A particularly unique job order needed some 'tweaking'. Couple of us recruiters and our good client met over coffee. We could not help over hear the next table - also recruiters (is this cafe a recruiter hang out or what?) were on to their banter. Their conversation was getting hotter than the brew. Long story short: Your job order, my resume, how do we split the income.

Our client asked, does that happen all the time. We volunteered a guess, on the negative. Heading back, we googled out "recruiter splits" and you would be surprised to a lot of dirty linen in public (IPs - so to say).

Green opportunities beckon - you have the job order, I have my resume archives gathering dust. We jump in, all in good will. When there is income to share, goodwill is under stress and, relationships split. What's a good method:

1. The side that brings the opportunity takes the larger share (The risk is taken by this recruiter in dealing the business)
2. The person sending resumes is usually pulling out of the archives - not that there were hot hot resumes
3. If there are niche skills, or the recruiter is going out of the way to source resumes - discuss costs then and there
4. Basically agree on the split before sharing the resume