Headhunters vs Recruiters vs Hiring Managers

Whether headhunters or recruiters or hiring managers, all roles have same mission- finding a right person to fill a position but their responsibilities vary. As a jobseeker, you need to know how they are different from each other. Our easy-to-understand guide will help you out –


Headhunters are bounty hunters to some extent and play a major role in recruiting process. While the term headhunter and recruiters seem same but their roles are slightly different from each other’s. Headhunter is a person who does not work for a company but he works as a third-party agent on behalf of their client who is hiring employer.

The main source of income is successful placement of candidates into open roles. Their objective is to focus on a specialty area. Be it urgent role in a certain industry or mainly filling up executive-level positions.  Most of the time an employer will hire a headhunter to fill an important vacancy and be sure that the candidate complies to all job requirements. Headhunters are generally get paid based on the percentage of the salary of the selected candidate. And they will get paid only when the candidate is perfectly fit for the job and selected for the job.


A recruiter is generally hired by the company to fill in the positions. First of all, the recruiter tries to understand the job requirements and understand their ideal candidate by discussing everything with the hiring manager. Recruiters can also be full-time employees. In this case, the recruiter already knows the company in and out, job requirements and even hiring manager personally.

Whether a recruiter has been hired internally or externally, their job is to present all the viable candidates for the hiring manager which means first interaction with the candidate is the responsibility of recruiter. If the recruiter does not find candidate suitable in the first interaction then he can reject him. In short, they will determine which candidate will get opportunity to meet the hiring manager. Always remember recruiter’s work is to match candidate’s capabilities with the job requirement. Whether selected or not, the candidate should build a long-term relationship with the recruiter. Hardworking and experienced recruiters can bring lots of future opportunities for the candidates.

Work-well with the recruiter keeping in mind certain tips such as don’t waste the recruiter’s time, be honest, prepare a good resume, treat a call with recruiter like a job interview, be prepared and be realistic. In short, you need to present yourself as a most ideal candidate. So, find an honest and good recruiter and invite great job opportunities at your door.

Hiring Managers

Hiring manager is the closest link to the job seeker but you may only deal with them towards the end of the recruitment process. Besides recruitment, hiring manager has various other duties and responsibilities. It is the hiring manager who has the last say. He has all the authority to make the final decision about who gets the job. So, the hiring manager job is to select the candidate that best fit the role and the company.

Reshali Balasubramaniam



company culture, Development, Employees, workplace