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The Recruiter Honeypot

ewherry.com

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Re: The Recruiter Honeypot

#121

Post by phillmv »

michaelt wrote: post #106
phillmv wrote: post #35

>In addition to pings from too-familiar recruiters, there were two cases that left me especially uneasy. In the first case, a former recruiting agency tried to poach Pete London and then 15 minutes later, wrote to me offering recruiting services! I was being pulled on both ends! What did you expect them to do? It's not even that scummy. It's their business model. I also feel that no poaching agreements are also bulls…

Well, a lot of recruiters present themselves to employers as helping with their recruitment problems, rather than exacerbating them. The "rational" thing for a recruiter to do is to post fake jobs with huge salaries to jobs boards to get in resumes; and to offload filtering for quality onto clients so as to get more volume through; to shop resumes around clients in descending salary order so lower paying places only…

Everything you mention I kind of consider par for the course. How would you even know if your recruiter wasn't doing that? To expect otherwise, I think, is a little naive.

The economics of the recruiting business, as you pointed out, reward behaviour ranging from predatory to scummy. The best you can hope for is the guys who are merely sharks, and not scumbags.

Yet, the negative aspect you mention, is still contingent on being able to convince people to leave your company. Having talented people leaving your company is a sign you're doing something wrong; you either have a flaw you need to address or you shouldn't be concerned in the slightest.

My thesis goes, if all that was keeping someone behind was an unexpected offer out of the blue you had already lost them.

Re: The Recruiter Honeypot

#122

Post by city41 »

One of the best things I did was take down my LinkedIn account. I've gone from numerous recruiters contacting me to very few. But the ones who do contact me find me through my github account, my stackoverflow account or my website. These recruiters are of much higher quality, have much more compelling job opportunities and job opportunities that match me much better. I also no longer have to politely decline recruiters constantly.

Re: The Recruiter Honeypot

#123

Post by monatron »

I remember doing something similar to this after I graduated from college ('09) but a bit backwards.

I was totally frustrated by the lack of responses to resumes that were flying from my outbox like cards from a blackjack shoe -- so I created a help-wanted ad on craigslist for a job that I thought I would qualify for and might have a chance of landing.

The resumes I got were from people with 3-5 years experience, masters degress, laundry list of skillsets, etc. Needless to say, the whole experience was disheartening -- but it taught me to be creative in my approach to the job market and that generally the "resume" based approach to finding a "match" (employeremployee) is deeply flawed.

Re: The Recruiter Honeypot

#124

Post by hirehand »

Recruiting is difficult, especially for initial hires. Often time founders are hiring for skilled positions that they themselves are not familiar with. Thus, they turn to recruiters. However, with the good that recruiters bring, the bad comes as well. That's why I am starting HireHand. We are different than traditional recruiters and will assist by screening candidates for skilled positions using screeners will matching skills. You get a filtered set of candidates and can interview for "fit" rather than skill. We charge a small fee based on the number of candidates you have us screen, and do not charge a percentage of salary. Check us out: http://www.hirehand.com

Re: The Recruiter Honeypot

#126

Post by hirehand »

starship wrote: post #12

"Though I averaged two interviews a day, we had only grown the team by three-four engineers each year." Wait a second, he was interviewing 100X more people than he was hiring??? Does that seem a little extreme to anyone, or is it just me?

HireHand is trying to help solve this common problem. We screen your candidates using screeners with skills matching the position you are hiring for. Then we present you with the set of candidates that have the skills required, leaving you to interview for "fit". Check us out: http://www.hirehand.com

Re: The Recruiter Honeypot

#127

Post by vineet »

Great article.

I was however confused by "I also needed a recruiter who was smart enough not to poach a founder".

Was he saying this just because founders in SV are not a good fit to Meebo? Or are they bad employees? Or that it is considered bad to poach to hire a founder?

Re: The Recruiter Honeypot

#128

Post by JoeAltmaier »

emmett wrote: post #77
phillmv wrote: post #35

>In addition to pings from too-familiar recruiters, there were two cases that left me especially uneasy. In the first case, a former recruiting agency tried to poach Pete London and then 15 minutes later, wrote to me offering recruiting services! I was being pulled on both ends! What did you expect them to do? It's not even that scummy. It's their business model. I also feel that no poaching agreements are also bulls…

No poaching agreements are not bullshit - you are giving them privileged information (who your best people are) and in exchange you're expecting them to use that information only for the purpose directed. It's similar to an NDA. Nothing bullshit about it.

Poaching is a myth. You assume the only reason your folks are working for you, is they don't know about a better deal elsewhere?

Every sensible employee should regard every paycheck as a renewed offer of employment. If a better deal exists, its their choice, not yours, whether they stay or not.

Your only real option is to treat employees well, make sure they know you appreciate their talents, and try to generate some loyalty.

Re: The Recruiter Honeypot

#129

Post by noarchy »

simonw wrote: post #96
mindjiver wrote: post #17

"JavaScript engineer", really?

http://www.quora.com/Startups/Why-are-front-end-developers-s...

The trend of calling someone an "engineer" for all sorts of things may puzzle people who live in places where the title of "engineer" is regulated.

Depending on how far you want to take it, the term can really lose its meaning. Is a supermarket stocker a "display engineer"? They do have to make considerations for aesthetics, space, and so forth...

Re: The Recruiter Honeypot

#130

Post by lizzard »

vineet wrote: post #127

Great article. I was however confused by "I also needed a recruiter who was smart enough not to poach a founder". Was he saying this just because founders in SV are not a good fit to Meebo? Or are they bad employees? Or that it is considered bad to poach to hire a founder?

She. Did you really read the article and not notice it was written by a woman? On a blog titled "Elaine Wherry"?
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