Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 210 posts

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

#71

Post by ben0x539 »

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?

I mean, if I ran a team and I paid recruiters to find people to hire, I think I'd be disappointed if they ended up antagonizing the candidates in the process.

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

#72

Post by pjc50 »

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?

Those would be great. It's all the mishaps along the way from people who are one notch above spammers that cause the problem.

Skills and experience? Those are on the CV. Salary? That should flow in the other direction, from the hirer.

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

#73

Post by sleavey »

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…

Stupid question, but how are they finding you now? LinkedIn?

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

#74

Post by maccard »

cerved wrote: post #28
stevekemp wrote: post #17

Sadly I think the biggest pain I've suffered is from recruiters calling and making every conversation a rambly/chatty/friendly call that doesn't actually give any details. I've been called by recruiters who won't name the company they're recruiting for, the salary range, and are incapable of actually describing the daily-expections beyond buzzwords. I've found the best approach for me is to google "sysadmin helsinki"…

They're not saying the company name because they don't want you going there directly and applying without them getting their hefty bonus

Then they should negotiate that they get the signing bonus if they make the referral, whether or not they're involved in the rest of the process.

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

#75

Post by buggeryorkshire »

slifin wrote: post #40

Have you ever mentioned your first programs were written in C# then got .NET roles on your inbox forever?

I did Teradata stuff right at the start of my career 28 years ago, it's not been on the CV for 20 and I still get cold-called for Teradata roles.

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

#76

Post by ChristianGeek »

I had a recruiter call me once, and as part of the conversation asked me what I was looking to make. I told him, and he replied that I’d be lucky to make 2/3 of that. I asked him if he had my resume in front of him and he said yes. I told him to delete it. I ended up working with a different recruiter and accepted an offer 20% higher than the number I gave the first one..

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

#77

Post by rendall »

I don't mind tech recruiters as a class.

I despise the rare ones who dangle a job they do not actually have in order to get my information in their database.

These always seem to be the same ones who gaslight and neg: e.g. "We're looking for people who know what they're doing" and such. Not sure what they accomplish with that, but conversation is over.

That's comparatively rare, though. Most are just decent people, making a living connecting people who want a job with people wanting to hire.

Ghosting is annoying, but I've had good luck asking them in advance not to do that. "Tell me what's going on, even if it's nothing, or bad news"

However, I'm of a mind these days that full-time, salaried jobs are rarely the best option. Freelancing, bootstrapping, or founding are all usually better given today's market.

Finally, be unfailingly polite and kind to recruiters, and to everyone, really, even if they don't have anything you want, unless and until they give you a specific reason not to be (eg gaslight, neg). How you treat people is a reflection of your personal character. Be on the side of good.

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

#78

Post by onion2k »

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…

I strongly disagree. If I want to move on from my current role then I'll reach out to recruiters. They don't need to come to me first.

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

#79

Post by dkdbejwi383 »

yibg wrote: post #3

Clearly not reading my resume and sending me a job that's obvious not a good fit even given a cursory glance.

Yeah, this is the biggest annoyance for me. I haven’t used PHP for about 6 years but still get offers for PHP roles.
Post reply on HN