Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can use spottiness.com to let others know about this guy anonymously
By posting him "the blackspot"...
Interesting, thanks!
All that is wrong with the Recruitment Industry
81–90 of 94 posts
Re: All that is wrong with the Recruitment Industry
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
Good question and difficult to answer...truthfully I hadn't ever given it much thought until this article. But first, I can tell good candidates from bad by what they've accomplished, who they've accomplished it for, what they say, and what people say about them. I'm a good recruiter not because I never talk to the wrong candidate, I'm a good recruiter because I know the difference between the right and wrong candida…
...perhaps we should demand to see recruiters' resumes in exchange. :D Asymmetrical relationships tend to create feelings of resentment.
Funny and true.
Re: All that is wrong with the Recruitment Industry
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
Doesn't work either - either bosons exist, and are plentiful, or there are none of them. Being rarer than one is either not special, or impossible!
What? Bosons, such as a photon, definitely exist in the sense that they are part of the Standard Model of particle physics. They are as 'real' as electrons or quarks or, in some sense, a table.
My mistake, it's not something I've been following closely - I was under the impression there was debate re: their existence.
Re: All that is wrong with the Recruitment Industry
#84Great to hear from a recruiter who's trying to do something good in a very broken industry. On the subject of horror stories... One guy called me a while back (in my role as an employer) who, when I politely said that we weren't interested because we always recruit directly, told me that he had been responsible for someone leaving our company a few months ago and he would now actively try to "poach" more people away…
Is it illegal to mention his name because you can't prove what he said? A lot of Britain's laws seem awfully strict to me, but I'm fully aware that that's a result of cultural conditioning by living in the United States for 17 years. (I wonder what most UK citizens think of America's laws regarding speech, libel and slander.)
Our libel laws are currently being rewritten, basically, due to huge demand for change. Yes, as they stand they are a bit unreasonable, you have to be able to prove you're correct rather than the other person prove that you're incorrect, which makes it dangerous to call out people like chiropractors.
Re: All that is wrong with the Recruitment Industry
#85Dear Recruiters, One of the biggest problems I've had with recruiters is the sheer amount of them I was called by, half of them very hard to understand, another third being very pushy about the amount being offered being "set in stone", and a slim sliver of the rest being genuinely decent recruiters trying to do an honest job. This is one of the biggest turn offs I have regarding recruiters. Be honest, try to do your…
"First, mention the name of the company."
No agency will give me this, I assume because they're worried I'll apply directly and skip their fees? Please chip in if you know why!
It's super-annoying, because there is a lot of cross-over with local agencies and they know it, so they want to know a list of all the agencies I'm currently engaged with to avoid this (ostensibly), which is completely backwards.
I agree with all your points. It's amazing how many businesses that contact people by phone get the very basics wrong, so many companies I deal with always have terrible line quality for example.
My pet peeve is how pushy they are. If I say no, I don't want to work for that company, then why push it? I often have good personal or technical reasons for turning it down, and it's a complete waste of both our time to spend 30 minutes pushing it on me - and it looks really, really desperate.
Re: All that is wrong with the Recruitment Industry
#86I don't know how it is nowadays compared to 2~3 years ago when I searched for a job in UK but imagine that with stackoverflow careers, coderstack, linkedin (not groups), github jobs, monthly hn who's hiring posts the situation improved at least slightly. Weirdest experiences I had were when recruiters would call from a blocked number and leave fart noises or some other idiocy on my voicemail. Or when one guy flat out…
Or when one guy flat out said (and one implied) that if I don't give him all the companies I ever talked to, he'd not give me the "offer" he "had" for me. Please tell me you're exaggerating?
They want to make sure you haven't already applied to them, which rather than just telling you the name up front, they do by asking for a list of every company you've talked to. Logical, I know.
Re: All that is wrong with the Recruitment Industry
#87I don't know how it is nowadays compared to 2~3 years ago when I searched for a job in UK but imagine that with stackoverflow careers, coderstack, linkedin (not groups), github jobs, monthly hn who's hiring posts the situation improved at least slightly. Weirdest experiences I had were when recruiters would call from a blocked number and leave fart noises or some other idiocy on my voicemail. Or when one guy flat out…
StackOverflow careers isn't massively popular in the UK, although there are some damn cool jobs on it.
The impression I've gotten so far (and please correct me if I am wrong - I am not long out of university) is that development just isn't treated the same way in the UK as in the US. When I talk with my similarly-aged peers across the pond, the situation is very different for them. (But perhaps they're just a lot better than me!)
Re: All that is wrong with the Recruitment Industry
#88Dear Recruiters, One of the biggest problems I've had with recruiters is the sheer amount of them I was called by, half of them very hard to understand, another third being very pushy about the amount being offered being "set in stone", and a slim sliver of the rest being genuinely decent recruiters trying to do an honest job. This is one of the biggest turn offs I have regarding recruiters. Be honest, try to do your…
"First, mention the name of the company." No agency will give me this, I assume because they're worried I'll apply directly and skip their fees? Please chip in if you know why! It's super-annoying, because there is a lot of cross-over with local agencies and they know it, so they want to know a list of all the agencies I'm currently engaged with to avoid this (ostensibly), which is completely backwards. I agree with…
I agree with you. It's INCREDIBLY hard to get this information out of some recruiter. I've made it a personal policy that I tell the recruiter I need to know at a bar minimum the company's name and the job description before I discuss anything else with the recruiter, send them a resume, or give them the OK to submit me for the position. A majority of the recruiters that I have told this to either refuse to give me the information, hang up and pass me to a coworker, or INSIST on why I want to know this information. If they ask why, I respond with something like, "You don't buy an unknown car based on the color and price alone, do you?"
For the really pushy ones, I make it a point to tell them I'm not willing to work with them because they are making the process a high-pressure environment. I also tell them to take me off their list.
I've had one recruiter call me up, give me his 2 minute spiel about the job position, and ask me when I was available for the interview all before I had said another word other than "Hello." I told him I wasn't interested, he stuttered, then asked if I was interested. I responded that I was NOT interested. He hung up, called me back 10 minutes later, and repeated his spiel. I told him that I was not interested. He was shocked that I was not interested and asked again if I was interested. I responded that I was not. He asked when I had time available to be interviewed. I was IRRATE at this point. I asked him for his name and his company's name and after he supplied the information, I told him not to call me again and that I was blacklisting him in my search for a possible new job.
All the while, I was happily employed and was just seeing if I was interested in anything else.
Re: All that is wrong with the Recruitment Industry
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
"First, mention the name of the company." No agency will give me this, I assume because they're worried I'll apply directly and skip their fees? Please chip in if you know why! It's super-annoying, because there is a lot of cross-over with local agencies and they know it, so they want to know a list of all the agencies I'm currently engaged with to avoid this (ostensibly), which is completely backwards. I agree with…
I agree with you. It's INCREDIBLY hard to get this information out of some recruiter. I've made it a personal policy that I tell the recruiter I need to know at a bar minimum the company's name and the job description before I discuss anything else with the recruiter, send them a resume, or give them the OK to submit me for the position. A majority of the recruiters that I have told this to either refuse to give me t…
I've been talking to a friend who works in recruitment for the last couple of hours and the biggest thing I've gotten out of it is: Slow down. Even though I used to work in sales I've failed to spot that a lot of recruiters are basically doing a sales push on me, and rushing me and making things far more stressful. It's almost 11 at night and I'm frantically editing my CV because a recruitment agency I've been in contact with for less than 12 hours wants me to send it over ASAP, tomorrow at the latest? He's introducing me to the (to me revolutionary) idea of slowing down and actually /using/ the recruiter's skills, getting CV feedback from them, finding the right jobs, etc.
I'm actually looking forward to dealing with recruitment agencies with this in-hand now! (although I will of course like you not be speaking to those that insist on being high-pressure).
Re: All that is wrong with the Recruitment Industry
#90I am not sure I buy the thesis. Greed and money are universal, yet most businesses don't need the call centric approach. Not even companies which sells very expensive things like, say, diamonds. My guess is that recruitment doesn't generate much value, which is a bigger problem than being greedy. After all, what does recruitment do that a job board can't? Looking through a resume for keywords is easy to do with a com…
What a recruiter can do that a job board can't is access passive candidates. For example a recruiter might have a pre-established network of candidates who aren't actively looking or might cold-call people working at your competitor to get them to come and work for you.
LinkedIn, GitHub, blogs, and online "presence" in general have been opening up more passive candidates to the average hiring manager (from whom, when a passive candidate, I'd much rather take a call or e-mail than a recruiter).
However, I agree there are still people not adequately accessible by online social tools, so a good recruiter could add value in this regard.