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Don’t Feed the Beast – The Great Tech Recruiter Infestation

mocko.org.uk

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Re: Don’t Feed the Beast – The Great Tech Recruiter Infestation

#51
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I turned off my voicemail because of this.

I just left my old number (that I don't use anymore) in linkedin

That's still not good enough. I've had recruiters look at who my current employer is then call the public phone number of the company (the reception) and ask for my name. I'm not joking. Happened more than once.

Re: Don’t Feed the Beast – The Great Tech Recruiter Infestation

#52
It always depends on how you react, if you are passive (like the author of the article) or active. While I too get many mails/calls that are unnecessary, I like to keep active contact with some recruiters I came to like and call them/meet them on a regular basis, even when I have absolutely no need for a new contract. If you are a contractor, you are essentially owning a business and if you have a business, you should value potential customers. Crying like a baby about too much interest in your person is a loser attitude. As long as there are not too many middle men, I also do not care about them getting their cut, as the better ones use that money to get the right contacts for me in case I want to change the position. My current recruitment agency also uses some of the money for great parties and events, which helped me to get to know many others (clients/colleagues...).

Re: Don’t Feed the Beast – The Great Tech Recruiter Infestation

#53
post #14

One fairly recently cold emailed me 4 times in one day, the last email quite put out and angry that I hadn't responded yet; this was followed by numerous cajoling to censorious emails in the following days, and then a letter mailed to my home castigating me for not responding. And then more emails. He finally went away. Then there is the current one - scheduling an interview without my say so, I demanded she cancel i…

That's insane.

I've had a few exciting ones happen to me as well... including offers to interview for the COMPANY I AM ALREADY WORKING AT. That was a fun one. My boss was pissed.

Lately, I've been replying to recruiter emails with a short and sweet "$%INSANEAMOUNT% plus or I'm not interested". Haven't heard back yet.

Re: Don’t Feed the Beast – The Great Tech Recruiter Infestation

#54

And yet they are our only weapon against business owners who are just as clueless but lack the incentive to pay a competitive wage. When it comes to salary negotiation, it's nice to have Shithead in your corner.

Eh. If you can't negotiate yourself then you're still going to end up in trouble down the road when Shithead isn't there to negotiate for you in your job.

Re: Don’t Feed the Beast – The Great Tech Recruiter Infestation

#55
post #49
post #34

I will admit I did not make it through this entire article, but it really did not ring true to me at all--just sounded like an unsupported, hostile, angry rant. >> “Fucked if we care” think the recruiters, “now grovel and be exploited”. ... >> You’re meat to them, a resource to be packaged and sold and exploited. Who's being exploited here? I think he's implying the programmers, but as someone who left academia for i…

> If a comment as irate, mean-spirited, and unsubstantiated as this blog post appeared in HN, it would get down-voted into oblivion. Yet this article instead of getting flagged into oblivion got upvoted to #1 as of now. Could that be that HN readers' experience with recruiters mirrors the author's experience?

i think some people read only the title and voted it up assuming it's about aggressive recruiting spam on services like linkedin.

Re: Don’t Feed the Beast – The Great Tech Recruiter Infestation

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are more likely to negotiate against you than for you. They will tell you the company is offering less than what they actually are, and they will tell the company that you are asking for more than you actually are. Then, if it's at all close, they don't have to actually negotiate, they can find the middle on their own and both of you are happy with the outcome because you didn't know the original set-point.

Yes - you might assume 'well, they get a percentage of what I get so our interests are aligned'. Sure, they do, but their downside if they don't place you is that they get a percentage of nothing, whereas their downside if they place you for less than your value is they get a percentage of a lot of money instead of a percentage of a load of money. Also, they are hoping to work with the hiring company again, whereas t…

Better to place 2 people at 90% than 1 person at 100%, especially if you have a quota that will get you fired if you place less than 2 people.

Re: Don’t Feed the Beast – The Great Tech Recruiter Infestation

#57

And yet they are our only weapon against business owners who are just as clueless but lack the incentive to pay a competitive wage. When it comes to salary negotiation, it's nice to have Shithead in your corner.

The recruiter's percentage of what you get is small enough that an extra couple thousand or whatever is much smaller to him than to you and, anyway, closing three deals a little lower than he'd like is better than closing one on the high end.

Re: Don’t Feed the Beast – The Great Tech Recruiter Infestation

#58

At the end: To employers – ask your staff to help find new hires. Offer a bounty – enough to get their attention, say a fortnight’s salary. It’s a lot less than Shithead would cost. And their incentives are all positive: no-one will hire an idiot if they have to work alongside them and new staff with social ties to your team are far more likely to stay. You’ll be amazed how effective this can be. There are limits to…

Agreed. You need to be careful with exactly how much the bounty is. Too low and people won't bother. Too high and people will recommend anyone they know.

I find recommendations for peers are almost always high quality simply because people want to work with good people.

Re: Don’t Feed the Beast – The Great Tech Recruiter Infestation

#59
post #52

It always depends on how you react, if you are passive (like the author of the article) or active. While I too get many mails/calls that are unnecessary, I like to keep active contact with some recruiters I came to like and call them/meet them on a regular basis, even when I have absolutely no need for a new contract. If you are a contractor, you are essentially owning a business and if you have a business, you shoul…

>> Crying like a baby about too much interest in your person is a loser attitude.

I wonder why you thought this would be appropriate to post.

Re: Don’t Feed the Beast – The Great Tech Recruiter Infestation

#60

And yet they are our only weapon against business owners who are just as clueless but lack the incentive to pay a competitive wage. When it comes to salary negotiation, it's nice to have Shithead in your corner.

Could you expand on that? If you can't negotiate with the owner, how does shithead help?

Sounds like a place I wouldn't want to be working at anyway.
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