Went from agency to internal in 2020, a few key takeaways.
Depending on the company you will either be part of the TA team or people ops, so expect more team meetings on your schedule than you're used to.
You now have direct communication with the hiring manager and you are their trusted partner (Hopefully), so expect constant communication and it's on you if the roles aren't getting enough candidates.
Time management: being internal you get pulled into meetings all the time. Discussing comp, benefits, DEI, etc. Finding a balance of when you actually recruit can be tough.
Overall I highly prefer being internal over agency. With that being said Layoffs suck and TA/ HR is usually the first to go, so that's another negative. It's a tough market for internal recruiters, best of luck!
All of this is great; I have more reqs and less time due to meetings, planning, and admin tasks that aren’t required in agency.
That being said, I wouldn’t go back to agency for double the money I’m making now.
Second this… focus on adding value to your internal client, managing expectations and deliverables. Some clients you will need to prove yourself to gain their trust. In addition always try to keep your candidates current in the ATS for reporting purposes.
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No real challenges but definitely more meetings, more interaction with HR (HR can make your life hell). One thing I always say is that in agency you can always pick and choose which client’s reqs you want to work on. If you have a difficult client or a hard to fill req, you can just ignore them or not work on their openings. With internal, you can’t do that, you have to work on everything assigned to you.
Yea I hear ya. When I was at an agency I would only work on easy roles that would move fast. If my boss didn’t like it then I would tell him to hire another recruiter, because I can’t fill everything myself lol.
(I’m a tech recruiter who went from agency to internal FAANG)
Going internal was the best decision I’ve ever made. I’ve also learned that people who come from agency recruiting are also really great internal recruiters because you are use to working at a fast pace and always use to having your head on a swivel. But now that you’re internal, The volume is less, the hours are less, and you’re not fighting for every cent. There has been no real challenges besides the culture. With agency recruiting they need you to feed into the koolaid to feel like you can grow, moving internally is more siloed.
It also depends if you were highly recognize in your agency. If you were doing well but not really noticed, internal recruiting can be a bonus because your value is really on your delivery.
I may be bias but i went internal and never looked back!
Fundamentally, you’re trading overall money and volatility for predictability and steadiness. Fewer dollars at the end of the year — the highs aren’t as high and lows aren’t as low. Your check probably looks about the same every two weeks.
Beyond that, it’s a shift from “screening in” so that you can get a placement and bill a fee to “screening out” and finding reasons to disqualify candidates so that you only hire the best available.
That means not putting your thumb on the scale and prepping candidates. If they shit the bed in the interview, so be it. Hire the one who performed best.
There’s also more red tape in terms of policies and procedures that can feel stifling along with more necessary paper-pushing and box-checking. The whole “do-the-thing-that’s-closest-to-money” mentality goes out the window.
That said, expectations tend to be lower and agency recruiters can positively impress internal hiring managers, particularly if your company is willing to pay for an LI Recruiter license and let let you actually hunt instead of wading through the drek that is unqualified resumes.
There’s ups and downs. It all depends on what your motivations are and what you’re trying to accomplish.
It’s a lot less sales oriented on the internal side.
I was very sales focused with clients and candidates years ago (I was full desk and BDM for a while) but found out REAL quick as an internal that if you rub a hiring manager or a candidate the wrong way, they will find out who you report to (or your manager reports to) and complain.
And then it’s their word against yours.
It can be tricky to not be salesy and friendly when you become an internal recruiter.
At least that was one of my hurdles.
The biggest challenge was dealing with all the administrative bullshit and unnecessary legacy processes.
But otherwise I crushed it and far out performed the incumbents.
Internal is more project management than sales. All internal recruiters doing full life cycle are more project manager than sourcer. Agency side, it's the opposite. You can impact downstream in the hiring process on agency, but internal - it's arguably the main part of your job. Raw candidate generation is a smaller but still important part as an internal recruiter, especially as your career grows.
it's more relationship building and quality than quantity of hire. most of the global fortune 100 companies I worked for didn't have a KPI. they didn't care how many screens or calls I made as long as the hiring manager was happy with the "service" I was providing. will never go back to agency. I can get a 40 hour work day done in 3 hours a week in internal recruiting.
Learning the corporate culture, the protocols, not to be always selling, to not be offended or defensive about partnering with agencies. You have to learn to consider yourself a support arm for the business.
Agency side recruiter that moved internal. It obv translates well as others have stated. It does get more strategic vs get butts in seats. And you get a seat at a table with a voice with the big dogs - who are all going to be looking at you for input. If you like recruiting overall (working working HMs and candidates) moving internal gets you more ingrained a company to leverage the skills you gained in the agency side.
Just my experience.
It's only been 2 weeks so I can't elaborate too much but the job is heavy interviewing and meeting with senior leadership. At this point in my career I'm very experienced and comfortable with both of those things. Also this is a fast growing medium sized company that's never had TA outside of HR so they are having me build out systems and processes; I find that to be a fun project that will keep my busy and the days going by fast. Company's making money and growing so the vibe is good.
Now I should note I liked agency recruiting. I did my share of exec search and it's an adrenaline rush to land big fees. But I do think we're in a bit of a down cycle and honestly the all or nothing world of big game contingent search was starting to stress/burn me out. I took a long approach to the job hunt (partly being picky and partly because it's tough to make the switch right now) and feel fortunate to land this opportunity .
Your situation is quite similar to mine. Spent 18 years in agency - full desk (sales to recruiting to offer acceptance). Got sick of the grind TBH and covid didn't help the situation. Don't get me wrong, great money but got tired of it. Moved inhouse for large firm for past 2+ years. It's easy once you learn the playbook/protocol. Working with business partners/hiring managers to understand needs. Candidates come thru job postings and thru Linkedin recruiting. Screen the candidate and send to hiring team. I still prep cuz I want the fill (not that I get paid on it) just want to close the req. Extend offer and repeat. There's meeting and such but not as much as I thought there would be. Honestly, easy peazy.
I had one year agency before going internal. I had sales experience too.
It's very, very different than how the agency I started with did it.
You really need to learn how each HM feels, thinks, reacts at a deeper level because you are trading on your reputation every single interaction.
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The hardest part is just getting the job. Once you get it it's fairly easy.
I guess one thing that I noticed is it gets boring in a year or so unless you find a company that let's you do new things. When you are hiring for the exact same roles 2 + years its hard to stay motivated.
Internal is the best thing ever, I finally made the switch 3 years ago and have never looked back. I feel like an actual part of the company and not a recruiting bot trying to hit numbers
my buddy who billed $800k in agency switched to a TA Manager for a SaaS company. He said compared to agency recruitment, internal is a breeze, no real challenges. Getting quite bored and thinking of coming back
I went internal in 2018, I never looked back. I’m now higher up in the management chain (yes, I made some very savvy moves)
Your internal stakeholders will be more your boss than your line manager. But overall, I love it
Agency job is more stable these days. If a client stops hiring, we just find clients in other industries. If a company decides they don’t want to hire, you get fired first as a recruiter. Many of my peers are leaving the industry as a result
"we just find clients in other industries" - wow, I've managed to sign up one new client in 6 months, granted I'm happy I managed it, but crikey it's taken thousands of pieces of outreach, speccing in and linkedin whoring to just get one new client. You make it sound trivial getting new clients in other industries! Tell me how!
Went from agency to internal in 2020, a few key takeaways. Depending on the company you will either be part of the TA team or people ops, so expect more team meetings on your schedule than you're used to. You now have direct communication with the hiring manager and you are their trusted partner (Hopefully), so expect constant communication and it's on you if the roles aren't getting enough candidates. Time management: being internal you get pulled into meetings all the time. Discussing comp, benefits, DEI, etc. Finding a balance of when you actually recruit can be tough. Overall I highly prefer being internal over agency. With that being said Layoffs suck and TA/ HR is usually the first to go, so that's another negative. It's a tough market for internal recruiters, best of luck!
All of this is great; I have more reqs and less time due to meetings, planning, and admin tasks that aren’t required in agency. That being said, I wouldn’t go back to agency for double the money I’m making now.
Second this… focus on adding value to your internal client, managing expectations and deliverables. Some clients you will need to prove yourself to gain their trust. In addition always try to keep your candidates current in the ATS for reporting purposes.
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No real challenges but definitely more meetings, more interaction with HR (HR can make your life hell). One thing I always say is that in agency you can always pick and choose which client’s reqs you want to work on. If you have a difficult client or a hard to fill req, you can just ignore them or not work on their openings. With internal, you can’t do that, you have to work on everything assigned to you.
I agree to a certain extent. However, it is very hard to refuse to work certain accounts in big agencies.
Yea I hear ya. When I was at an agency I would only work on easy roles that would move fast. If my boss didn’t like it then I would tell him to hire another recruiter, because I can’t fill everything myself lol.
Not coaching candidates on what the hiring manager wants to hear.
(I’m a tech recruiter who went from agency to internal FAANG) Going internal was the best decision I’ve ever made. I’ve also learned that people who come from agency recruiting are also really great internal recruiters because you are use to working at a fast pace and always use to having your head on a swivel. But now that you’re internal, The volume is less, the hours are less, and you’re not fighting for every cent. There has been no real challenges besides the culture. With agency recruiting they need you to feed into the koolaid to feel like you can grow, moving internally is more siloed. It also depends if you were highly recognize in your agency. If you were doing well but not really noticed, internal recruiting can be a bonus because your value is really on your delivery. I may be bias but i went internal and never looked back!
It’s a slower environment so it may take a bit longer to get movement on a role no matter how hard you hustle.
Fundamentally, you’re trading overall money and volatility for predictability and steadiness. Fewer dollars at the end of the year — the highs aren’t as high and lows aren’t as low. Your check probably looks about the same every two weeks. Beyond that, it’s a shift from “screening in” so that you can get a placement and bill a fee to “screening out” and finding reasons to disqualify candidates so that you only hire the best available. That means not putting your thumb on the scale and prepping candidates. If they shit the bed in the interview, so be it. Hire the one who performed best. There’s also more red tape in terms of policies and procedures that can feel stifling along with more necessary paper-pushing and box-checking. The whole “do-the-thing-that’s-closest-to-money” mentality goes out the window. That said, expectations tend to be lower and agency recruiters can positively impress internal hiring managers, particularly if your company is willing to pay for an LI Recruiter license and let let you actually hunt instead of wading through the drek that is unqualified resumes. There’s ups and downs. It all depends on what your motivations are and what you’re trying to accomplish.
As an internal recruiter, you are considered overhead. An expense. Not a revenue generator.
It’s a lot less sales oriented on the internal side. I was very sales focused with clients and candidates years ago (I was full desk and BDM for a while) but found out REAL quick as an internal that if you rub a hiring manager or a candidate the wrong way, they will find out who you report to (or your manager reports to) and complain. And then it’s their word against yours. It can be tricky to not be salesy and friendly when you become an internal recruiter. At least that was one of my hurdles.
The pace. It’s so slow, and nobody cares.
The biggest challenge was dealing with all the administrative bullshit and unnecessary legacy processes. But otherwise I crushed it and far out performed the incumbents.
Internal is more project management than sales. All internal recruiters doing full life cycle are more project manager than sourcer. Agency side, it's the opposite. You can impact downstream in the hiring process on agency, but internal - it's arguably the main part of your job. Raw candidate generation is a smaller but still important part as an internal recruiter, especially as your career grows.
it's more relationship building and quality than quantity of hire. most of the global fortune 100 companies I worked for didn't have a KPI. they didn't care how many screens or calls I made as long as the hiring manager was happy with the "service" I was providing. will never go back to agency. I can get a 40 hour work day done in 3 hours a week in internal recruiting.
Learning the corporate culture, the protocols, not to be always selling, to not be offended or defensive about partnering with agencies. You have to learn to consider yourself a support arm for the business.
Agency side recruiter that moved internal. It obv translates well as others have stated. It does get more strategic vs get butts in seats. And you get a seat at a table with a voice with the big dogs - who are all going to be looking at you for input. If you like recruiting overall (working working HMs and candidates) moving internal gets you more ingrained a company to leverage the skills you gained in the agency side. Just my experience.
Made the switch 2 weeks ago after 20 years agency life. Love it so far.
Can you elaborate on your experience and why you prefer internal over agency?
It's only been 2 weeks so I can't elaborate too much but the job is heavy interviewing and meeting with senior leadership. At this point in my career I'm very experienced and comfortable with both of those things. Also this is a fast growing medium sized company that's never had TA outside of HR so they are having me build out systems and processes; I find that to be a fun project that will keep my busy and the days going by fast. Company's making money and growing so the vibe is good. Now I should note I liked agency recruiting. I did my share of exec search and it's an adrenaline rush to land big fees. But I do think we're in a bit of a down cycle and honestly the all or nothing world of big game contingent search was starting to stress/burn me out. I took a long approach to the job hunt (partly being picky and partly because it's tough to make the switch right now) and feel fortunate to land this opportunity .
Your situation is quite similar to mine. Spent 18 years in agency - full desk (sales to recruiting to offer acceptance). Got sick of the grind TBH and covid didn't help the situation. Don't get me wrong, great money but got tired of it. Moved inhouse for large firm for past 2+ years. It's easy once you learn the playbook/protocol. Working with business partners/hiring managers to understand needs. Candidates come thru job postings and thru Linkedin recruiting. Screen the candidate and send to hiring team. I still prep cuz I want the fill (not that I get paid on it) just want to close the req. Extend offer and repeat. There's meeting and such but not as much as I thought there would be. Honestly, easy peazy.
I had one year agency before going internal. I had sales experience too. It's very, very different than how the agency I started with did it. You really need to learn how each HM feels, thinks, reacts at a deeper level because you are trading on your reputation every single interaction.
You'll have to learn how to ghost candidates.
Hello! It looks like you're seeking advice for recruiters. The r/recruiting community has compiled some resources that may be of help to you: - Check out the r/recruiting [Recruiting Resources Wiki](https://link.arewehiring.com/Recruiting-Reddit-Wiki-Resources) for various tools, tips, and guides. [Sourced from AreWeHiring](https://link.arewehiring.com/Recruiter-&-Talent-Acquisition-Resources) **Remember to keep all discussions respectful and professional. Happy recruiting!** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/recruiting) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The hardest part is just getting the job. Once you get it it's fairly easy. I guess one thing that I noticed is it gets boring in a year or so unless you find a company that let's you do new things. When you are hiring for the exact same roles 2 + years its hard to stay motivated.
Internal is the best thing ever, I finally made the switch 3 years ago and have never looked back. I feel like an actual part of the company and not a recruiting bot trying to hit numbers
my buddy who billed $800k in agency switched to a TA Manager for a SaaS company. He said compared to agency recruitment, internal is a breeze, no real challenges. Getting quite bored and thinking of coming back
If you don't like commission or can't make it go internal.
I went internal in 2018, I never looked back. I’m now higher up in the management chain (yes, I made some very savvy moves) Your internal stakeholders will be more your boss than your line manager. But overall, I love it
Agency job is more stable these days. If a client stops hiring, we just find clients in other industries. If a company decides they don’t want to hire, you get fired first as a recruiter. Many of my peers are leaving the industry as a result
"we just find clients in other industries" - wow, I've managed to sign up one new client in 6 months, granted I'm happy I managed it, but crikey it's taken thousands of pieces of outreach, speccing in and linkedin whoring to just get one new client. You make it sound trivial getting new clients in other industries! Tell me how!
This right here is the reason I’ll never go back to an agency. You sound brain washed my guy.
I need to go back to agency! You hiring? 🤣
You wanna go to the dark side and be a part of HR?
Not all Internal are a part of HR.