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

Ask HN: Do I have to go through recruiters nowadays, how do you find new jobs?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 149 posts

Re: Ask HN: Do I have to go through recruiters nowadays, how do you find new jobs?

#41

Post by collyw »

Stack Overflow Careers. LinkedIn. Glassdoor sends me emails - seems similar content to what comes up on LinkedIn. The Python Meetup group here in Barcelona often has jobs posted to the mailing list. Jobserve used to be the one to use in the UK, but I haven't lived there for a while. Infojobs in Spain.

Many years ago a recruiter contacted me about a job for a well known Investment Bank, we had the usual bullshit conversation and never got back to me. I applied directly and got a job.

Re: Ask HN: Do I have to go through recruiters nowadays, how do you find new jobs?

#42

Post by Justen »

peteretep wrote: post #24
Justen wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You're not like to negotiate a higher salary than you would without the recruiter This is a bit facile because it depends on if you know how to ask, the financial standing of the company, if you can actually find a recruiter that'll go to bat for you, and a dozen other things that can affect the final outcome. I think the average outcome to expect however from the recruiter side of things is that they would rather…

Perhaps, but the recruiter's cut is based on your salary, and they also usually know how much the client is willing to pay - and quite possibly what they're previously paid for people of your calibre.

That's why I also made the comparison to real estate agents. They get commission as well.

Re: Ask HN: Do I have to go through recruiters nowadays, how do you find new jobs?

#43

Post by vinceguidry »

I like to go through a recruiter because I hate managing a job search myself. I build up relationships with four or five recruiters, and they simply send me opportunities, and then I just talk to them and go on interviews. I do not have to follow up or devote any conscious attention at all to the process.

Corporate hiring is a massive shit show and I consider recruiters to be an incredibly useful sanity saving device. People that want to deal with corporations directly, I just have to ask, why in the world would you want to do that? So annoying.

Imagine you worked in any other profession than coding. Having someone else manage your job search is an unimaginable luxury. When I talk to my non-coding friends, and they ask how many hours I've devoted to a job search, they're amazed and jealous when I tell them about my recruiter-enabled workflow.

Re: Ask HN: Do I have to go through recruiters nowadays, how do you find new jobs?

#44

Post by michaelt »

peteretep wrote: post #24
Justen wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You're not like to negotiate a higher salary than you would without the recruiter This is a bit facile because it depends on if you know how to ask, the financial standing of the company, if you can actually find a recruiter that'll go to bat for you, and a dozen other things that can affect the final outcome. I think the average outcome to expect however from the recruiter side of things is that they would rather…

Perhaps, but the recruiter's cut is based on your salary, and they also usually know how much the client is willing to pay - and quite possibly what they're previously paid for people of your calibre.

If I ask for more money and the company says no, I can walk away and keep my current job, losing nothing. If a recruiter walks away they lose their huge commission.

Companies know this, so recruiters have no negotiating leverage.

Re: Ask HN: Do I have to go through recruiters nowadays, how do you find new jobs?

#45

Post by peteretep »

michaelt wrote: post #44
peteretep wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps, but the recruiter's cut is based on your salary, and they also usually know how much the client is willing to pay - and quite possibly what they're previously paid for people of your calibre.

If I ask for more money and the company says no, I can walk away and keep my current job, losing nothing. If a recruiter walks away they lose their huge commission. Companies know this, so recruiters have no negotiating leverage.

But if you walk away from the recruiter's offer, because they negotiated too shitty a deal for you, they also get nothing.

Re: Ask HN: Do I have to go through recruiters nowadays, how do you find new jobs?

#46

Post by StavrosK »

sosborn wrote: post #35
StavrosK wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment seems to be contradicting itself. You say that looking for a recruiter is wasting time, but a recruiter is the best choice. Which one do you mean?

The reference to wasting time was about internal recruiters. OP is advocating for the use of external recruiters.

I see, thank you.

Re: Ask HN: Do I have to go through recruiters nowadays, how do you find new jobs?

#47

Post by minionslave »

peteretep wrote: post #18

Hi, I'm a recruiter. Look for job aggregators like Adzuna, Indeed, etc, which scrape all jobs on the web. When you see results, it should be easy to work out which jobs are posted by recruiters, and which have been posted directly by the company. In my (massively biased) experience, you are better off applying for a position when you've been put forward by a recruiter: * The recruiter knows what the client's salary r…

Thanks for your reply. Since you're a recruiter, do you have any tips that would help me differentiate between a competent recruiter versus a shady/ incompetent recruiter?

I have worked with a great recruiter in the past, but lately I've been turned off by the whole process, I talked to one the other day and he said "Do you have any MVC experience? MVC is a big technology these days, you didn't list that on your resume ".

Re: Ask HN: Do I have to go through recruiters nowadays, how do you find new jobs?

#48

Post by a_small_island »

pc86 wrote: post #11

Disclaimer: I've used recruiters to find every job I've had other than the first one. > I'd rather talk to a company directly. Why? What benefit do you get from that? You're not like to negotiate a higher salary than you would without the recruiter, and you're not in a better position to get hired either (over the total spend of an employee's lifespan the recruiter commission is a drop in the bucket). Some companies…

Why would you send your resume in Word? Also, if you think trusting someone else to negotiate for you will = higher compensation, it probably means you're scared to negotiate for yourself.

Re: Ask HN: Do I have to go through recruiters nowadays, how do you find new jobs?

#50

Post by vonmoltke »

AaronLasseigne wrote: post #49

If you have the time, go to local meetups. They can help you build a solid network and often have information about employers looking to hire. My last two jobs came from networking in this way.

Assuming, of course, that there are companies you want to work for locally.
Post reply on HN