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

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

#161

Post by hiq »

hypnoscripto wrote: post #103
quicklime wrote: post #39

For me, it's reducing me down to a set of "$X years experience with the $Y language/framework/tool" dot points. Followed closely by "how much are you currently earning?"

If they ask what you are earning, is there harm in just bumping it by 20%?

You might never hear about opportunities paying only 10% more than your current one but that you would prefer for $REASON beyond the salary. Saying a number first is also something you may want to avoid (but it's been discussed ad nauseam already so I'm not going to rehash the arguments here).

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

#162

Post by hiq »

lordnacho wrote: post #113
objclxt wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's a group of firms that are very picky with their hires (FAANG, HFT) that every recruiter in London will mention to you if you are a dev. Knowing which ones actually know these hiring managers is hard. They all claim to have gone to school with them. I have been a hiring manager at several FAANGs in London and these recruiters are all bullshitting you. We never used external recruiters, we had no need. Lead g…

I'm more familiar with the financial market than tech, but I did get a guy saying he could forward me to Google at one point. I guess that was just a BSer? I didn't go through him as I know people internally, and in any case it wasn't the right move for me at the time. Good to know from you how to approach this.

I think it's written on the Google Careers website that they don't use any external recruiters and don't accept such leads.

It could be that the guy you talked to had some agreement with somebody working there to share the referral bonus in case of hire, but I don't know how shady that would be considered.

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

#163

Post by user5994461 »

lordnacho wrote: post #113
objclxt wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's a group of firms that are very picky with their hires (FAANG, HFT) that every recruiter in London will mention to you if you are a dev. Knowing which ones actually know these hiring managers is hard. They all claim to have gone to school with them. I have been a hiring manager at several FAANGs in London and these recruiters are all bullshitting you. We never used external recruiters, we had no need. Lead g…

I'm more familiar with the financial market than tech, but I did get a guy saying he could forward me to Google at one point. I guess that was just a BSer? I didn't go through him as I know people internally, and in any case it wasn't the right move for me at the time. Good to know from you how to approach this.

It could be a real recruiter from Google.

Google has outsourced all hiring, their "internal" recruiters are temps working from an external sweatshop.

There are plenty of issues and disincentives. They recruit for Google but they are not allowed to say that they work at Google themselves. They couldn't care less about the company because they don't work there and have zero benefits.

In my experience, if you wait a month to reply to the reach out email, there is a good chance you get a delivery error recipient not found, because the recruiter is not contracted by google anymore. The churn is insane.

Facebook and Apple use internal recruiters (in London). My experience with them was much more positive.

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

#164

Post by thelastinuit »

- Ghosting although is better than saying meaningless words/phrases. - Say meaningless words/phrases. - or they don't say what they meaning. - the whole thing about protecting someone's feeling. what are we in kindergardeng? gosh. Just say you think I suck. It's what you believe and think. It's not necessaryly true and if that makes me feel terrible, that's my issue not yours. Damn. I clearly have issue with human communication or use of language. I apologize what the f*k do I know.

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

#165

Post by SkipperCat »

isaacremuant wrote: post #90
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?

Dishonest takes are always properly masked in smug tone such as this. It's like saying "ugh, it really pisses me off when police tries to do their job and protect me." in a conversation about police brutality and overreach.

I hear what you're saying, but at least with recruiters, their interests are basically in line with your interests. They want you to get a high paying job (more commission for them) and you want to get a new high(er) paying job.

Yeah, its aggravating sometimes but in the long run, I'd rather be approached for jobs by noobs than be ignored.

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

#166

Post by MillenialMan »

spuz wrote: post #150
MillenialMan wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Phoning it in means giving up on doing a good job, and just putting in the bare minimum effort to get the job done. It comes from the idea of phoning in rather than putting in the effort to show up in person. So in this case, they don't actually care about finding good (or underpriced ) candidates, they're just spamming a basic resume match.

I think there is more to the original comment than this though. I'm interested to know how they measure diversity when reading a CV and how they judge a recruiter to be "phoning it in" or not. I know what the phrase means - I just don't understand the meaning in this context.

I don't know if this is what they meant, but I assumed they were getting at the idea that a good recruiter will find you candidates who are better than they appear on their CV (because they'll be cheaper relative to their ability), and it would also show they weren't just spamming for a match to the template.

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

#167

Post by elondaits »

Contacting me, at all. I have a job, I’m not looking for another one, and it irks me no end when they email me (spam) or do a connection request on LinkedIn with a job offer in the body of the request.

I feel it’s disrespectful to me and my current employer… Like asking out on a date someone that’s walking down the street with their partner.

I imagine I might be a bit particular here for feeling this way. I’m not American, maybe it’s that… I’d just wish that I could set my status to “not looking for a job, don’t contact me”. At least not through a completely impersonal spammy message.

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

#168

Post by SkipperCat »

It seems like most folks here are not inclined to talk on the phone with recruiters. I think that is a mistake. I get pinged about once every other month by a recruiter in the FinTech space and I usually speak with them on the phone. They are usually senior recruiters who know about the industry. I find out what skills companies are looking for, what salaries they are willing to pay and other tips about hiring practices.

When I am ready to make a switch, I now have a better understanding of what's out there.

Sure, sometimes the calls are a waste of time, but its not like I haven't also wasted at least that much time in a week scrolling on reddit.

I guess what I'm trying say is don't be so dismissive about a conversation. Building a relationship with the folks who are a gateway to new jobs is not a bad thing.

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

#169

Post by makeitdouble »

SkipperCat wrote: post #168

It seems like most folks here are not inclined to talk on the phone with recruiters. I think that is a mistake. I get pinged about once every other month by a recruiter in the FinTech space and I usually speak with them on the phone. They are usually senior recruiters who know about the industry. I find out what skills companies are looking for, what salaries they are willing to pay and other tips about hiring practi…

I thik people have issues with professional recruiters, whose whole job is to match candidates to offers.

Compared to a discussion with an HR member who also happen to deal with recruiting it's night and day. The gold standard being of course talking to an actual manager or team member who can explain why they need people, and for what.

Even talking to my own company's HR people felt like a chore in a lot of jobs, and we took a lot of time to get them to understand what we are looking for. It's just not simple, they don't do the same job, and the further the people are from us the harder it is to have efficient recruiting discussions IMO.

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

#170

Post by isbvhodnvemrwvn »

petesergeant wrote: post #118
f6v wrote: post #57

There’s a whole cohort of English recruiters who hire for the EU roles. They wouldn’t name a company or provide any relevant details unless you agree to have a call with them. And when you do, they’ll ask incredibly annoying questions that show how incredibly non-technical these people are. Moreover, they can’t provide you any relevant company details even if you call them, since their only goal is to push you to the…

England doesn't regulate who can work as a recruiter, and there's a very active and competitive recruitment industry there.

Are there any countries which regulate it?
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