Why I Don’t Talk to Google Recruiters • Hacker News Board

Re: Why I Don’t Talk to Google Recruiters

#581

Post by yareally » Wed, Feb 22, 2017, 1:27 AM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #576

yareally wrote: post #525

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe I am mistaken, but I thought that much recruiter interest on linked in is pretty typical. I live in the Mid Western United States and what was previously mentioned is also true here from my observations. Most of it comes down to having the right keywords and tags I believe. Having .net/java/mobile in your profile nets a lot of messages where I am. Words like Scala/Python/Node/Ruby/etc gets you a bit more. 80% o…

Interesting. I suppose if I were to ever get 20+ recruiter contacts per month I would retract my previous comment about replying to each of them being cheap time-wise. Admittedly, I'm not in the market for a developer position, and I deliberately down-play my development experience in my profile, which probably reduces my contact count substantially. I should conduct an experiment wherein I stuff my resume and Linked…

Another interesting bit I've noticed is coworkers getting some of the same recruiter spam from the same recruiter. Seems some of them just blast everyone working for a particular company and hope to get a reply.

Re: Why I Don’t Talk to Google Recruiters

#582

Post by BurningFrog » Wed, Feb 22, 2017, 1:31 AM UTC

stcredzero wrote: post #148

There is no point in giving me binary-tree-traversing questions; I don't know those answers and will never be interested in learning them. Let's presume this is out of preference and not ability. It's a pretty basic concept. If your preference stops you from learning something as basic as this as a programmer, then it doesn't seem likely that you will be motivated to keep up with even more abstruse concepts. Nearly e…

I have done professional programming for decades. I have never written code to traverse a binary tree. I almost certainly never will.

If I ever have to write it, it's a pretty simple thing to look up. This piece of algorithm trivia has no relevance for software engineering jobs in 2017.

There is of course one reason to learn it: It keeps coming up in interviews.

Re: Why I Don’t Talk to Google Recruiters

#583

Post by lwhalen » Wed, Feb 22, 2017, 1:35 AM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #423

lwhalen wrote: post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I take it one step further: the email address on my resume is a black hole. Its only purpose is to feed an autoresponder who kicks back a warm, generic, email thanking the recruiter for their time, acknowledging they have a difficult job, and lays out my requirements for any position: what I am and am not interested in doing, my salary/hourly/per-project requirements, my location requirements (100% remote), etc. At t…

Have you ever actually got a job that you accepted through this method? Also, what wizardry did you use to get 200+ recruiter E-mails a month? Do you just have a highly optimized resume out there on all the job sites or something?

Yes, I've gotten my last 3 non-consulting jobs through this method. Before I switched to FT consulting, pretty much all of my jobs were through recruiters. The 'wizardry' is basically having a well put together resume (I've had several people/orgs/etc take a look at it over the years and give me optimization tips), and I maintain profiles at dice, monster, and indeed. That's... about it. I avoid LinkedIn like the plague because I detest the company and its practices, but I'm sure folks who are less picky than me could do something similar on LI and EASILY get more than 200+ contacts a month.

Re: Why I Don’t Talk to Google Recruiters

#584

Post by QuarterReptile » Wed, Feb 22, 2017, 1:39 AM UTC

pucado wrote: post #460

bluebomb wrote: post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

then we make them go through an animated slideshow and do a quiz to get to an email address

And when that gets rigged by some wicked OCR, then a Super Mario simulation where the princess is the realdeal@email.com, and every 10 coins or every level would get them an additional resume-info nugget to consume. Okay maybe I took it too far.

Can I buy more coins directly in the simulation?

Re: Why I Don’t Talk to Google Recruiters

#585

Post by jondubois » Wed, Feb 22, 2017, 1:40 AM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #31

Unlike most of HN (it seems), I like hearing from recruiters, because despite the very low signal-to-noise ratio, there's always that remote chance that one of them could be able to set me up with a "dream job". It's zero cost to me to politely reply to a recruiter and ask for more info, and I try to at least respond to everyone. What I've found is that they must have a lot of candidates they're juggling because fall…

I always give recruiters a fair go with their pitches (I'm between contracts now and today I had maybe 10 recruiters pitch me positions) - Most of them are pretty good at their job and they come up with decent stuff. You just have to ask the right questions to probe them and understand if the opportunity is actually good for you before you take it to the next phase.

As an engineer you should have a clear picture of the kinds of companies that you want to work for. As you get older, your selection criteria should improve and become more detailed.

Re: Why I Don’t Talk to Google Recruiters

#586

Post by lwhalen » Wed, Feb 22, 2017, 1:40 AM UTC

chadgeidel wrote: post #426

lwhalen wrote: post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I take it one step further: the email address on my resume is a black hole. Its only purpose is to feed an autoresponder who kicks back a warm, generic, email thanking the recruiter for their time, acknowledging they have a difficult job, and lays out my requirements for any position: what I am and am not interested in doing, my salary/hourly/per-project requirements, my location requirements (100% remote), etc. At t…

I'd pay at least a few dollars per month / tens of dollars per year for this service. I'm not kidding. Dear HN reader, please steal this idea!

Dude, you can do it yourself with a gmail throwaway. 'hireme.myname@gmail.com' or similar, set your vacation auto-responder appropriately, and have 'realdeal.myname@gmail.com' auto-forward to your real address.

Re: Why I Don’t Talk to Google Recruiters

#587

Post by sreque » Wed, Feb 22, 2017, 1:44 AM UTC

As a counterpoint, all other things being equal, if I were building a software team I'd hire a candidate who could pass a basic algorithms interview over a "OOP design" specialist who couldn't.

Re: Why I Don’t Talk to Google Recruiters

#588

Post by jondubois » Wed, Feb 22, 2017, 2:08 AM UTC

I agree that these kinds of tests are terrible but I don't want to work for companies that have a bad recruitment process anyway - If their talent acquisition strategy has started to degrade then the level of talent in the company will start to taper off as well - To me, that's a signal that the company will stop growing soon.

Companies play the numbers game, so you have to play the numbers game too. When looking for a job, I usually apply for like 100 positions and maybe get like 50 calls/pitches from recruiters, then from there I pick maybe 5 to do the technical challenge - Out of those maybe 4 or 5 have a reasonable code challenge and I only attempt those.

Sometimes the tasks have a deadline; in these cases I will intentionally submit my code slightly late (but I make sure it's good quality); if the company is too upset about me missing the deadline (and ignoring the code quality) then I will cross them off (or they cross me off; it doesn't matter); I don't want to work for such companies.

Then I end up with maybe 2 or 3 really good offers with companies that match all my requirements.

My point here is that the recruitment process is a two-way street; you can test them as much as they test you. The recruitment process says a lot about the company if you know what to look for.

Re: Why I Don’t Talk to Google Recruiters

#589

Post by galfarragem » Wed, Feb 22, 2017, 2:11 AM UTC

sqeaky wrote: post #472

ryandrake wrote: post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever actually got a job that you accepted through this method? Also, what wizardry did you use to get 200+ recruiter E-mails a month? Do you just have a highly optimized resume out there on all the job sites or something?

I get between 30 and 50 a month and all I really did was setup a linked in profile.

> all i really did was setup a linkedin profile

AND work on IT. As an housing architect I received zero offers from recruiters despite having relevant experience. By the other hand I have been contacted several times by IT recruiters once I listed there (irrelevant) IT side projects.

Resuming: it's not you, it's IT..

Re: Why I Don’t Talk to Google Recruiters

#590

Post by MarkMc » Wed, Feb 22, 2017, 2:15 AM UTC

> Clearly, I'm not an expert in algorithms. There is no point in giving me binary-tree-traversing questions; ...I'm trying to be an expert in something else, like object-oriented design, for example.

I've always been surprised by the focus on algorithms in interviews. Maybe I'm an outlier but in my entire career I very rarely have to implement any complex, low-level algorithm - usually I can just use a standard library. But almost every day I'm using object oriented design to refactor code or meet new business requirements.