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Ask HN: How do I contact a recruiter?

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Re: Ask HN: How do I contact a recruiter?

#11

Post by JSeymourATL »

> I've been struggling getting responses or meaningful feedback ...

Recruiters are NOT in the feedback business.

They lack brains, time, and professionalism. Plus, they're often afraid they might say the wrong thing, better to say nothing at all.

What to do?

Jump on Linkedin's advanced search feature. Zero-in on interesting profiles in your market of senior managers/executives you can possibly help. Ping them, tell them you're seeking career advice. Ask for a 10-15 minute phone call. You may be may surprised how responsive people are to your request. BTW, stay in touch with those folks with updates. Start building your network.

Re: Ask HN: How do I contact a recruiter?

#12

Post by mathattack »

Get an introduction.

Go out and meet as many people as you can. (Meetups, Random drinking nights, etc) Connect to everyone you meet on LinkedIn. Have someone introduce you to the recruiter. Not everyone will do it, but enough people out there will be helpful. The recruiter has many more resumes than jobs. A referral will almost always cut the line. If you can the introduction to the hiring manager, even better.

By recruiter I mean corporate recruiter, not headhunter. No need to get an introduction to a headhunter. If you're a 100% match to a job, they're helpful. Otherwise they're not.

Good luck!

Re: Ask HN: How do I contact a recruiter?

#13

Post by spicyj »

davismwfl wrote: post #8
mattchue wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the response! I've been trying to do a bit of this with my cover letter: the way I have it structured allows me to write a portion of it specific to each application, and I've been including the cover letter even when not required. It sounds like you are suggesting I ditch the letter altogether for a more succinct note explaining why I am interested and why I would be a good fit in situations where it is n…

I have found that most technical people won't read a cover letter, HR will generally, but if there is an HR then it isn't an issue. Instead, use a quick 2-3 sentence description why you are applying and why you think you are a good fit. And in the end it is a numbers game, as sebg pointed out, rinse and repeat. I highly recommend customizing each note you send with your resume, don't ever use a "form" style. In the p…

FWIW: I'm an engineer and at my last employer I reviewed hundreds of applications and I'd weigh the cover letter heavily. Someone who's passionate about the job is a huge asset and can easily overcome any minor weaknesses.

Re: Ask HN: How do I contact a recruiter?

#14

Post by brianwawok »

mattchue wrote: post #5
tmaly wrote: post #3

create a linkedin profile, add your skills. The site is well used by recruiters. A few should reach out to you.

My LinkedIn has been updated for quite some time now, and I've yet to hear from anybody. I have a little less than two years experience building SPAs in Angular, and an Associate's degree, so perhaps my profile is not as enticing as others.

Wow. I put 0 work into linkedin. Literally a list of jobs and techs. No description on any of my jobs. I get 5 or so LinkedIn emails per week. No idea what they search for though... a lot mention something like Java or Scala which I have n my resume, but no reason people would not also be looking for Angular or JavaScript...

Re: Ask HN: How do I contact a recruiter?

#15

Post by davismwfl »

spicyj wrote: post #13
davismwfl wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have found that most technical people won't read a cover letter, HR will generally, but if there is an HR then it isn't an issue. Instead, use a quick 2-3 sentence description why you are applying and why you think you are a good fit. And in the end it is a numbers game, as sebg pointed out, rinse and repeat. I highly recommend customizing each note you send with your resume, don't ever use a "form" style. In the p…

FWIW: I'm an engineer and at my last employer I reviewed hundreds of applications and I'd weigh the cover letter heavily. Someone who's passionate about the job is a huge asset and can easily overcome any minor weaknesses.

I personally 100% agree with you. I always weigh the cover letter or email when I am recruiting. My observation is of lately (last few years), both the last two team leads that worked for me wouldn't read the emails/letters. And now recently I have started my own job search and not a single one of my cover letters has been read unless it went to HR first. I say this because after speaking with the hiring managers it was completely obvious they read my resume but not the cover letter sent with it. Yet the HR people had read them because they would ask me questions directly from my cover letter.

I always was trained and believe that you use the cover letter/email to highlight things your resume glosses over because none of us could describe everything we do in each tech role, or resumes would be 50 pages. So the cover letter helps to fill in the gaps, but sadly it just doesn't seem to get read now. I will say at least not consistently it doesn't get read, as I am sure there are more people like us that appreciate them.

Re: Ask HN: How do I contact a recruiter?

#16

Post by davismwfl »

mattchue wrote: post #10
davismwfl wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have found that most technical people won't read a cover letter, HR will generally, but if there is an HR then it isn't an issue. Instead, use a quick 2-3 sentence description why you are applying and why you think you are a good fit. And in the end it is a numbers game, as sebg pointed out, rinse and repeat. I highly recommend customizing each note you send with your resume, don't ever use a "form" style. In the p…

Noted. I imagine systems like Lever or proprietary hiring platforms usually appear more with companies that have HR, whereas a few sentences for a position that only accepts application materials via email will go a lot further than a multi-section cover letter. I've been trying to stay away from making my cover letter feel too much like a form, but because I'm shorter than most on experience, I feel like it's import…

You might try two things, just as ideas -- even just try it on a few and see if it changes responses any. Or send these to people who never got back to you the first time.

1. In your cover letter quickly describe one/two thing(s) that you have done that is relevant and might open a dialog for further discussion. Or peak someones interest at least.

2. Try reformatting your resume to be less about chronological order and more about skill set and tasks you have done. Use bullet points for libraries, API's etc to help bulk it up and make it obvious what you have worked with. Just don't ever lie.

Option #2 is what people with only a little or people with a lot of experience generally use because chronology puts an age on our head. Personally, I have seen that many people immediately calculate my age after seeing that I have been in industry for quite a while. Sometimes it is funny to watch/hear, other times it is just sad as you literally can watch their attitude flip, same goes for when you are young too. It is just human nature to some degree.

Re: Ask HN: How do I contact a recruiter?

#17

Post by spicyj »

davismwfl wrote: post #15
spicyj wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW: I'm an engineer and at my last employer I reviewed hundreds of applications and I'd weigh the cover letter heavily. Someone who's passionate about the job is a huge asset and can easily overcome any minor weaknesses.

I personally 100% agree with you. I always weigh the cover letter or email when I am recruiting. My observation is of lately (last few years), both the last two team leads that worked for me wouldn't read the emails/letters. And now recently I have started my own job search and not a single one of my cover letters has been read unless it went to HR first. I say this because after speaking with the hiring managers it…

Your "cover letter" can also be a direct email to the hiring manager which mostly guarantees that they'll at least skim it.

Re: Ask HN: How do I contact a recruiter?

#18

Post by cblock811 »

Recruiters aren't going to give you a good idea of where you are. They largely know clusters of keywords (Rails, Ruby, RSpec) from what I gathered. When I last used recruiters I had ~1.5yrs experience and one said "I think you're at a Senior Engineer level..." And I thought "You have no idea what you just said".

Talk to a more senior engineer you know, or go get to know one to get this feed back. They are more qualified.

Re: Ask HN: How do I contact a recruiter?

#19

Post by mattchue »

cblock811 wrote: post #18

Recruiters aren't going to give you a good idea of where you are. They largely know clusters of keywords (Rails, Ruby, RSpec) from what I gathered. When I last used recruiters I had ~1.5yrs experience and one said "I think you're at a Senior Engineer level..." And I thought "You have no idea what you just said". Talk to a more senior engineer you know, or go get to know one to get this feed back. They are more qualif…

Thanks for your response. I'm sitting at about 1 1/2-2 years experience right now. How did your job search go around the time you were talking to the recruiter?

Re: Ask HN: How do I contact a recruiter?

#20

Post by mattchue »

JSeymourATL wrote: post #11

> I've been struggling getting responses or meaningful feedback ... Recruiters are NOT in the feedback business. They lack brains, time, and professionalism. Plus, they're often afraid they might say the wrong thing, better to say nothing at all. What to do? Jump on Linkedin's advanced search feature. Zero-in on interesting profiles in your market of senior managers/executives you can possibly help. Ping them, tell t…

Cold calling? That's pretty old-school :) My sales background jives with that, though, so I will investigate that option. Thus far, people in the industry that I have been introduced to are extremely helpful, so this definitely sounds like a good approach. It's more so hiring managers at companies I have applied to that I am struggling to get feedback from, but I suppose that's not exactly their job. Thanks for your response!

As a side note, why is it that recruiters seem to be strongly disliked by the HN community? As a new developer, I figured a recruiter would probably be the best person to talk to seeing as they handle a lot of hiring.

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