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  • 1 Post By Trebor
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  • 2 Post By SonicYouth1

Recruiters in Hong Kong

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  1. #1

    Recruiters in Hong Kong

    Hi all

    I just wanted to get a better understanding of how recruiters in HK get remunerated as I have engaged with several recruiters who seem to be telling me very different salary numbers.

    My understanding in the UK is that they get remunerated based on a percentage of the salary they negotiate, but is this the case for HK as well?

    Thank you all

    Kevin


  2. #2

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    My understanding in the UK is that they get remunerated based on a percentage of the salary they negotiate, but is this the case for HK as well?
    Yes, anywhere from a fixed fee to 3months+ ..

    There have been cases where they lowball the candidate. Esp to get someone in, to meet their quota.

  3. #3

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    I think 25% of the annual salary is industry standard.


  4. #4

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    20-30% of the annual basic salary. Negotiable.


  5. #5

    If anything i find hong kong recruiters pontscum, so many of them are just lying straight in your face about many different aspects of jobs and salaries. They are careless as long as they get their bonus (global issue) but only a very few i have met the last 10 years were actually helpful the rest is just borderline criminal.

    If you like to drink coffees for free then you can have a great time meeting recruiters, because its a lot of promises under the enjoyment off a coffee and seldom proper follow up. Fancy ABCs in a suit, that basically waste your time.

    One tip, if you can avoid consultancy/ subcontract work through one of those recruiting agencies, they have wildly various experiences, from consistent late salary pays, very very basic/none existing benefits etc, i currently work contracted, it was my first time and man it sucks so bad..

    In particular order of horrible recruiting agencies in hong kong.

    Robert Walters - they are riding the very fine line between what is legal and illigal here in hong kong. They look like a good firm with their educated ABCs but honestly its a recruiter you really want to avoid if can.

    Robert Half - reasonable not much to add. Not much hits in my field of expertise though.

    Randstad - mixed results definately worse than the randstad in my home country netherlands where they originate from.

    Then there is are a bunch of local joins based in and surrounding Central and wan chai, often they just mix up some wordings in existing job openings, have little information about the role, the company etc, and just try to shove resumes to potential employer clients. Most of them are pretty hot garbage.

    And a few indian companies, i have no experience with them but they seem to be run from outside HK and i basically did not invest any of my time into them.

    Honestly i think Worker rights in Hong kong are shockingly bad compared to Europe, Employers have such vast amount of power, its scary.

    Last edited by coffeeman; 28-03-2019 at 04:07 PM.
    Mrs. Jones and angeluscomplex like this.

  6. #6

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    Quote Originally Posted by Trebor:
    I think 25% of the annual salary is industry standard.
    That's what the company pays the recruitment firm, not what they pay their consultants....

  7. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by Fiona in HKG:
    That's what the company pays the recruitment firm, not what they pay their consultants....
    You are quite right. I completely misread the post.
    Fiona in HKG likes this.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Expat_Kevin:
    Hi all

    I just wanted to get a better understanding of how recruiters in HK get remunerated as I have engaged with several recruiters who seem to be telling me very different salary numbers.

    My understanding in the UK is that they get remunerated based on a percentage of the salary they negotiate, but is this the case for HK as well?

    Thank you all

    Kevin
    Well I've been working as a recruiter for the past 10 years both agency and now internal and can share the following about how agency recruiters are remunerated:

    - The base salaries are a lot higher these days, as its getting more and more competitive for firms to hire successful/good recruiters. Typically entry level can get anything from 18-25k, senior consultant 25-35k, manager or principal can be 40-60k and this is base salary. If associate director or above, can be anything from 50-80k and this is even before bonus/commission kicks in

    - Bonus or commission can be 25-100% on top of the base, typically i would estimate 25%

    - Which seems like its fairly attractive and well paid to be a recruiter, although think about this situation - the higher your base, the higher the expectation for you to produce. If you don't, and carry this for a period of time, then could be liable to be let go

    - So it depends predominantly on the base and bonus scheme how much of the business they produce. As a rough guesstimate, 25-33% of total business they produce (in fees) they would receive. Thus if they produce 2m, they should take home 500 - 700k depending on how greedy their company is with their scheme
    rs4 and LifeInHK like this.