Four requests a reverse recruiter should decline, and what to ask instead

Buyers of Reverse Recruiting increasingly arrive with the same four requests, often in the same words, copied from a generic buyer’s checklist that circulates online. Each sounds prudent. Each conflicts either with the NRRA Code of Ethics or with how a confidential search works. A practitioner who agrees to them is breaking a client’s confidence, mispricing the work, or giving the engagement away before it starts. This is the association’s position on each, and what a buyer should ask for instead.

1. “Put me in touch with past clients”

Canon III is plain: a client’s search is confidential by default, and a member shall not disclose a client’s identity, materials or circumstances without informed consent. Most clients of a reverse recruiter are senior people who are now in the roles they landed, and many never told their employer or board they were looking. A reference call exposes that search and asks a past client to do unpaid sales work for the practitioner. Asking the same few willing clients again and again is not a practice the association supports.

Ask instead for: published reviews on independent platforms that describe whether the work was done and visible; a conversation with the practitioner who will run your search; a redacted example of a real weekly report; and the practitioner’s credential, which you can check in the public registry. The handbook covers this in Should a reverse recruiter give you client references?

2. “Work on contingency, or refund me if I don’t get an offer”

Reverse Recruiting is a paid professional service: the client pays for work done in their name. Employer-side recruiters can work on contingency because the employer controls the hire and pays when it hires. A practitioner working for the candidate controls neither the employer’s decision nor the candidate’s choices, so a fee paid only on an offer would push the practitioner toward easy searches and toward the first offer that arrives. Canon V requires a base fee agreed in writing that is never contingent on the client accepting an offer, and Canon II says a member shall never guarantee a job, an interview or a timeline.

Ask instead for: a written agreement stating scope, price, term, your obligations, and refund and termination terms before any payment; a defined effort you can see in the weekly report; and what the practitioner commits to if an agreed milestone is not reached, such as continued service at no further fee. See Will a reverse recruiter refund the fee if you do not get a job?

3. “Analyse my market and positioning first, for free”

In the Standard Process, intake, the targeting brief, market mapping and positioning are the opening phases of the engagement itself. They take days of a senior practitioner’s time, and they are what the fee pays for. A free first conversation is normal and useful, and Canon II asks a member to tell clients the truth about market conditions at the start. That conversation should cover whether the service fits you, how the work is done, who does it, what it costs and what is realistic in broad terms. It cannot be a custom market map, a target company list or a positioning strategy.

Ask instead: “Is this service right for me, and if not, why not?” Canon V also forbids charging for services a member knows are unsuitable, so an honest answer to that question is your protection. See Should a reverse recruiter assess your market for free?

4. “Show me case studies for my exact title, industry and city”

Canon III says any reuse of engagement materials, including case studies, requires written client consent and thorough anonymisation, and Canon II says historical results may be shared only when accurate, verifiable and labelled as estimates. At senior level the number of past searches matching one title, one industry and one city is very small, and a single story predicts little: the outcome of a search depends mostly on the client’s own record, target and market at the time.

Ask instead for: the method, shown in a redacted weekly report; anonymised results presented as honest ranges across many engagements; and reviews from clients in different functions and sectors. See Can a reverse recruiter show case studies for your exact role?

The Reverse Recruiter’s Handbook, published by the NRRA, answers each request in depth: references, refunds, free assessments and case studies.