Retained vs. contingent search: when each model actually fits

Retained search is not a premium tier of contingent search. It is a different product, with different incentives, different access, and different outcomes.

For roles where confidentiality matters, where the candidate pool is small, or where a mishire would be expensive to unwind, retained is almost always the right model.

Contingent search still has a place — for individual contributor roles with a broad market, for high-volume hiring, and for situations where speed beats certainty.

The mistake we see most often is using contingent for roles that should have been retained, then wondering why the shortlist looks thin three months later.