What Questions to Ask Recruiter
Twenty questions for a call with a recruiter, in-house or agency, covering who the client is, whether the requisition is real, the authorized salary range, how the recruiter gets paid, and how your résumé is represented. Written for candidates who want to stay in control of their own search.
The questions
Open any question for the note
Are you an in-house recruiter or working for an agency?
Why ask it
The distinction shapes everything after it. An in-house recruiter is paid by the company and answers to the hiring manager. An agency recruiter is paid a fee on placement and has no duty to mention the other candidates they are submitting for the same job. Neither is a problem. Not knowing which one you are talking to is.
Which company is this role with, and can you tell me before I send anything?
Why ask it
A recruiter who will not name the employer before you hand over a résumé is protecting a commission, and occasionally has no relationship with that employer at all. Without the name you cannot research the role, check whether you already applied directly, or avoid a double submission, which is the quickest way to be disqualified from both routes.
Is this an approved open requisition, or are you building a pipeline for later?
Why ask it
Pipeline calls are real work for you and speculative for them. With no approved headcount there is no job yet, and the interview you prepare for may not exist for months. Ask when it opened and whether anyone has interviewed. Evasion here usually means the recruiter is fishing for candidates to show a client.
Is this search exclusive to you, or are other agencies working on it too?
Why ask it
An exclusive search means the recruiter has the client's attention and can get you genuine feedback. A contingent search with three agencies racing means speed outranks fit, and your details may go out within the hour whether or not you are ready. It also explains why the same job appears on five boards with slightly different wording.
Have you placed people at this company before, and how did they get on?
Why ask it
A track record with this particular client is the difference between advocacy and a cold submission. Ask how many and whether those people are still there. A recruiter who can describe the manager's style and why the last hire worked out is worth listening to; one who only has the posting is forwarding you to an inbox.
Who at the company have you spoken to about this role, and how recently?
Why ask it
Recency matters more than candidates assume. Roles get filled, frozen, or rewritten while recruiters keep working from old notes. If the last contact was two months ago through a coordinator, treat everything you hear about the job as unverified. If they spoke with the hiring manager last week, the detail is probably reliable.
What range has the client authorized for this role?
Why ask it
Ask for the client's authorized range, not what the recruiter thinks you could get. An agency fee is usually a percentage of your first-year salary, so on this one point their interest runs with yours and many will answer plainly. If you get a question about your current pay instead, give a range and ask whether it clears the client's ceiling.
How are you paid on this placement?
Why ask it
Not a rude question, and the answer predicts their behavior. A percentage of first-year salary means they benefit from you being paid well, but also from closing quickly. A flat fee makes speed everything. A margin on an hourly rate means every dollar you gain comes out of theirs, and negotiation will be correspondingly harder.
If this is contract work, what is the bill rate and what would my rate be?
Why ask it
For staffing and contract roles the gap between what the client pays and what reaches you is the real negotiation, and it is often wider than candidates guess. Some agencies disclose the spread, some refuse, and the refusal itself tells you where you stand. Ask separately who carries insurance, benefits, and overtime.
What did the hiring manager tell you they want that is not in the job description?
Why ask it
Recruiters get an intake briefing far more candid than the posting: the one skill that cannot be taught, the personality the manager clashed with last time, the reason the previous hire did not last. Almost no candidate asks for it, and a good recruiter will have it written down. A vague answer usually means there was no intake meeting.
Why was the last candidate you submitted turned down?
Why ask it
Rejection reasons are the actual hiring bar, and they come back specific and usable: not enough depth in one system, wanted more money, could not manage the commute, seemed lukewarm. If nobody has been submitted yet, you are the calibration experiment, which is worth knowing before you take a day of leave for an interview.
Will you confirm with me before submitting my résumé anywhere?
Why ask it
Get an explicit yes to this. Being submitted twice, once by an agency and once by yourself, can disqualify you outright and start an ownership dispute between the recruiter and the employer that no company wants to referee. Asking for the commitment costs you nothing and closes off the messiest way an agency search goes wrong.
Where have you already sent my details?
Why ask it
Ask directly, particularly if you have been in contact for a while. Résumés get circulated to build agency inventory, and yours may already sit with companies you would not have chosen, including competitors of your employer or your employer itself. If they cannot produce a list, you have your answer about how it is being handled.
How will you describe me to the client, and can I see it?
Why ask it
You are usually presented through a written summary you never read, and a weak one costs you the interview regardless of your experience. Offering two accurate lines about your recent work gives the recruiter something correct to paste, and whether they use it tells you how much care your candidacy will get.
What does the process look like from here, and who makes the final decision?
Why ask it
Get names, stages, and where the real veto sits. Recruiters often know the internal politics: which interviewer decides, whether a panel votes, how long the client takes. This is also the point at which you find out you are being sent into a process already in its final round with somebody else.
How does this client handle offers: do they negotiate, and have they ever pulled one?
Why ask it
Recruiters watch a client's offer behavior across several hires, which no amount of your own research will show you. Ask whether the first number is usually the last, how long candidates get to respond, and whether an offer has ever been delayed or withdrawn. A rescinded offer in the past year is something to know before you resign anywhere.
What happens between us if I turn down an offer?
Why ask it
This tests whether the relationship survives a no, and recruiters answer it more honestly than you would expect. Some keep working with candidates for years; others go quiet the moment a commission evaporates. The answer tells you how much of your search you should be running through this one person versus other channels.
How long have you recruited in this field, and what do you usually fill?
Why ask it
A specialist knows market rates, the hiring managers, and which companies are hard to work for. A generalist filling anything from warehouse shifts to engineering does not. Ask what they placed most recently. It is easy to answer honestly and it sets how much weight their advice about your career deserves.
If this one goes nowhere, what else are you working on that fits?
Why ask it
This is how one call becomes a useful relationship instead of a dead end. A recruiter with a real desk will name two or three other searches without pausing. One who has only this role either has a thin book or does not work your market, which means your time is better spent elsewhere.
If the client says no, will you tell me, and will you tell me why?
Why ask it
Feedback is the part of hiring candidates almost never receive, and an agency recruiter is one of the few channels that sometimes has it. Ask for a commitment to the outcome and the reason. Someone who promises and then delivers is worth keeping for a decade. Silence after a submission tells you exactly what the relationship was.
Working with a recruiter
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Know who you are talking to
In-house recruiter
Salaried by the company, works a set of requisitions, and is measured on filling them. They can be straight with you about process, level, and range, and they will still be advocating for their employer. What they cannot do is find you a job somewhere else.
Agency recruiter on a retained or exclusive search
Paid to fill one role and given access to the hiring manager. This is the version worth investing in: they have real information, real feedback, and a reason to present you carefully rather than quickly.
Contingent agency recruiter
Paid only if their candidate is hired, often competing with other agencies for the same job. Volume and speed are the model, which means your résumé can be submitted fast and with little context. Useful, but manage it actively rather than trusting it.
Staffing or contract firm
Places you on an hourly or fixed-term basis and takes a margin between the client's bill rate and your pay. Your questions here should be about rate, spread, benefits, overtime, and what happens at the end of the term.
Protect your own candidacy
- 1Say once, out loud: do not submit me anywhere without confirming with me first. Then repeat it in an email so there is a record.
- 2Keep your own list of every company you have applied to directly, so you can catch a double submission before it happens.
- 3Never let a recruiter edit your résumé without seeing the version they send. Fabricated dates and inflated titles get discovered at reference check and land on you.
- 4Do not give a current salary figure if you are not comfortable doing so; give the range you are targeting and the reason for it.
- 5Ask for the job description in writing. If none exists, the role is probably not defined yet.
- 6Do not let urgency set your pace. A deadline that appears out of nowhere is usually about the recruiter's month, not the client's calendar.
Signs the recruiter is worth your time
- They name the company before asking for anything.
- They can describe the hiring manager as a person, including how they run interviews.
- They tell you why a previous candidate was rejected, in specifics.
- They volunteer the range rather than negotiating around it.
- They tell you when a role is on hold instead of going quiet.
- They say a role is not right for you, and explain why.
Signs to keep your distance
- The company name is withheld until you send a résumé.
- The job description is three lines pasted from a board posting.
- Pressure to interview immediately for something they cannot describe.
- A request for your current salary, references, or identification documents before you have spoken about the role at all.
- Vagueness about who they have contacted at the client, or whether the requisition exists.
- A promise of feedback that never arrives, twice.
Keeping the relationship useful
- Answer their messages even when you are not looking. A recruiter who remembers you calls first when a good role appears.
- Refer someone once. It is the only currency in this relationship besides your own candidacy.
- Tell them plainly when you accept a job elsewhere rather than disappearing mid-process.
- Keep two or three recruiters in your field rather than one, and be honest with each about where else you are in process.