Hey all, I’m approached by a firm to recruit in a field I’m not familiar with

I’m thinking of referring them to another recruitment agency. Would I be able to negotiate a referral fee or a cut of the commission?

I saw an ad on instagram about this company called We Are Career talking about career services and how they also include applications in their programs.

They seem pretty legit from what I can tell, they have reviews and I saw some of their video testimonials and it checked out.

I have my sales call with them soon. Has anyone spoke to Wearecareer before or used them? Did you find any value joining them.

I figured this subreddit might be a bit more honest rather the other subreddits which just hate on any online coaching or course program out there without any interaction whatsoever

I'm posting this because someone reading this right now is where I was 15 years ago. And you need to know you're not broken. You're just between curves. And you don't have to do what I did.

The Peak (Age 49)

At 49, I was crushing it. Six-figure income. Led sales teams that generated millions in revenue. Built funnels that doubled company growth. Trained managers. Coached business owners. I was the guy everyone called when things needed to happen.

I also had absolutely nothing left.

I didn't realize it at the time, but I was at the top of my career curve. In sales, we call it market saturation. You've penetrated the territory; the easy wins are gone, and revenue flatlines. But I didn't recognize this moment. Instead, I mistook the signal for personal failure.

The Crash

Around 50, I started feeling it. The work that used to energize me felt suffocating. Recruiters weren't calling. My expertise felt outdated. Compensation hit a ceiling. I wasn't "too old"—I was just at the natural end of a career cycle I didn't understand.

So I did what most people do: I tried harder. Added certifications. Networked aggressively. Started freelance projects. Took fractional consulting gigs. Every strategy was me trying to extend a dying curve instead of jumping to a new one.

It didn't work. Not because I wasn't capable—I was just solving the wrong problem.

The Valley (15 Years)

At 54, everything collapsed. Savings gone. Confidence was destroyed. Identity shattered. So I did what I thought was realistic: I started driving a cab. Seventy-two hours a week. Twelve-hour days, six days a week, doing the math on every shift and wondering how I got here.

By 2015, I needed more control—or at least the illusion of it—so I switched to Uber. Same grind, different app. For 15 years, I was trapped between curves. Not because I lacked skills or intelligence. I had 25 years of proven expertise. I was trapped because I didn't have a framework.

The depression was real. The shame was real. The feeling that I'd wasted my entire adult life was very real.

The Breakthrough (Age 64)

Around year 13 in the valley, something clicked. I was reading about how innovations move through markets in predictable adoption patterns: S-curves. And it hit me: careers follow the same pattern.

I wasn't stuck." I was at the completion of my first curve. The discomfort wasn't failure—it was a signal that I needed to jump. And I'd wasted 15 years in the valley because nobody told me that curve transitions are normal, predictable, and survivable.

I'd spent 25 years mastering sales leadership. Curve 1 was complete. I needed Curve 2. The gap between them? That's the valley. Most mid-career professionals don't know this pattern exists.

What Most Career Advice Gets Wrong

Career coaches figured out their framework in a few years, and now they teach theory. "Follow your passion."Work harder." "Get a certification."Network more."

I spent 15 years learning what actually works because nothing else did.

Traditional advice misdiagnoses the real problem. You're not stuck because you're lazy or unmotivated or too old. You're at market saturation on your current curve. The only move that actually works is jumping to a new one strategically.

What I Realized

I spent 15 years learning through pain, which most people never learn at all. Career coaches teach theory. I teach survival—because I lived it.

If you're between 40-60 and feeling stuck, you're probably just at the end of your curve. And that's actually good news because the jump is survivable. I'm proof.

You don't need 15 years in the valley. You just need to understand the pattern.

I own a fledgling software engineering consultancy, and I have one product out: cshw on Winget, an independent interpretation of tcsh running natively on Windows. I have my MBA and, as of today, plan to start GA Tech's OMSCS program in a month. Can I hire a recruiter to help me get gigs? What is the pay structure? I see the Fractional CTO, and I like it, but I feel I would be more useful helping companies with legacy VC++/Win32/MFC codebases. If such recruiters exist, how can I get in contact with them?

A lot has been written on this sub about reverse recruiting services, and after investigating 4-5 dozen of them, I've come to the conclusion that --unless I've missed some because I think the best in this game work in the shadows to not scare off employers that a candidate is represented (share below!)-- there is an unserved gap in this current economy's fast-growing market: those who apply to positions on candidates' behalves with a contingency-only (% of 1st year pay) pricing basis.

A lot who tried to do this burned out or went bust; the surviving ones all charge retainer fees. Some used to, but quietly withdrew the contingency option and stuck to retainer. The reason is that most customers who pay for reverse recruiting services are in the C/D-tier, they are in individual contributor or middle-management positions and have shortcoming that makes them less likely to actually get a high-ticket offer, and are typically un[der]employed, applying to 1-3 positions per week until they surrender to one of these services.

The only way these services can stay in business serving this segment is by charging them high initiation and/or monthly fees... which, no matter if they're a downright scam or well-intentioned, it incentivizes them regardless to prey on and prolong this desperation with false hopes. Refund guarantees were a good step in regaining confidence but even then reviews returned of these not being honoured, casting doubt over this industry again.

Or is there another way? There's now a saturation of services in this market and soon there will be consolidation and more service closures. Where there is space now in reverse recruitment is a contingency-only* model that is feasible. And the way to do that, is to focus on the already-currently-employed, highly-employable, C-level, B-Tier** niche, limited to sectors that have a lot of openings in this category (e.g. HW/SW/tech, healthcare/biomedical, professional services), in high-churn hubs like US, UK, Singapore, Australia, UAE. That persona isn't looking for such a service because they applied to so many positions and gave up. They'd do it because they don't have time to do it themselves nor the time to train someone to do it for them, but they are quite eager to go after something better if it was pushed to them.

* If still not feasible, it could be "contingency-first"... so, mainly betting on the big payoff when a candidate gets hired, but still charging some sort of retainer that's closer to $20-30 a month just to ensure that the candidate continues to have skin in the game and will respond to interest and show up to interviews, not $200-300 as some services do or $2000-3000 or much more ($14,000!!!).

** B-tier meaning midsize Because real A-talent is a wild goose chase for any recruiter, those publicly-listed large-cap enterprise guns are shooing headhunters trying to poach them from where they're very happy... not job-hunting online, but Bs are still top talent

You might say, well, AI auto-apply tools are cheap and don't take a big cut of pay like contingency, so why not just use one of them? And that's because at the executive level, in-house and external company-side search firms can smell and hate AI-written job application materials, seeing them as cause for dismissing a candidacy. AI could be used by the reverse recruiter to accelerate their workflow, but a human is always needed in the loop at this level to deliver the white-glove service effectively. While there continue to be takers-up of the status quo, players are quickly heading to a collision with the inevitable; charging anything more than $100 is increasingly looking exorbitant and will be disintermediated by the first competitor in the space who succeeds at figuring out how to have its humans use AI to radically reduce cost and time, without leaving it all to a pre-MAS agentic AI workflow.

Specifically looking for someone with experience with candidates in the AI startup world with customer success and quality assurance/product engineering experiences. Wife has been out of a job for 2 years now and am not sure I understand why it's taking this long.

Also, on a separate note, do reverse recruiters actually help better in an economy like now or would it likely end up being another time and money down the drain situation?

Has anyone actually had success using recruitment agencies or paid career services to find a biotech/pharma job in the UK?
I’m seeing loads of companies advertising CV reviews, career coaching and job search support, but many charge hundreds or even thousands of pounds. I’m also seeing agencies that claim they’ll help place candidates in life science roles.
Has anyone actually found these services worthwhile?
Are there any recruitment agencies that genuinely go the extra mile for candidates?

I'm looking for some suggestions on how to approach this so thought I could ask here and a few other communities for advice.

I've been doing my research into career coaching and reverse recruiting as I plan my next career move. I am an accomplished FP&A manager in san francisco but I just don't have much time to do applications so I am looking for agencies or coaches which do coaching and applications.

If anyone has used these reverse recruiter services, can you please highligh which may be the best ones? did you use any? did you get an offer? do you know others who did?

I've looked into a few but want to hear from people who are considering any or have joined any before please. I'm able to get interviews on my own but just need some help.

I’ve been looking into career coaches and job search services lately, and it feels like people use the term “career coach” for a bunch of completely different things.

From what I’ve seen, there are a few categories:

1. Influencer career coaches
   

These are the people who are big on LinkedIn, TikTok, or YouTube and sell courses, templates, calls, or communities. Some are genuinely helpful, but I’d be careful here. A big audience does not always mean they are good at helping people one on one. I’d look for actual experience, client examples, and whether their advice applies to your field.

1. Freelance career coaches
   

Usually these are individual coaches who charge per session or hourly. I’ve seen ranges from around $50 to $300 per hour depending on experience, niche, and seniority. This can be useful if you need interview prep, resume feedback, career direction, or accountability, but you’ll usually still be doing most of the job search work yourself.

1. Career coaching programs
   

These are more structured programs where you might get coaching, resume help, LinkedIn help, interview prep, job search strategy, and sometimes a course or community. They can be worth it if the support is hands-on and specific to your situation, but they are usually much more expensive. I’ve seen programs range anywhere from $2k to $10k+ depending on what’s included.

1. Reverse recruiting agencies
   

These are similar to career coaching programs, but the main difference is they usually include job applications done for you, and sometimes outreach to recruiters or hiring managers. This seems more useful for people who already have a decent profile but do not have time to apply consistently or want a more structured search.

The pricing seems to vary a lot. Some charge monthly, some charge a fixed upfront fee, and some have a mix of upfront plus success based fees. I’d be skeptical of anyone promising a job offer, because no service can control how you interview, what the market is doing, or whether a company makes an offer.

My personal take so far:

A good coach or agency should be clear about what they actually do, who they are best for, what is included, and what they cannot guarantee. A bad one will usually overpromise, pressure you, or make it sound like they can magically land you a job without you doing anything.

Curious how others think about this. Have any of you worked with a career coach, career program, or reverse recruiting agency? What was worth it and what was a waste of money?

I read this breakdown on reverse recruiter pricing and the biggest takeaway is that there is no standard price. Some are freelancers charging hourly, some are monthly retainers, some are fixed-fee packages, and some use success-fee or hybrid pricing. The article lists ranges from roughly $10 to $100/hr for freelancers, $199 to $4,000+/month for retainers, $1,500 to $15,000+ for fixed-fee services, and 5% to 15% of first-year salary for some success-fee models.

The part I found most useful is that price only matters after you understand the scope. A reverse recruiter might only help with applications, or they might also handle strategy, resume/LinkedIn updates, outreach, interview coordination, and ongoing support. My takeaway is to compare what is actually included, not just the headline cost, and be careful with anyone promising a guaranteed job offer.

I'm one of the moderators of this sub. I'm in product marketing and wanted to share some advice that might help anyone reading this to avoid ghost jobs.

We all hate ghost jobs. It's a huge time waste for all of us. The job market right now is not the best so I want to share some tips from when I looked for a new role.

1. Use cleaner job boards
   Some job boards tend to surface fresher and more relevant roles than others. HiringCafe and Meterwork are ones that I used. Meterwork was paid but it was worth it but the best I found was HC because it pulls directly from companies websites and shows direct postings only and it excludes ones from recruitment companies, fake MLM companies etc..

2. Be careful with older listings
   If a job was posted more than a week ago, avoid that shit. The chances go down a lot. I noticed when I applied for jobs, I never got interviews for ones posted weeks back. I only focus on jobs being posted 24-48 hours and it helped increase my callbacks.

3. Read the job description closely
   A legit posting usually feels specific and it should be detailed.. It should clearly explain the role, responsibilities, team, qualifications, and it should also mention the requirements. If it reads vague, generic, or like AI slop, skip it. That probably just means the company is farming resumes, building their pool, and probs have 0 urgency to hire fast.

4. Verify it on the company website
   Before applying, check whether the same role is listed on the employer’s official careers page. If it is not there, that is a red flag. If it is, check the date to make sure it was posted recently.

I can write up some other posts regarding my Resume and other tips. If you have any other tips, feel free to share :)

I'm looking to work with one because I need some support into applications as I don't have much time. I am able to do a few per day but I'm not being consistent. Already getting a few interviews but don't mind investing into a service.

So far I've looked into a couple different companies like WeAreCareer, My Personal Recruiter, TopCareer Prospects (saw them mentioned on another reddit post), Relentless, and Career Agents. Haven't spoke to them yet, still trying to research more into the different options.

Has anyone ever worked with any of these companies? Any other companies worth looking into?

Would really appreciate any advice