A better idea would be a site dedicated to rating recruiters and recruiting agencies. That way you can democratize the process and get a feel for the average experience.
Sort of glassdoor for recruiters? I'd be good with that.
Awful Recruiters
21–30 of 74 posts
Re: Awful Recruiters
#22Looking at that list, the thing that occurred to me is how one bad individual can harm the reputation of an otherwise OK firm. The OP obviously had bad anecdotal experiences with every firm on that list. Also anecdotal is the fact that there are recruiters worth talking to one or two of those firms (I've talked to them.) I don't know if my experience makes that firm good or bad - but I also don't know if the OP's experience makes any of those firms good or bad.
What I have done with my "awful" anecdotes was email back the abusive recruiter, and track down the person's boss (usually there's somebody on the web site whose email address you can at least derive.) In the email I say I'm going to start filtering all messages from their domain to deleted items. If the person doesn't respond, the boss usually does, and more often than not the experience is positive - and if not, I'll follow through and send 'em to the trash. It has worked for me.
Re: Awful Recruiters
#23I got my current job from LinkedIn, so it's not all crap from there. A lot of it is, though, so I would understand if a person wasn't patient enough...
I was surprised to see LinkedIn on the list. LinkedIn is _so_ much more than a job exchange. Everything from its Answers (which is often very good, if you scrape off the people who -- for reasons I cannot fathom -- answer 50 questions a day) to its Groups (varying quality, but worth it for the good ones) to just plain old "where's she working now...?" gossip.
Re: Awful Recruiters
#24Wouldn't it be easier to produce a list of good recruiters?
Re: Awful Recruiters
#25Ok. But thebackplane.com is not a "3rd party recruiter" .. they're not even a recruiter. :)
Re: Awful Recruiters
#26Sounds like this person has put himself up on some/many job sites and is wondering why every recruiter on the planet is sending him referrals. Besides, if a particular company sends you a bunch spam, it's usually a 1-3 click process to add them to your spam filter.
As for the list he provided, I don't agree with the top entry. I got a great referral from WorkBridgeAssociates, and our company has found several good people through them as well. (Note: I do not work for or get any kind of recompense from them.)
Re: Awful Recruiters
#27There's another list here:
Re: Awful Recruiters
#28Until someone changes the payment model for 3rd party recruiters especially, I'll always cheer lists like this on. No matter what a recruiter may tell you, they'll never have your interest at heart if there's a commission to be made. The incentives are wrong for you, wrong for companies too.
Re: Awful Recruiters
#29I first started writing software on contract in the mid-90's. It was a good time, full of C++ jobs and my skills and my market seemed to be in harmony. I put my resume out there on the still-so-new-it-shined internet and immediately got over a dozen calls, the vast majority being from 3rd-party recruiters.
I complained to my wife after the third call in a row and she explained to me that I should never be upset when someone called because they wanted to get me a job. She had endured a lot of unemployment in her family and a call from a recruiter was a cause for celebration, not complaint. From that point on, I've never complained about a call or email from a recruiter.
2002 and 2003 were some lean years for software jobs and those calls became few and far between. Now the phone is ringing again, and I don't even have my resume posted anywhere. Still, I won't complain and I haven't blocked emails from any recruiter.
I actually go out of my way to respond to recruiters that seem halfway decent or better. A couple have expressed grateful surprise and I've made new connections that may work out in the future. The awful ones aren't blocked (at least none have been so awful to merit blocking so far), but I don't respond to them either. I just keep the channel open in case times do get lean once again.
The third-party recruiter model may indeed be broken, and, with a few exceptions, isn't a fit for the startup world. It does however seem to work well enough for nearly every BigCo in existence and should I work for a BigCo on contract once again, I'll likely work through a third-party recruiter.
Re: Awful Recruiters
#30Isn't @good.com just an email service like gmail but used by BlackBerry or corporate users?
Ah, I think that's a company. A few got mixed in my list of recruiter firms. Like it says on the site, I need to take some time and filter it.