"Many private companies established 20 or 30 years ago are now of a certain scale and want to go global and innovate, so they need more executives with international backgrounds," he says. "Moreover, entrepreneurship is quite strong, there are many active startup companies, so there is an increasing demand for talent and professional services."

Like other recruitment agencies, Career International reported a change in the ratio of its multinational and local clients, from 95-to-5 in 2003 to 70-to-30 today.

With more Chinese companies going global, a move actively supported by the central government, Duan says recruitment agencies are also expanding to keep up with demand.

"We've expanded overseas with our clients because many Chinese companies in different industries have visions in the international market. We want to be the first in the HR industry to have an international vision," he says, adding that the company is planning an initial public offering in the next few months.

Chinese state-owned enterprises are also more open to professional HR advice due to the number of mergers and acquisitions being completed worldwide.

"SOEs are paying great attention to cultivating future leaders and have adopted many professional tools," says Duan, whose company has worked with several SOEs in training and recruitment.

He admits the market is still small, however. Most senior executives at SOEs climb the ranks internally, but many enterprises are now using professional evaluation services. For example, he says, in overseas M&As, Heidrick & Struggles will be hired by an SOE to evaluate its existing talent, judging which managers have enough international experience to work or run a team overseas.

While enterprises in the West have used recruitment services for many years, they are still relatively new to most Chinese companies. Hence, understanding and adapting to these new customers is essential.

"In Europe and the United States, recruitment services have been around longer, and multinational companies are more used to them. It's much easier," Van den Boer explains. "With Chinese companies, it takes time to build trust and to educate them about what kind of service we can bring. Many think recruitment is just about sending a resume, that's it. But that is not what we do."