was this written by a recruiter
Career advice nobody gave me: Never ignore a recruiter
511–520 of 633 posts
Re: Career advice nobody gave me: Never ignore a recruiter
#512Disagree strongly. Recruiters are like real estate agents - the barrier to entry is low and there are a lot of folks who do a crap job.
I work with a couple recruiters who: 1) actually respond to emails, 2) actually look at my CV to see if a role is a good match, 3) have some long term commitment to clients.
When I get an email about a role that matches well from a job I had a decade ago, straight to spam folder.
Re: Career advice nobody gave me: Never ignore a recruiter
#513Earlier quoted context omitted.
The preferred outcome of the company is making a successful hire, so they will go high enough to make sure they get a great candidate, or if they can't afford that, will go to their max budget. And if they don't then you don't want to work there anyway. There is no situation where you will say a high number and they will move up to meet you if that number was greater than their max budget to begin with.
> There is no situation where you will say a high number and they will move up to meet you if that number was greater than their max budget to begin with. Yes, and since it's quite common to have companies where their max budget is not acceptable (probably because they are the ones who can't fill their vacancies and thus have recruiters spam everyone all the time), it's important to filter them out by saying the high…
The point is the tactic of giving the first number, though successful in ending many unappealing recruitment attempts, also has the unintended side effect of making it impossible that you'll ever get an offer SIGNIFICANTLY ABOVE your target range. Because comp boosts in the 50-100% range are possible, and you actually want to see those, you should let the recruiting org offer the first number.
Re: Career advice nobody gave me: Never ignore a recruiter
#514Earlier quoted context omitted.
A scenario I hadn't thought about, that you might want to be aware of: I had to call 911 recently. I talked to the dispatcher, and hung up. A few minutes later they called me back to give me instructions. The call showed up as a regular Los Angeles 323 area code number. In fact, it was flagged by my phone as spam. It made me wonder whether reverse 911[1] calls, which are used to warn about hazmat situations, fire eva…
Additionally, if a neighbor is having an emergency they (emergency services) might call you to see if you are home and able to help.
The one time my neighbors called for help (their car wouldn't start and they needed to go to urgent care), they txt'ed first, then called. Though I would have picked up when they called (and it would have gotten through my do not disturb settings) because their number is in my contacts.
Re: Career advice nobody gave me: Never ignore a recruiter
#515Taking this post to publicly shame a recruiting technique I was victim to: I entertained a reference check call by a recruiting firm (not standard but he was a good coworker and it was a serious position with a serious company). The interview was normal and standard fare except the last question which I found off-putting and dishonest: "Are you looking to fill any positions?" Although I was, it's not the kind of prof…
This is standard operating procedure to mine references for sales leads at several large national recruiting agencies. I am also pissed that this is a thing.
Re: Career advice nobody gave me: Never ignore a recruiter
#516Strong disagree. I've made it my policy to never work with a recruiter that isn't affiliated with the company they're hiring for. Recruiting farms like Cyber Recruiters (yuck) will do everything in their power to waste your time out of sheer incompetence and disinterest. I've "doubled" my salary plenty of times through this policy. But the real secret sauce is referrals. Companies always prioritize a strong referral,…
Yup a referral is the most powerful ally one can have in getting hired.
Re: Career advice nobody gave me: Never ignore a recruiter
#517Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Companies always prioritize a strong referral, ignoring mediocre interview performance, and will even skip the reference checks I wish this were always true. When I worked as a recruiter, I saw referrals routinely get tossed onto the stack of resumes with no special preference. How candidates are treated completely depends on the preferences of the hiring manager & corporate red tape, even at smaller companies.
At my day job a good referral skips the tech phone screen. At Google a favorite ex-manager referred me but couldn’t improve my odds at all.
[deleted]
Re: Career advice nobody gave me: Never ignore a recruiter
#518Alternate approach: build a relationship with the 99th percentile super-recruiter that basically all the startups that know what they are doing in your area use to hire, and go to him for a job.
In NYC, this is that dude: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnkeenan/
I send all my friends to him when looking for jobs. He also doesn't lie to you and since he has a technical background, will rarely place anyone in a bad fit. He's literally sent 2nd tier candidates to other recruiters.
It's a rich get richer game and the super-connectors have way more candidates and companies to match, effectively creating their own market. I believe John makes mid 7 digits a year from placements, plus companies love him and candidates keep going back to him for their next job.
Once you have that reputation, it looks like art next to the other 99% of hustling recruiters that are trying to place poor fit candidates into the 3 roles they are "working on".
Re: Career advice nobody gave me: Never ignore a recruiter
#519Earlier quoted context omitted.
> it is in the recruiter's interest to get you as much money as possible so you might get a better offer via them Up to a point. They get a fraction of the marginal increase in salary, and they’d much sooner “close the sale” than risking having someone else fill the job to try and get an extra 500$ commission. It’s the same story with real estate agents: selling your house for an extra 20k might be a lot to you but t…
Yeah, however real estate agents will close later (and for more) when selling their own home. > Real estate agent-owned homes are on the market longer and sell for more (2005) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26840289
They’ll also tell you pricing lower will incite a bidding war. Yet the first offer that comes in they’ll say wow it’s a good offer!
Re: Career advice nobody gave me: Never ignore a recruiter
#520Earlier quoted context omitted.
Eh, I find work "friends" to be even more ephemeral than school friends. Nobody I've ever worked with in the past has ever contacted me after I left the company we worked for. At least school friends are around for a more or less guaranteed period of several years. Edit to add: I have initiated contact before and been well received. Nobody contacts me. It's tiring to have to do 100% of the work to maintain these rela…
I've had the same experience. I have no idea how this advice is working for people in most job markets - it certainly doesn't seem to be a thing in Australia.
I get it. I'm definitely not an asshole; even my ex will tell you that. People seem to like me. I’ve never gotten any feedback from any manager or team member of mine saying anything about bein difficult or anything. I try to help people out when I can.
The times when I have contacted people, it's been about as well received as I'd expect a contact from a former coworker to be. It's just that nobody ever initiates. I'm not getting anything out of trying to maintain these relationships except stress, so, why bother?
And, now, someone (actually 3 someones, because I was at +3, now at 0) has gone and downvoted my original comment for whatever reason. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯