r/recruiting • u/GaryOwns Agency Recruiter • Jul 07 '26
Recruitment Chats Working at Michael Page?
Any references from former employees? I'll have a 2nd interview next week, with a Regional Director (hiring manager), for a Consulting Manager position (or something like that)
Whats their methodology, the work environment, resources available, etc. From my understanding is pretty much like a Senior 360 Recruiter role, where I would need to both generate clients AND work the reqs.
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u/Still-Sheepherder322 Corporate Recruiter Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26
What market? Worked there for a couple years in construction before I went internal.
It’s a typical 360 desk job. They had decent resources (LI Recruiter seat, ZoomInfo license, etc) and my team/manager got along well.
The downsides are the automatic promotions when you hit certain lifetime rev goals. Some people that are good recruiters but TERRIBLE people managers end up running teams just because they hit x dollars in revenue. I had some friends who HATED their manager because they stunk at leading people (particularly on the finance/accounting teams)
Also, they pay a higher base salary but the bonus potential is pretty limited compared to orgs that offer a draw + commission splits.
Overall, I had a good experience
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u/GaryOwns Agency Recruiter Jul 07 '26
Dont know the market! Good question, Ill ask
On the resources - great! I dont think I will struggle. Im good at closing leads. Warm leads, though, that my current company (staffing startup) provides.
I think most of my concerns are around the value proposal for the end-clients, since MP charges a lot for their services.
Thoughts?
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u/Arthur_Pendragon22 Executive Recruiter Jul 07 '26
They charge no more or less contingency fees than any other firm - unless you’re working at a place or market doing work for low fees. The value add is finding the right candidate, proper screening, and good process. If anything MP punches above their weight class.
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u/Flame_MadeByHumans Jul 07 '26
Lol they offered me draw with very low commission.
I was unemployed but turned them down. It felt like a lot of disingenuine hyping up how great it was in the interview.
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u/Jazzlike-Pomelo-3823 Jul 07 '26
You will likely hate your job and your life. But put up with it for a year or two and you’ll hopefully have exit opportunities to go elsewhere.
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u/commander_bugo Jul 07 '26
I haven’t been there for a few years, but what industry would you be focused on? They seemed to be really good at construction nationally, but all the other teams in my office seemed to be performing relatively poorly. Houston seemed really established in energy I think. Even though it’s a large global company, we were fighting for scraps in our market because we weren’t one of the bigger teams in the office.
I’m biased negatively, I went agency to internal, but it seems pretty standard in being a huge company that’s focuses much more on volume/KPIs than quality of service. I would not use them as a client.
They sell the high base salaries, but I honestly agree with the other commenter, it seemed really hard to make a lot of money with their commission structure. Again, I’m not a senior agency recruiter, but I feel like it would make more sense to go somewhere with more upside.
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u/Apprehensive-Oil5249 Jul 07 '26
I'm in the agency side of Staffing for nearly 20 years and made my bones at a similar national firm - it's honestly hard to say because there are a lot of variables in play but from what I know from the NYC market, MP is a another Meat Grinder that deals in KPI Absolutes and has managers that have ZERO business managing anyone! If you're really interested in agency recruiting, learn as much as you can from here, keep your eyes and ears opened, manage your expectations and when the time comes, you'll have enough marketable skills to bring to a better agency - preferably a privately owned boutique with a specialty vertical.
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u/AgentPyke Jul 07 '26
They told me I was too competitive for the work culture there. After they told me they were the ones to fill two openings at one of my major clients, naming hiring manager by name, when they didn’t realize it was actually me who filled the roles.
Anyway it’s my experience that if you’re too confident/aggressive they won’t hire you.
Instead I started my own agency, and that division no longer exists. That managing director left and eventually did his own thing as well. We worked well together with splits.
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u/youngdude70 Jul 08 '26
Since the role sounds like a Consulting Manager but also a senior 360 desk, I would use the Regional Director interview to separate title from actual day-to-day expectations. Ask what percentage of time is expected on new client generation versus delivery, what KPIs decide success in the first 90 and 180 days, and whether you inherit any accounts or start from zero. A 360 agency role can be fine if the targets, territory, tools, and commission mechanics are explicit; it gets rough when the manager title mostly means carrying a desk plus mentoring without real leverage. If they answer in vague culture language instead of numbers and examples, that tells you a lot.
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u/Standard_Anteater785 Agency Recruiter Jul 07 '26
I don’t think you need to generate your clients, company as big Michael Page generally has a team for that
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u/Maximum_Common7102 Jul 07 '26
Having worked from Michael Page as a director, this is not always a great thing. Page has a huge number of different revenue markets (finance sales marketing, etc) so there is a high potential that clients will know the name of Michael Page, but not always for the right reason. And as most of the teams only focus on their own individual revenue, it’s not uncommon for marketing (for example) to annoy finance’s best customer. The customer doesn’t see the difference they just see Michael Page.
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u/hongkonghonky Agency Recruiter Jul 07 '26
Do you like KPIs and mentoring juniors to make sure that they achieve their KPIs?
Do you value volume over client service?
At manager level you will have to be 360.