"Sourcers are slaves."

[Maureen Sharib]

There's a hot-button discussion going on right now over in the Yahoo group "N. California Recruiters & HR Network".
Landon Allen (redhook4u) asks:
I have noticed a trend and I am curious if any of you have opinions on the topic. If you take a look - when jobs are posted for a Recruiter or a Sourcer, it seems the Sourcer job description is a lot bigger than the Recruiters description - yet, the Recruiter makes more $$, with less responsibilities? ! I can do and HAVE done both roles - yet, for the life of me, I can't understand why sourcers are compensated less money - when in fact, they actually do more work than the full cycle recruiter... ...Just my opinion, but it seems if companies want "hunted" candidates, wouldn't they rather have a hunter (sourcer) vs. a farmer (recruiter)?

See all the many responses at the site - you may have to join the group that's been around since 2000 and has almost 4,000 members - don't worry - it's FREE!

I've taken the liberty of posting a few of the responses below:
Today "Sourcers" are slaves and commoditized minions of the upper class and more knowledgable "recruiters" and they Are trapped in a never ending harange for more and better candidates. Go with the force ye Sourcers and rise up to break the chains of servitude. Free yourselves from the dark tyrany of the "talent divas" and set fire to their ivory cubicles! Run naked through the halls of techdom and sing your song of liberty with full throated glee! "I am not an animal! I am a recruiter!" ~ JackPerkins

Another generalization. Although this is true for a lot of sourcers, and your point is valid for companies that want to pay less money for a sourcer, hire a newbee and train them. They do need direction. However, there are Sr. Sourcers/Lead Generation Specialists out there who have been around the block a few times. Most of us have been full cycle in the past and chose to specialize. We are fully networked, know our respective spaces and know how to navigate the web better than most Recruiters. This is what we do. We can get a profile and punch referrals out of our network and don't need direction from the Recruiter and we know whats happening in the market due to our connections. We know where to dig and when we get stuck, we find more places to dig. We save the company tons of money because we save time. There are a lot of companies that are seeing value in hiring Sr. Level Sourcers because we get the job done quickly and then the Recruiter can focus on getting candidates through the process while we continue to backfill the pipeline. Partnering with the right Recruiter, this "flow" is like a well oiled machine and everyone looks good. Sorry for the tangent, but some of your comments just aren't true for all of us. ~ Noelle Tawney

Compensation wise I've seen sourcers get paid anywhere from $50 - $80 per hour and full cycle recruiters get paid anywhere from $60 - $125 per hour depending on the company and complexity of the assignment. ~ Marta Daglow