98 Chapter Three Staffing Your IT Team Things to Keep in Mind Some important things to remember when dealing with recruiters: F Fees generally run 20 to 30% of the annual salary that is offered and are almost always negotiable--in tough economic times, everything is negotiable. Agree on the fee up front and preferably in writing. Include terms about when the fee is paid and what happens if the employee is fired or quits soon after being hired. F Often a recruiter will ask what your company normally pays as a finder's fee. If they do, this is a great time to offer up a lower number. Recruiters know that if you use them once, you may use them again so they may be willing to give up a few percentage points in exchange for a potentially lucrative relationship. F Headhunters' fees are usually paid after a certain period of time. This is to ensure that the candidate doesn't quit, or isn't discovered to be a disaster, immediately after being hired. Agents often request to collect their fees after 30 days. You can usually push that out to 60 or 90 days. Don't pay the fee early based on the promise that you'll be credited with a refund if the new hire bails out before the agreed-upon period. Using Multiple Recruiters It's quite common, and not considered unethical, to give the same assignment to multi- ple recruiters. As long as you can deal with working with several agents, it will increase your odds of finding exactly the right person. On the off chance that two recruiters send you the same candidate, the professional thing to do is work with the recruiter who sent ´ ´ you the candidate first. (If there are two identical re sume s in your e-mail in-box, use the time stamp to tell you who sent it first.) 3.4 Selecting Candidates Whether candidates come to you via your own network, ads, recruiters, or Human Resources, now that you have some possibilities, the next step is to start evaluating them. Reviewing Résumés ´ ´ Re sume s come in all shapes and sizes, and there is no science to reviewing them well. ´ ´ What one manager may consider a great re sume , another may dismiss immediately. ´ ´ A re sume that's great for a programmer may not be great for a programmer/analyst. When