resumes to increase candidate counts to give the impression of market size....

Hi Jerry,
The high end of this profession is exciting, challenging, and profitable, however the road to get there is a long one.  And given the technical skills skills you list above, you will likely have to take a reduction in pay to get started.  

To answer your question, yes you are correct, a great number of recruiting emails (and recruiting efforts at large) these days are, not only coming from oversees, but coming from oversees with a specific intention of* SEEMING* to NOT be coming from oversees, which I find troubling...in any case, here's a quick general glance at how the world of technical recruiting works:

* Recruiters that are contacting you about a particular role have an agreement with the hiring company for that role (That's how they are able to submit you on your behalf)...
* They have to be cagey with the information about the position because if they tell you too much about it and you deduce who the employer is, you could apply directly to that employer, and get the job, and the recruiter won't get paid.  This is a very unfortunate reality for all involved because it can lead to very unseemly, uncomfortable, and downright misleading conversations (much as Dr. Khlan implies above) about a critically important subject--one's livelihood!
* Another byproduct of this that many Engineers are unaware of is that in many cases, if you unwittingly submit yourself to an employer that happened to have already received your submission from one of these agencies, that employer, not willing to tangle with the legalities of who-submitted-whom first, will often simply dismiss both submissions and move on to another candidate. A lot of times Engineers wonder why they never hear back about a role they figure they were perfect for...often this is the reason
* Now, if, after all that, a recruiter successfully submits the candidate who eventually gets hired, that recruiter (or agency in most cases) will get paid anywhere from 5%-35%PLUS of that newly hired employees' annual salary (If you place an Engineer who makes 100K, you're in for around 30k yourself after he/she is on the job for 90 days!!)
* If the position is on contract the agency will receive between 20%-50%+ of the hourly rate (again...!)
 (I say 'agency' for contract positions because independent recruiters should never carry a contractor for legal reasons--only an agency can afford the indemnity that requires)
* For this reason, contractors will typically never get to know what their 'Bill' rate is, only their 'Pay' rate.  So, for example, if David Favor (above) was placed on contract for $100.00 an hour, at his seniority levels, its a good bet his actual bill rate would be somewhere around $150-$170 for the life of that contract.
* Mark Wills is right.  It IS a sales job.  You are selling the opportunity to the candidate, and then you are also selling the candidate to the employer.  It's a spreadsheet-driven, hyper-competitive, metric obsessed sales job.
* With all that said, it is a profession that, if you have the skills it takes, and you commit yourself to every aspect of it, you can go from zero experience to a six figure income within 20 months.
While I don't have any single website to refer you too, I do have several solid, good people who have made that 20 month+ trek I mention above, and I would be happy to intro you if you would like to learn more about the profession.
Hope this was helpful!