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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?

#21

Post by nicholasreed »

davyjones wrote: post #11

As an aside, I hate this post for one reason and one reason only: the hyperlink at the bottom alluring like-minded techies for a job in his/her company. And that is not just in this post. Almost every such post that talks about something that strongly resonates with a techie and then drops the..."oh...btw...we are hiring..." at the fag end. Please do mention if you require a green card or a H1-B or something related…

Isn't the job post going to explain that information? Why would he put all the terms/conditions of employment at the bottom of the post. And when you're recruiting for your company and write something related, a simple "We're hiring" link really doesn't do much harm. He didn't put a banner across the top, just a simple link.

Also, you can't really expect too much courtesy when people are inundated with resumes. If you're following up and opening those lines of communication, you're showing a lot more initiative than a lot of people

Re: Why do so many technical recruiters suck?

#22

Post by briancurtin »

They usually suck because they don't understand technology.

To me, a good technical recruiter would be able to take my resume and actually understand (to some degree) what it is I'm doing. From there, when talking about my knowledge and interests, they'd be able to respond and interact, then tell me about actually relevant jobs on their hands.

Instead, the conversation is a like driving the wrong way on a one-way street. They always have the best job for you no matter how wrong of a match it is or how unqualified or even un-interested you may be. At best, most "technical recruiters" are "connectors" as other comments stated. Beyond that it's almost all spam.

Re: Why do so many technical recruiters suck?

#23

Post by mattdeboard »

davyjones wrote: post #11

As an aside, I hate this post for one reason and one reason only: the hyperlink at the bottom alluring like-minded techies for a job in his/her company. And that is not just in this post. Almost every such post that talks about something that strongly resonates with a techie and then drops the..."oh...btw...we are hiring..." at the fag end. Please do mention if you require a green card or a H1-B or something related…

For anyone else who raised an eyebrow or chuckled at the tweeness of "the fag end" like I did:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fag%20end

Re: Why do so many technical recruiters suck?

#24

Post by veritas9 »

This is something we're trying to address at CodeEval.com. We're trying to make it easy for start-ups to hire without needing a recruiting team or contracting a clueless recruiter.

We've created a community of pre-screened developers who are actively or passively looking for jobs at startups. They have proved their programming chomps by solving dozens of programming challenges on our site.

If you're a start-up looking to hire without dealing with recruiters get in touch with us - william@codeeval.com

Re: Why do so many technical recruiters suck?

#25

Post by dotBen »

The problem with recruiters is that they're the only (potential) vendor/service provider to your business that doesn't actually understand the product they are delivering to you.

* My hosting partner knows how operate servers and datacenters

* My employee payroll + benefits partner knows employee laws.

* My lawyer knows corporate law

* My CPA knows accountancy and tax rules.

* My recruiter is unlikely to understand very much about developers, the types of people developer I need to hire into my specific role, the needs of an engineering hiring manager, etc.

Why, therefore, people continue to use them is beyond me.

Re: Why do so many technical recruiters suck?

#26

Post by epynonymous »

couldnt access the article, but fwiw since i'm in the china sw development industry where a significant portion of hires are done through headhunters:

- they don't know the least bit about software development, typically wih english or business degrees - as a result, their search effort is solely based on keyword or company profile matching., i.e. to a certain extent large companies seem to have similar processes and requirements like hp, ibm, so this works some of the time, you could also say that facebook and google have similar requirements - in china, because of the volume of applicants, there's no time to speak or meet with all candidates so you really just have a resume which doesnt say an awful lot

i spend my time mentoring recruiters on how to more effectively search for candidates, usually it's a process of giving them direct feedback on each resume, after developing somewhat of a repoire, it usually gets nominally better.

what would be more effective is if someone like me who's been a developer and now in development management, goes out and opens a headhunter agency, but that wouldnt provide the level of pay that i'm getting nor really interest me to be a broker.

i've dreamed of a social network like github + linkedin where not only actual code is available, but also a strong network of past and present co-workers are able to vouch for you. e.g. this guy worked with werner vogel at amazon and wrote significant portions of ec2 and has a lot of like minded followers of his work, of course an extreme case, but hopefully you get the point. it's about making the world of software developers smaller through social networks so everyone knows who and where the good, bad, and middle performers exist.

Re: Why do so many technical recruiters suck?

#27

Post by EwanG »

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…

It's worse than that. I started as a DBA, moved into development, spent time as an architect, and now am mainly a Project Manager though I do dip back into architecture occasionally. I do try to describe the types of projects I've run, and that usually leads to a discussion of the technologies we've used. So if you're looking for a PM with enough Python to be dangerous, ok. If you're looking for a heads down Python developer... then I have to question if your read ANYTHING in my resume or just had an automated bot send emails to any address where the resume had that keyword. Most folks send out enough of these that I can just ignore them. But at least a couple times a week I get calls following up and asking why I didn't respond. Um... Hello? I was not aware that I had accepted any responsibility to help you just because I have an email address. Of course those are also the folks who say "well, you must know some people who can do this." Yes, yes I do. But why on earth would I give you their info (or give them yours)?

My more than .02 worth :-)

Re: Why do so many technical recruiters suck?

#28

Post by abarringer »

They violate the worlds shortest and most profound sales course. "Know your stuff, know their stuff"

From the article "I am thinking – does this guy not want to hear me? I am detecting a pattern: not only he doesn’t want to listen, he actually doesn’t care to consume any information at all."

Re: Why do so many technical recruiters suck?

#29

Post by starwed »

dotBen wrote: post #25

The problem with recruiters is that they're the only (potential) vendor/service provider to your business that doesn't actually understand the product they are delivering to you. * My hosting partner knows how operate servers and datacenters * My employee payroll + benefits partner knows employee laws. * My lawyer knows corporate law * My CPA knows accountancy and tax rules. * My recruiter is unlikely to understand v…

It seems like you've just rephrased the original question.
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