Understanding recruiter incentives

There have been a few times in my 1099 search where a recruiter has turned me down because I was not interested in W2, but the program manager (PMs) or hiring manager was open to bringing me on as a 1099.

Why does this happen?

Recruiters and PMs often have different incentives.

The recruiter is rewarded for preventing unqualified candidates from getting through the door. Unqualified could mean various things. Lack of skills, misalignment of pay expectations, or desire for 1099 status in my case.

The PM is rewarded for running a successful program. This means staffing the program the with good people, meeting client expectations, and making sure the program is profitable.

The PM has far more flexibility in achieving his success criteria than the recruiter does. The recruiter's success criteria is often "qualified W2 employee that fits our budget."

So as always, you need to make sure you do what you need to do to get to the PM and not get filtered out by by gatekeepers like narrowly incentivized recruiters.

Want the full playbook? Check out Going 1099.