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Why do so many technical recruiters suck?

mikebz.com

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Re: Why do so many technical recruiters suck?

#4

Post by twelve45 »

Nicely captures my issues with tech recruiters. The other big disconnect is that since tech is in so much flux, you want to hire smart generalists who can pick up new technologies in a few days if necessary.

Most recruiters have no clue how to find "smart developers". So instead they do a google search for "Java developer looking for job" and spam you with the top 10 hits with some great insights like "OMG this guy's great... he's only done Java for the last 20 years!!!1!". They don't understand why that's NOT a good thing in tech.

Re: Why do so many technical recruiters suck?

#5

Post by bdunbar »

bhickey wrote: post #2

For the same reason most (if not all) real estate agents are worthless. There's no barrier to entry and there's the allure of easy money. Until the profits collapse the market will be inundated with wannabes.

Until the profits collapse the market will be inundated with wannabes.

When will this happen?

The guy the poster was talking to sounds like a younger brother of some guys I dealt with in the 90s.

That said, I've dealt with a handful of 'okay' recruiters, as a job-seeker. At least two.

Re: Why do so many technical recruiters suck?

#6

Post by dredmorbius »

bhickey wrote: post #2

For the same reason most (if not all) real estate agents are worthless. There's no barrier to entry and there's the allure of easy money. Until the profits collapse the market will be inundated with wannabes.

There's also relatively little feedback reinforcement for the good (quality) recruiters.

Since remunerative reward is based on quantity, not quality, market incentives are diametrically at odds with what both hiring managers and talent would benefit by.

One solution is to not do business with or encourage the idiots in any manner whatsoever.

I also jealously guard my time. If you're wasting, it, particularly on the phone, assuming you've reached me in the first place (I'm increasingly extremely phone-hostile), I'll respond with "Thanks, not interested, have a nice day. ". That's a single sentence, punctuated with the call termination.

I've only got in a fight with one recruiter over that -- he called back. I noted that he was wasting both of our time and tarnishing his (and his employer's) reputation by the second. He didn't call a second time.

Re: Why do so many technical recruiters suck?

#7

Post by amcintyre »

Their behavior is just as frustrating from the other side. Since my resume says I've used Python for scientific computing, I must be a Django expert that has experience building scalable e-commerce sites, right?

That's what 90% of the recruiters seem to think, and I get a neverending stream of jobs from them not even remotely related to my experience.

Re: Why do so many technical recruiters suck?

#9

Post by shaggyfrog »

twelve45 wrote: post #4

Nicely captures my issues with tech recruiters. The other big disconnect is that since tech is in so much flux, you want to hire smart generalists who can pick up new technologies in a few days if necessary. Most recruiters have no clue how to find "smart developers". So instead they do a google search for "Java developer looking for job" and spam you with the top 10 hits with some great insights like "OMG this guy's…

As someone who's more of a generalist than not, it's almost impossible to arrange interviews through recruiters -- most of them are only looking to match up acronym/skill/buzzword X with length of time Y. A big part of that comes from missing the technical background to properly appraise the value of those technical skills.
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