Large recruitment agencies work with multiple organisations at any given time.  Recruiters will on average be working on 10-20 vacancies for a number of clients.  They tend to rely on their candidate database to source candidates.  The point of contact is usually an Account Manager who has a team of junior staff sourcing for them. Small recruitment agencies specialise in different areas and will only work with a small amount of companies on a small number of roles.  Small recruitment agencies tend to use more complex recruitment software and data to perform rigorous searches for niche requirements.  Your point of contact is the person who is recruiting on your behalf, who will often provide regular benchmarking reports.