Ask HN: What things that tech recruiters do, annoy you the most as an engineer? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What things that tech recruiters do, annoy you the most as an engineer?

#131

Post by jacksonkmarley » Sun, Jun 13, 2021, 10:31 AM UTC

nindalf wrote: post #69

There’s a lot of people in here complaining about various things recruiters do. Let me give a different perspective. For the first couple of years of my career, recruiters just ignored me. It was like I simply didn’t exist. I hadn’t studied computer science and didn’t work at a well known company. Meanwhile, my coworkers with CS degrees constantly complained about having to bat away recruiters offering them crazy mon…

So you're saying the things they do that annoy you are: ignoring you until after you got a good job because you didn't have a CS degree, using devious tactics, and spamming you. And having so much power to affect your career that you don't even like to admit when they annoy you.

Re: Ask HN: What things that tech recruiters do, annoy you the most as an engineer?

#132

Post by MillenialMan » Sun, Jun 13, 2021, 10:33 AM UTC

andrewstuart wrote: post #66

God it really pisses me off when they find great people for my team. Even worse is when a recruiter finds me a well paid job that I like. I hate those jerks. Wasting everyone's time with wanting to "talk on the phone", trying to clarify details about my "skills" and "experience" or "salary expectation", ugh such pointless questions - can't they just send emails, which I can slam the "delete" key on?

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Re: Ask HN: What things that tech recruiters do, annoy you the most as an engineer?

#133

Post by muzani » Sun, Jun 13, 2021, 10:34 AM UTC

nindalf wrote: post #69

There’s a lot of people in here complaining about various things recruiters do. Let me give a different perspective. For the first couple of years of my career, recruiters just ignored me. It was like I simply didn’t exist. I hadn’t studied computer science and didn’t work at a well known company. Meanwhile, my coworkers with CS degrees constantly complained about having to bat away recruiters offering them crazy mon…

This reminds me of how excited I used to be to get spam emails. I'm a lot happier to get recruiter spam than I was before getting them. It is awfully tempting to be a dick and treat them poorly, but I rather entertain the calls. Most are very polite too and I'm happy to tell them my current salary and what I don't like about my current job; usually they offer some other career advice from their perspective like what other companies are offering.

Re: Ask HN: What things that tech recruiters do, annoy you the most as an engineer?

#134

Post by andrewstuart » Sun, Jun 13, 2021, 10:41 AM UTC

MillenialMan wrote: post #132

andrewstuart wrote: post #66

God it really pisses me off when they find great people for my team. Even worse is when a recruiter finds me a well paid job that I like. I hate those jerks. Wasting everyone's time with wanting to "talk on the phone", trying to clarify details about my "skills" and "experience" or "salary expectation", ugh such pointless questions - can't they just send emails, which I can slam the "delete" key on?

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Yeah I know that.

Re: Ask HN: What things that tech recruiters do, annoy you the most as an engineer?

#135

Post by Seb-C » Sun, Jun 13, 2021, 10:41 AM UTC

Matthias247 wrote: post #12

Starting with „the manager of Team xyz has an interesting position and wants to talk to you informally“. And as soon as one agrees, they schedule a full interview loop which contains lots of leetcode madness and zero information about the actual position.

The same happened to me with many recruiters, but the worst was a recruiter from AWS who wanted to "have a quick chat".

I only had a simple yes/no question about the job that was important enough to me to either refuse or stay considering the position.

The recruiter just uploaded my cv in his database to start the normal long process and never bothered answering to me ever again.

It was a waste of time for everyone involved.

Re: Ask HN: What things that tech recruiters do, annoy you the most as an engineer?

#136

Post by MillenialMan » Sun, Jun 13, 2021, 10:42 AM UTC

andrewstuart wrote: post #102

Yeah the bitching about recruiters is really boring. It's also silly and shortsighted seeing posts like this where the poster doesn't understand why we need to talk on the phone. Isn't it self evident? To make a job happen, it requires human contact at every step of the way. Sending out emails hoping people reply results in....... zero. Who is it that genuinely thinks that jobs are black and white? Who is it that thi…

We understand that you have many motivations that are counter to our interests. That's the point - they irritate us, because they're counter to our interests.

Re: Ask HN: What things that tech recruiters do, annoy you the most as an engineer?

#137

Post by alfiedotwtf » Sun, Jun 13, 2021, 10:42 AM UTC

There always seems to be a lot of hate for recruiters here, especially the ones that call out of the blue. I'm the opposite. I love taking these calls. Although I'm not interested, I'm always happy to find out more detail about the role so I can pass it onto others who I know may be interested. I've even gotten nice bottles of whiskey for helping out. Drinking from one right now :)

Re: Ask HN: What things that tech recruiters do, annoy you the most as an engineer?

#138

Post by cameronh90 » Sun, Jun 13, 2021, 10:43 AM UTC

andrewstuart wrote: post #105

stjo wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Because these questions make it clear that you're not interested in actually pursuing possible jobs. Correct, I'm not interested in bureaucratic processes that you pulled out of your ass. If you don't understand how I want to be communicated with, you are not a good recruiter.

Yes and when you are CTO, or running your own company, or you are development manager, you'll think "I wonder if I know any recruiters who make the effort to actually get people on the phone and make it happen?".

I'm a CTO and I don't wonder this. I wonder why recruiters:

* Send through candidates that have nothing to do with our requirements.

* Tell me a candidate is interested in a lower salary than they actually are.

* Tell me they've phone screened a candidate with an expert and that they're excellent, but then within the first few minutes at interview it's obvious they can't code.

* Lie about candidates, including modifying their CV without telling them.

* Lie about the role to candidates.

Re: Ask HN: What things that tech recruiters do, annoy you the most as an engineer?

#139

Post by muzani » Sun, Jun 13, 2021, 10:43 AM UTC

I've never had any problems with recruiters themselves. I've had problems with HR, often when the interviews are disrespectful, like asking you to go to another state without reimbursement or refusing to say pay range, but asking for salary figures for the last three jobs before the first interview.

Re: Ask HN: What things that tech recruiters do, annoy you the most as an engineer?

#140

Post by ismayilzadan » Sun, Jun 13, 2021, 10:46 AM UTC

onimishra wrote: post #93

As a danish developer, recruiters are not that bad. They will usually start reaching out through LI, and will happily do the first part of the back and forth on text. I usually tell them I’m not interested in switching, but that I'd be happy to know what goes on in the industry. This usually leads to a phone call where I question them about the business, the job and what they have to offer. The one exception is, I us…

This is very interesting but I think culture is the key factor here as well. In UK, when I tried "to know what is going on in the industry" I was very close to be labelled as time waster.