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Career advice nobody gave me: Never ignore a recruiter

alexchesser.medium.com

61–70 of 633 posts

Re: Career advice nobody gave me: Never ignore a recruiter

#62
I'm always nice to recruiters if they make the bare minimum effort. If the job isn't a fit, I offer to stay in touch. It has led to great opportunities for me simply by taking advantage of the network effects offered by a recruiter link. Things turn up if you talk around enough.

Re: Career advice nobody gave me: Never ignore a recruiter

#63

Add NYC to that list as well. There's no reason to move to either of those cities in 2022.

I can understand the Bay Area, but it's a little bit crazy to think there's no reason to live in NYC.

"No" reason is probably an overstatement. But it's certainly a different lifestyle than e.g. living in a suburban / rural area and working remotely. Many of us would consider it a step backwards unless the net increase in income was life-changing.

Re: Career advice nobody gave me: Never ignore a recruiter

#65

Add NYC to that list as well. There's no reason to move to either of those cities in 2022.

I can understand the Bay Area, but it's a little bit crazy to think there's no reason to live in NYC.

What are you talking about? The Bay Area has one of the greatest weather of the world, lot of job opportunities, beaches near by as as mountain. Lot to like also.

Re: Career advice nobody gave me: Never ignore a recruiter

#66
post #49

Strong disagree. I've made it my policy to never work with a recruiter that isn't affiliated with the company they're hiring for. Recruiting farms like Cyber Recruiters (yuck) will do everything in their power to waste your time out of sheer incompetence and disinterest. I've "doubled" my salary plenty of times through this policy. But the real secret sauce is referrals. Companies always prioritize a strong referral,…

Former recruiter here. You are spot-on about referrals, and having an insider advocating for you or just their willingness to make the recommendation starts things off at a great spot. Here's where I disagree. You haven't doubled your salary BECAUSE of your policy of not working with recruiters, but rather DESPITE this policy. Deciding to disregard any recruiter opportunity is just shutting out quite a few things tha…

"but that policy is doing nothing to advance your position (career, earnings, etc.)"

Why does everybody assume that the goal is to advance to an exec role?

I'm sure that you were a competent recruiter, but the reality is that I don't have the time or the energy to waste on you to figure out if you are or not.

Re: Career advice nobody gave me: Never ignore a recruiter

#67

Strong disagree. I've made it my policy to never work with a recruiter that isn't affiliated with the company they're hiring for. Recruiting farms like Cyber Recruiters (yuck) will do everything in their power to waste your time out of sheer incompetence and disinterest. I've "doubled" my salary plenty of times through this policy. But the real secret sauce is referrals. Companies always prioritize a strong referral,…

Ah, but if someone doesn't have the secret sauce, are you then suggesting that person is doomed? Industry sanctioned nepotism doesn't feel like a good look for the SWE industry, especially given our diversity problems.

It's not nepotism. That isn't even what "nepotism" means.

People have always gone through their in-network to seek advice and find others to work with, since the beginning of time. It's how nearly anything really great or interesting gets done, actually.

Re: Career advice nobody gave me: Never ignore a recruiter

#68

I'm always nice to recruiters if they make the bare minimum effort. If the job isn't a fit, I offer to stay in touch. It has led to great opportunities for me simply by taking advantage of the network effects offered by a recruiter link. Things turn up if you talk around enough.

I try to be nice to recruiters who demonstrate that they've actually spent 60+ seconds considering if my resume was a match for the position. (Including my stated location requirements.)

Occasionally I'll tell them that I'm not working on a different level of the software stack than their position requires, and try to point them in the right direction. No idea if that's helpful to them, but it's nice to feel like I've been kind to a stranger.

Re: Career advice nobody gave me: Never ignore a recruiter

#70

I'm always nice to recruiters if they make the bare minimum effort. If the job isn't a fit, I offer to stay in touch. It has led to great opportunities for me simply by taking advantage of the network effects offered by a recruiter link. Things turn up if you talk around enough.

The key to me is transparency. If they're going to beat around the bush about the details I ask for I'm not going to waste my time on them.
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