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Ask HN: Why are there still recruiters?

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Ask HN: Why are there still recruiters?

#1
Not only this, but why has the recruiting profession exploded with the growth of the internet?

You would think that recruiting would have been made obsolete by a system where anyone can browse for jobs and apply from anywhere provided they have an internet connection.

Is there some underlying economic reasoning that explains why the middlemen persist?

Re: Ask HN: Why are there still recruiters?

#3
Think of them as FaaS - filtering as a service.

If you post an ad for a software dev position, you're going to get dozens to thousands of applications, and most of them won't even be close to what you're looking for.

Recruiters aren't perfect, but many of them are quite good. And from the perspective of a hiring manager, having a recruiter find you candidates is much less time consuming than posting an ad and then trying to read through and filter the applications that come in.

Re: Ask HN: Why are there still recruiters?

#4
Recruiters are there because they are useful. Yes, not all recruiters are scum and low life bottom feeders that we love to hate.

To answer your question, systems are just systems. They can never replace the human element which is required when dealing with people. Hiring is a friggin tough job and I can totally see the value of "good" recruiters now that I have been looking to hire people even though I am too small to hire recruiters yet.

Good recruiters can do the initial "human" filtering of connecting the hiring team/manager with better candidates. Online Systems cannot yet do that. Most online systems can be rigged with Bullshit Resumes and there is no way to tell unless you talk to the candidate. Good recruiters can separate the wheat from chaff before it gets to the hiring manager.

Re: Ask HN: Why are there still recruiters?

#5
post #4

Recruiters are there because they are useful. Yes, not all recruiters are scum and low life bottom feeders that we love to hate. To answer your question, systems are just systems. They can never replace the human element which is required when dealing with people. Hiring is a friggin tough job and I can totally see the value of "good" recruiters now that I have been looking to hire people even though I am too small t…

Not had any use for recruiters at all. Neither have my Engineering progeny. Sure they contact us all the time, but have yet to produce anything of value. I imagine they can; I see they continue to be paid. But as experienced Engineers, we get only bottom-feeding job spam from them.

Re: Ask HN: Why are there still recruiters?

#6
post #4

Recruiters are there because they are useful. Yes, not all recruiters are scum and low life bottom feeders that we love to hate. To answer your question, systems are just systems. They can never replace the human element which is required when dealing with people. Hiring is a friggin tough job and I can totally see the value of "good" recruiters now that I have been looking to hire people even though I am too small t…

Not had any use for recruiters at all. Neither have my Engineering progeny. Sure they contact us all the time, but have yet to produce anything of value. I imagine they can; I see they continue to be paid. But as experienced Engineers, we get only bottom-feeding job spam from them.

Well you're not their customer, you're the product. The hiring manager is the customer.

Re: Ask HN: Why are there still recruiters?

#7
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not had any use for recruiters at all. Neither have my Engineering progeny. Sure they contact us all the time, but have yet to produce anything of value. I imagine they can; I see they continue to be paid. But as experienced Engineers, we get only bottom-feeding job spam from them.

Well you're not their customer, you're the product. The hiring manager is the customer.

That is actually very well put and immediately explains why the job seekers will always tend to attach negative connotation to recruiters.

Re: Ask HN: Why are there still recruiters?

#8
post #4

Recruiters are there because they are useful. Yes, not all recruiters are scum and low life bottom feeders that we love to hate. To answer your question, systems are just systems. They can never replace the human element which is required when dealing with people. Hiring is a friggin tough job and I can totally see the value of "good" recruiters now that I have been looking to hire people even though I am too small t…

Not had any use for recruiters at all. Neither have my Engineering progeny. Sure they contact us all the time, but have yet to produce anything of value. I imagine they can; I see they continue to be paid. But as experienced Engineers, we get only bottom-feeding job spam from them.

I hear you. The issue is that those "Recruiters" who just spam you are not the ones I am talking about. I actually have worked with recruiters who are well connected in the industry and hire only for positions that are a good fit for the candidate. I have found at least 3 jobs in my past using those "good" recruiters. So I know that they work but are very hard to find. Needle in a Haystack.

Re: Ask HN: Why are there still recruiters?

#9
Filtering is the main reason. I've experienced this twice especially. The first is that I'm an embedded software developer, and quite often devs don't know what that is so they'll just send blindly off an application without reading the description.

The second was when we were looking for an EE graduate and specified that applicants must have an engineering degree. We got hundreds of graduates with every kind of degree under the sun who were just blanket sending their CV to every listing with the word "graduate" in the title. With that many CVs we had no choice but to use a recruiter to sort through everything.

Re: Ask HN: Why are there still recruiters?

#10
post #9

Filtering is the main reason. I've experienced this twice especially. The first is that I'm an embedded software developer, and quite often devs don't know what that is so they'll just send blindly off an application without reading the description. The second was when we were looking for an EE graduate and specified that applicants must have an engineering degree. We got hundreds of graduates with every kind of degr…

I was in EE switched to CSE. You blow up one fake city on a test and everyone gets all huffy....Now I just say ahh they'll fix it in QA...the prototype works....lol...not really but... it makes a good stereotype.
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