Recruiters are not your friends — but they are useful
The people messaging you on LinkedIn come in two kinds with entirely different incentives. Know who is across the table and whose money they make before deciding what to say and which numbers never to give.
First, see who is actually across the table
In-house recruiters are employees of the hiring company: measured on filled seats and quality, they know the team, and what you tell them reaches the file. Agency headhunters are paid a percentage of your first-year package by the company — they profit when you are placed, anywhere, at the highest closable number.
Neither is your enemy; both are optimizing something that is not your career. The agency cut means a real headhunter has skin in your salary being HIGH — use that. It also means they will push you toward closable, not optimal.
Getting found by the right ones
Recruiters live in LinkedIn search. Your headline should be the role you want plus two searchable specialities, not “open to opportunities”. The profile that mirrors your resume’s quantified bullets gets messages for the right roles; the vague one gets spam.
Reply to good outreach even when not looking — two polite sentences and “not now, but keep me in mind for X” builds the file that rings when X exists.
The first phone call is a negotiation too
The headhunter’s first call wants your current salary and your floor. Give ranges and priorities, never your current number — in most conversations “I’m targeting total comp around X” does everything your payslip would, without capping you.
Extract as much as you give: why is the seat open, how long has it been open, what killed the last candidates. Headhunters answer these honestly more often than companies do — attrition information is their daily inventory.
It is a long relationship, not a transaction
The best headhunters in your field will place you twice a decade and brief you on the market in between. Send them the occasional update, refer them good candidates, and answer their calls in years you are happy.
A recruiter who has watched your title climb for five years sells you very differently from one who met you last Tuesday. That difference is denominated in your currency.
The guide covers what happens at the interview table; the resume is what gets you a seat — write in your own words, get the English page in ten seconds