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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

#281

Post by agentultra »

michael2l wrote: post #251
agentultra wrote: post #242

I really dislike the lack of expertise typical recruiters have with the technical jargon and requirements of our industry. I've had many poor recruitment experiences where the recruiter couldn't accurately explain the role, requirements, or why they thought I was a good enough fit to contact me in the first place. My github simply hits the right keywords and that's good enough for them. This has been made worse by no…

I dislike this expertise as well, but lets get at what you are saying, that a recruiter should have some sort of programming background to know how concepts actually are used versus the sorts of mixed metaphors one comes up with in the absence of that understanding, which are often quite comical. This just isn't realistic. Most recruiters are doing this job in some sort of entry-level commission-only type role, and i…

I understand it is probably an unreal expectation. If you actually did know your min/max heaps and could implement them you'd be better off being a programmer. Never the less it is counter-productive to know nothing at all as we agree.

That's why I don't have any good solutions. It doesn't seem like there are any. Unless we can find magical unicorns who know enough about programming and software development to be competent enough to assess the abilities of programmers themselves... or at the very least understand the process enough to be able to answer their questions.

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

#282

Post by bitwize »

cookiecaper wrote: post #197
bitwize wrote: post #118

phone rings "Hello?" "Hello, is this Cloud Strife?" (pausing a moment to consider whether even to continue) "...Yeah." "Hey, Cloud, how's your afternoon going? My name is Michael Gravitz and I'm a recruiter for Warmbody Technical Services. I came across your résumé on Dice, and I noticed you have a lot of Buster Sword experience. We've got a great opportunity for a Bodyguard role with an established, profitable compa…

>Oh! Well! I'm so glad to hear that all your friends have jobs, Cloud! The funny part being that often it is the case that all of the tech worker's tech friends do already have jobs.

Yes, but that doesn't stop the recruiter from waxing passive-aggressive when you tell them that.

It'd be hilaribad if it weren't so irksome.

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

#283

Post by GFischer »

edem wrote: post #162

The same stands for the real estate industry. Or worse. Most real estate agents add nothing just take money away from both tenants and landlords.

I'm still amazed they continue to thrive in the Internet age.

They do add some value to sellers (showing the house), but their commisions are WAY beyond the value they add.

And they're a huge annoyance to buyers, intentionally hiding information whenever possible.

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

#284

Post by zyxley »

capisce wrote: post #245
zyxley wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> she believed I'd been subjected to ageism I would suspect more "we don't want to hire someone who thinks it's appropriate to show up in a literal school uniform to a professional interview" more than ageism, per se.

If his skills were that good they should be able to afford to sponsor him with a new suit.

It's easier to train a professional and prepared candidate in some fraction of job skills than is it to train a very skilled candidate in business proprieties, especially for an interview that starts with a multiple-choice test.

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

#285

Post by gearoidoc »

GFischer wrote: post #279
gearoidoc wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haha, I'm a dev and I pronounced it like this for a while (knowing it was incorrect). Someone like me probably set them down the wrong path!

I live in Uruguay (South America), many developers don't speak English, and most that do don't speak it well (they usually do read and write decently). You'd probably be hard pressed to understand what they're talking about :) - for example JSON is definitely JASON, and you'll be looked at funny if you don't pronounce it that way :) , and Ajax is pronounced like the Dutch football team. If I don't hear it on a video…

I guess its important to make allowances - especially for non-native English speakers.

I worked on a portlet system a few years back (oh the horror!) with a Chinese dude. Super developer. It wasn't until the last day that I figured out what he meant when he said 'poorer led'. Should have figured it out sooner looking back :D

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

#286

Post by ascorbic »

teh_klev wrote: post #200
pjc50 wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it sticks out because, in the UK, we're not used to people just lying directly to our faces. And in the recruitment business it seems to happen a lot. (Omission, elision and euphemism is the British way!)

> in the UK, we're not used to people just lying directly to our faces Ahem, speak for yourself. Go check out your local newsagent's daily national press shelves. Pages upon pages of lies and spin. Hell, the Scottish versions of The Times, Express, Mail and Mirror group papers print contradicting headlines, one version for Scotland and one for England and Wales. I hate to do the "we're less gullible in Scotland now"…

Newspapers aren't people lying to your faces though.

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

#287

Post by [deleted] »

retbull wrote: post #278
toolslive wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I once (early 2000s) discovered during the interview the recruiter had edited the CV I sent. I showed my own copy and the interviewer and I ended up putting them next to each other and identifying the differences. It's better if you only hand out a pdf version.

pdf is still editable.

[deleted]

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

#288

Post by jarek »

vasilipupkin wrote: post #263
cookiecaper wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because everyone is really bad at recruitment. Companies hire recruiters because they think it'll help dampen the badness of their own recruiting abilities, but really it just makes it harder, as recruiters scare away decent candidates.

I don't get it. If a recruiter calls you, you are either interested or not. So, what's the harm ?

The problem is Google doesn't yet have a spam filter for my phone like they do for my email

(I mean, in practice I just don't answer any calls I am not expecting - but not everyone can do that)

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

#289

Post by celticninja »

Brakenshire wrote: post #199
mjn wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's funny to read complaints about rent-seeking and someone taking a percentage off the top on a tech forum, where that is the business model of a large portion of tech companies themselves. When authors complain about Amazon being rent-seekers "stealing" a percentage of authors' income, they don't tend to get a lot of sympathy here.

Rent seeking means taking a percentage without bringing any value. I'm on board with many of the complaints about Amazon, but it's clearly not the case to say they don't add value. Of course many/most recruiters will also bring value, but it's a question of degree. If someone is recruiting for a technical position and they don't have the technical understanding to make any meaningful judgment of the candidate, it's r…

Value is subjective. The contractor doesn't see the value but the company using the agency does.
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