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Ask HN: Dontrecruit.me – A website to collect stories about bad recruiters

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Re: Ask HN: Dontrecruit.me – A website to collect stories about bad recruiters

#141

Post by mchannon »

chpmrc wrote: post #125
mchannon wrote: post #105

Wish you luck on this, but I don't see it helping a lot of candidates. There's a large number of (and will always be a large number of) "ambulance chaser" boiler room recruiters working in a very large English-speaking country that shall remain nameless, and they'll often cold call me up for the same certain roles (that don't pay well) as the last one 5 minutes prior. I could write a whole book of these stories (as I…

Well that's a funny story :) We're very aware that the market is filled with harassing cutthroats and that's exactly what we're trying to put an end to. If you have time it would be great if you could share one or two of your stories with us (you can fill out the form multiple times). Like I wrote in other comments the more data is in the open the easier it will be to show agencies that certain practices are not just…

There is such a thing as "libel proof". No matter how much dirt you dish on the bottom feeders in this industry, someone will give them an IP phone and your phone number, and they'll still cold-call and harass you no matter what your site says about them.

Your heart is in the right place, but your forum will unfortunately never be a deciding factor in anything. Either a recruiter makes a convincing pitch or they won't, and in my experience it's never close to equivocal.

Now if you wanted to reframe the purposes of your website to go from recruiters to _interviewing employers_, •THERE• is an untapped market that could be worth billions if played right. I encourage you to pivot to there, and I'd love to help.

Re: Ask HN: Dontrecruit.me – A website to collect stories about bad recruiters

#142

Post by dsr_ »

rajacombinator wrote: post #123
dsr_ wrote: post #66

Dear people who are in charge of hiring processes (there will be some of you in this audience, I'm sure): External recruiters are generally expensive and bad. By using them, you reduce the quality of your reputation. They charge 25% or more of the first year salary per placement. If you are big enough to afford it -- that is, you're making more than four hires a year -- use an actual employee as your recruiter. Make…

This is simply not true. I’m no fan of any kind of recruiter, but 3rd party ones are almost always better than internal full-time recruiters - naturally, since they do the same thing but get paid much more.

Are you asserting that how much people are paid determines the quality of their work?

Re: Ask HN: Dontrecruit.me – A website to collect stories about bad recruiters

#143

Post by Jeremy1026 »

anoncoward111 wrote: post #117
Jeremy1026 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only one on my blacklist is Cyber Coders. They just sent me a listing for a Davenport Machine Operator four states away, based on my skills. My skills are all in software development. No idea why this recruiter thinks I'd be a good fit for operating a giant piece of machinery.

They're just spamming heavily and hoping you maybe know someone who knows someone :)

Ah yes, the tried and true "you do my job for me" method.

Re: Ask HN: Dontrecruit.me – A website to collect stories about bad recruiters

#144

Post by caffeineclown »

scarface74 wrote: post #116
caffeineclown wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd like to apply to an company's own listing directly (whether it be LinkedIn, StackOverflow, the company's own web site, etc.) but this seems to be a straight ticket into a black hole. At this point in my career, I've probably interviewed at 200-300 companies. I think I can count the number of times I've received a positive response for a position I applied to directly with one hand. All my interviews have been fro…

I can honestly say out of around 60 job submittals (I’m very focused) over 20 years and 7 companies, going through recruiters, I’ve never been ghosted, I always knew where I stood in the process and have only had maybe 4 rejections. The rest I took myself out of the running for when I got the offer I wanted. Even out of the four rejections, I at least went through the whole process of phone screen and in person. I’m…

My problem isn't ghosting. Correct me if I'm wrong, but ghosting means you start communications with the employer, but at some point they cease contact.

My problem is getting a positive response in the first place from any company I apply to directly. I apply online, wait anywhere from a few days to a few weeks+, and either get no response at all, or a generic "sorry, but no thanks" e-mail.

On the other hand, going through a recruiter, he/she has been able to sell me to the employer much more effectively. When I go through a recruiter, I'd say I've been able to at least get to a phone screen 90%+ of the time.

I reckon a large factor is that recruiters often have connections to hiring managers.

Re: Ask HN: Dontrecruit.me – A website to collect stories about bad recruiters

#145

Post by daveFNbuck »

chpmrc wrote: post #139
daveFNbuck wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your front page still says > We are collecting stories from devs all over the world and plan to release all data to the public (for free!) so that no more fellow devs will have to suffer If I filled your form out, I would expect that all the data I entered would be released to the public. You then turn around and contradict that in the form, making it less clear about what I should expect. You need to be consistent i…

What's more clear than being explicit about which fields will be published and which not? IMHO adding that to the main page is redundant and a waste of time and space. Specifically about field 7 are you suggesting we rephrase the description? If so how? We can definitely work on a page that explains the process in more detail once we decide exactly how to proceed.

You're not being explicit about which fields will be shared. The main page says all fields will be made public. Then field 5 says it won't be made public. When I read field 5, I know you've lied to me at least once about how much of the data is going to be made public. I'm just asking you to not lie about that on the main page.

For field 7, I'd take the "us" out or be more explicit that this is a confidential field. If I'm telling something just to you, it doesn't sound like it'll be made public. The main page says field 7 will be made public, but then you told me it isn't true for field 5.

If you haven't yet figured out how to anonymize personal data you're asking people to share with you before distributing it, you have no business asking for it. There are almost certainly going to be people who disagree about what identifies them in this form. This is something that's very easy to mess up and you should give people a fair chance to self-censor by being clear about what you're going to do for them.

Re: Ask HN: Dontrecruit.me – A website to collect stories about bad recruiters

#146

Post by scarface74 »

caffeineclown wrote: post #144
scarface74 wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can honestly say out of around 60 job submittals (I’m very focused) over 20 years and 7 companies, going through recruiters, I’ve never been ghosted, I always knew where I stood in the process and have only had maybe 4 rejections. The rest I took myself out of the running for when I got the offer I wanted. Even out of the four rejections, I at least went through the whole process of phone screen and in person. I’m…

My problem isn't ghosting. Correct me if I'm wrong, but ghosting means you start communications with the employer, but at some point they cease contact. My problem is getting a positive response in the first place from any company I apply to directly. I apply online, wait anywhere from a few days to a few weeks+, and either get no response at all, or a generic "sorry, but no thanks" e-mail. On the other hand, going t…

I’m “starting the conversation” when I send out the resume. When I go through a reputable recruiter my resume never goes down a black hole.

I’ve gotten a phone screen 100% of the time my resume has been submitted by a recruiter - the only exception was an immediate response from the company that they filled the spot already.

Not that I am a special snowflake, but if you know the qualifications that the company is looking for up front, you can tailor your resume to highlight those qualifications. If you don’t have the qualifications you don’t bother submitting your resume.

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