Can you hire someone to find you a job?

Why a recruiter will usually say no

Agency recruiters and staffing firms are paid by employers, usually as a fee when someone they put forward is hired. Ask one to find you a job and the honest ones will explain that they can only put you forward for roles they have been hired to fill. That is not a brush-off. It is the deal they are in.

So searching for a way to hire a recruiter mostly turns up advice saying it cannot be done, and a few agencies hoping you will settle for a place in their database. Neither is what you asked for.

Who you can actually hire

There are five kinds of help on the market, and they split cleanly by which part of the work they take off you.

A career coach helps you decide what to go after and how to talk about yourself. They do not apply. A resume writer rewrites your resume once. They do not apply either. A virtual assistant or freelancer will submit applications, but only where you tell them to, so the judgment is still yours. Auto-apply software submits hundreds of applications without anybody reading the postings.

A reverse recruiter is the only one of the five that does the whole job: reads the postings, decides which ones are worth your name, rewrites your resume for each, and files the application.

What it looks like when someone does it for you

You do the intake once: your resume, the titles you want, where you will work, your salary floor and the things you will not take. After that a person reads postings against it and picks 5 a week.

Each one is emailed to you before it goes out, with the reason it was picked and where you fall short of what the posting asks for. You have 24 hours to stop it. If you say nothing, your resume is rewritten for that posting, the application is filed in your name, and you get the receipt: which portal, the confirmation number, and who filed it.

You also see the roles that were read and turned down, with the reason for each. That list is how you know somebody is actually reading.

What it costs

Full-service firms charge $1,500 to $3,000 a month on a retainer, usually with coaching and interview prep bundled in. Here it is $199 a month, cancel anytime. The first 7 days are free and include up to 5 applications actually filed, and your first charge is refundable for 7 days.

That works out to about $9 an application. It is a lot more than software charges and a lot less than an agency, and it pays for one thing: a person deciding where your name goes.

What to ask before you hire anyone

Who exactly is doing the work, and can you see their name? Will you see each role before it is submitted? Does your resume change for each posting? Will you get a confirmation number for every application?

Then read the guarantee, if there is one. Nobody controls who an employer decides to interview, so any promise of interviews comes with conditions, often months of payments first. We do not guarantee interviews or a job. We guarantee the work: if a week comes up short, tell us and we credit it.

When this is the wrong thing to buy

If applications are going out and no interviews are coming back, the problem is more likely your resume or your target than your volume, and a coach or a better resume will do more than another person applying.

If you need visa sponsorship, live outside the US, or want federal, cleared or licensed roles, we are not set up for you yet, and we would rather say so before you pay.