How to Talk to Candidates About How You Get Paid

Most candidates have at least a rough sense that you are paid by the client, not by them. What they are less clear on is what that means for how you represent their interests. The ones who think about it sometimes become guarded in ways that slow the process. The ones who do not think about it can make naive assumptions that create friction later.

Getting ahead of this in the candidate prep conversation builds trust and removes a variable that otherwise surfaces at the worst time.

What candidates actually need to understand

The structure is straightforward: in contingency recruiting, your fee is paid by the hiring company on successful placement, typically 15 to 30 percent of the candidate's first-year base salary. You receive nothing if no placement is made.

The implications candidates draw from this are where the misunderstanding lives. Many assume your incentive is always to push them toward whatever closes fastest, regardless of fit. That is the cynical reading, and some recruiters earn it. The accurate reading is more nuanced: your incentive aligns well with theirs on salary maximization up to a point, and on finding a role that sticks (since a candidate who leaves in 90 days is a problem for everyone).

What does not align perfectly: you have less incentive than the candidate to hold out indefinitely for a marginally better offer. Acknowledging this directly ("my incentive is to close good deals, not to hold out indefinitely for an extra 5 percent") is more credible than saying nothing and letting them wonder.

The conversation that prevents problems

Early in the relationship, cover three things explicitly:

What the fee structure is: One sentence. They probably know already. Confirming it removes ambiguity and signals confidence.
Where your interests align: Salary maximization within a realistic range. Finding a role that is genuinely a good fit, because placements that fall apart early cost you too.
Where you will need their help: You need accurate information from them — real compensation expectations, real constraints on timing, real reasons they are looking — to represent them effectively. If they manage information with you the way they manage it with a client, the placement suffers.

Candidates who understand the structure tend to be more candid in the briefing. Candid candidates are easier to place well.

What this means for the prep call before client conversations

Once a candidate is in process with a client, your job is to brief them accurately on the role and prepare them for the conversations ahead. This is where the fee structure becomes relevant again: your preparation is most useful when it reflects the client's actual priorities, not just the job description.

Candidates who go into a client conversation having been properly briefed on what the client actually cares about, how they run their process, and what has made previous candidates fall short perform better than candidates who go in cold. That performance reflects directly on the quality of your work.

Prepare candidates before they meet the client

Voice2Evolve lets candidates practice the specific conversations they will have — salary discussions, pressure questions, final-round negotiations — in a realistic environment before the real thing. Recommending it as part of your candidate prep process takes thirty seconds and meaningfully improves their readiness. See how it works.

How to Talk to Candidates About How You Get Paid