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Ask HN: Where do you go to get recruiters to find you a job?

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Re: Ask HN: Where do you go to get recruiters to find you a job?

#41

Post by nicholas73 »

eibrahim wrote: post #7

Interesting timing because I am working on a service that does exactly this. Essentially I will be your agent. Tell me the job you want and your salary and I still get it for you. Help you schedule, cleanup your resume etc... in return I get 10% of your paycheck for a year. I am currently beta testing it with a handful of people but if interested email me at eibrahim@gmail.com

The primary value I derive from recruiters is them being a trusted source with direct contacts to hiring managers, so that I can get interviews quickly. I do not need scheduling or resume advice.

Moreover, 10% from me is quite different than a fee paid by the employer. The employer fee does not necessarily have to come from my pocket, as payscales could be standardized or deduced and negotiated. But the 10% definitely would cost me.

I'm not trying to be rude or decline your help. Just giving feedback on your business model.

Re: Ask HN: Where do you go to get recruiters to find you a job?

#42

Post by nicholas73 »

bbcbasic wrote: post #32
einarvollset wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except: Recruiters usually take 17% (2 months) of your first year salary as a fee, you just don't see it. Better to have the recruiter not do that and take 10% and have that higher salary be your starting point for salary increases etc.

No they take a percentage from the company. Generally a tech company won't offer a 17% signing bonus for coming direct. On the other hand, a company not using recruiters wont pay 17% more just because they are saving money. PS: I wonder why my GP comment is heavily downvoted? Maybe it sounds to pro-recruiter.

FWIW, I think you are correct. Companies are interested in keeping people in the same paygrade at similar pay. People talk, after all. They cannot pay someone more or less based on whether there is an initial upfront recruiter fee, as the employees will find out soon enough and threaten to walk.

Re: Ask HN: Where do you go to get recruiters to find you a job?

#43

Post by nicholas73 »

watermoose wrote: post #26

> P.S. I could interview well with a mid-senior electronics role or a junior programmer role. What do you mean by "electronics". Electrical engineer? Electrician?

Electrical engineer, past work in analog ICs, sensors, circuit boards.

Not sure why you were downvoted, but I tried to make it up.

Re: Ask HN: Where do you go to get recruiters to find you a job?

#44

Post by dogma1138 »

codeonfire wrote: post #19

Why use recruiters? They just submit your resume to an employer like you could have done in 5 minutes. For that five minute action they want to collect a $10-20k fee. That comes out of your pocket. Plus they do ridiculous things like want you to drive an hour down to their POS office for a face to face like you are their employee. Their most recent accomplishment is dropping out of college and they will try to make y…

The 10-20K fee doesn't come out of your pocket, if you are using a good recruiter they are actually more likely to get you a better deal.

Most people don't know how to negotiate, recruiters do, mostly because more often than not their fee and reputation is somewhat dependant on it.

A recruiter would usually find you a good fit especially if they aren't just some employment/vacancy agency but actually build their network.

How much of a good fit and how long you stay at your job is tied directly to their reputation, recruiters that fill positions with people that don't stick around or worse don't even pass a probationary period don't get too many second chances.

Overall the recruiter fee isn't even a major part of the onboarding cost, the time spent by everyone from HR to the tech guys on everything from defining the job to handling the interviews cost considerably more especially if you take valley salaries into account.

The position not being filled or worse being filled by a contractor who often charges considerably more than the average daily market rate for a full time employee also costs the company money.

Re: Ask HN: Where do you go to get recruiters to find you a job?

#45

Post by bbcbasic »

einarvollset wrote: post #37
bbcbasic wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No they take a percentage from the company. Generally a tech company won't offer a 17% signing bonus for coming direct. On the other hand, a company not using recruiters wont pay 17% more just because they are saving money. PS: I wonder why my GP comment is heavily downvoted? Maybe it sounds to pro-recruiter.

Pay attention: "you just don't see it" == "they take it from the company" Your assertion that a company wouldn't pay more without a recruiter makes no sense. Particularly if they're sourcing candidates off a trusted source Ps. I suspect your comments get downvotes because they come across as rash and not very well thought through.

It makes sense from a simple supply/demand point of view. You only pay what you have to. Why pay the candidate more just because you saved some money elsewhere. That could be just added to the bottom line, used for growth etc.

Now if the candidate is strong, a good negotiator, and all their competing candidates went through a recruiter then they may be able to claw back some of that as a pay rise. But I guess in most cases, not.

Re: Ask HN: Where do you go to get recruiters to find you a job?

#46

Post by bbcbasic »

jwatte wrote: post #15
eibrahim wrote: post #7

Interesting timing because I am working on a service that does exactly this. Essentially I will be your agent. Tell me the job you want and your salary and I still get it for you. Help you schedule, cleanup your resume etc... in return I get 10% of your paycheck for a year. I am currently beta testing it with a handful of people but if interested email me at eibrahim@gmail.com

For that to work, you have to arbitrage the fee the business would pay to a recruiter against the lost income for the employee you place. Maybe you have secret sauce that makes it possible? Tell us more?

Not possible. To provide a good service then jobs found via recruiters must be included, the recruiter must be paid.

Instead, the best they can do for you as a candidate is negotiate hard on your behalf. This might be a good service for someone who is currently underpaid and is happy to give up 10% to have a negotiator get them up by 30% from their current role.

The help with CV etc. stuff can be got a lot more cheaply and is not an exact science anyway.

Re: Ask HN: Where do you go to get recruiters to find you a job?

#47

Post by morazow »

geff82 wrote: post #38

In Germany, I use Xing (Linkedin equivalent) to get a new job whenever I want. You have to know the right groups for your field of work and get part of them(examples: the "Freelance"-group for contractors, the "Linux" group or the "Adobe AEM" group) Recruiters then go there and find you (or you easily see the recruiters and drop them a quick message you are interested in what they offer).

I recently used https://www.honeypot.io/. And the experience was quite good.

Re: Ask HN: Where do you go to get recruiters to find you a job?

#48

Post by scarface74 »

codeonfire wrote: post #19

Why use recruiters? They just submit your resume to an employer like you could have done in 5 minutes. For that five minute action they want to collect a $10-20k fee. That comes out of your pocket. Plus they do ridiculous things like want you to drive an hour down to their POS office for a face to face like you are their employee. Their most recent accomplishment is dropping out of college and they will try to make y…

There are a lot of advantages to using a good recruiter. They serve as a decent filter for both you and the employer so you don't waste time pursuing jobs that are not a good fit. When I was looking for my last job, I had certain criteria - a salary that at the time was higher than average, it had to be located in a certain part of the metro area because I didn't want a long commute and I wanted a certain technology stack.

Most jobs don't post salary ranges and for some strange reason it's considered bad form to ask about it at the early stages of the interview process but the recruiter knows what salary the company is willing to offer and it's perfectly acceptable to ask.

Submitting your resume blindly to a company is a black box. A recruiter will know almost immediately if a company is interested in you and what stage in the decision process the company is in. They will also give you hints about what type of interview to expect.

The last time I was looking for a job about two years ago, I was feilding 10 different opportunities - I had passed the phone screen and scheduling an in person interview. I stopped the process for 8 of them after accepting an offer that met my requirements.

Re: Ask HN: Where do you go to get recruiters to find you a job?

#49

Post by eibrahim »

ufmace wrote: post #13
eibrahim wrote: post #7

Interesting timing because I am working on a service that does exactly this. Essentially I will be your agent. Tell me the job you want and your salary and I still get it for you. Help you schedule, cleanup your resume etc... in return I get 10% of your paycheck for a year. I am currently beta testing it with a handful of people but if interested email me at eibrahim@gmail.com

Do people actually want to do this? 10% of your pay for a year is a hell of a lot of money for some glorified secretarial work. The market is saturated with experienced, well-connected recruiters who can do all of that and get paid by the employer outside of the candidate's income. What do you offer over all of the other recruiters out there who, from the candidate's perspective, are $10,000+ cheaper to work with, an…

Here is the thing, let's say you want to get a 100k job at google. It's a lot of work to get in the door.

What if write/cleanup your resume so it stands out? What if I help you setup your online presence (website, github, linked in, etc...)? What if I pitch you to the employer better than you can?

And at the end, you end up getting your job and you make 110k (because I did all the negotiations for you and got you a better starting salary). Sure you will give up 10k for a year but then you have a higher salary.

You save time and you make more money.

Does it sound too expensive now?

I am a developer myself and it's a pain job hunting but I realized over the year that I always did a great job negotiating my benefits and on several occasions I was making more than other more qualified co-workers (I know it sucks). I also found that I am good at placing other people and helping them get jobs - I did it for free most of the time to help out but eventually saw the business opportunity.

I appreciate all the feedback though and I did get several emails of interested people, so I setup this form if anyone is interested: https://goo.gl/forms/tYVvDddqWdJrn2fi2

NOTE: Again, I am not a sleazy recruiter/sales guy. I am a developer like you and understand where you come from - you can learn more about me at about.me/eibrahim

Thanks.

Re: Ask HN: Where do you go to get recruiters to find you a job?

#50

Post by gbraad »

Cognitron wrote: post #5

LinkedIn is definitely an option. If you take the time to fill out your profile and write a summary, you should have recruiters messaging you. I get messages every week asking if I'm looking. I imagine it varies by region, but it's not like I'm in SV, I live in the Tampa Bay area. Also, the quality of the recruiters can vary a lot, so maybe talk to a few different people to see what they can offer. Remember, you're a…

Living in Beijing, and do not see the same engagement here.
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