Ask HN: How would you change the recruitment process? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How would you change the recruitment process?

2 pointsPeroni3 comments

Caveat: I'm a developer who has crossed to the dark side and become a tech recruiter. I have been a HN lurker for a signifficant amount of time and I am progressively becoming a more active member of this community.

I've been recruiting within the London market for a number of years now and it was instantly obvious from the word go that Tech Recruiters are generally viewed with a high level of disdain and to be fair, having spoken to so many clients over the last couple of years, I can understand why given the approach and attitude a lot of fellow tech recruiters adopt.

What I'm asking is this, what can I do, as a recruiter, to convince you, as a client, that I'm not just another wide-boy salesman?

Differentiating yourself in the market is a key element to being successful in this job and I do a very good job of that with current clients (which is why they are still current clients!) but I am noticing more and more that when I contact potential clients for the first time I can hardly get a word in due to the assumption that I don't know my Git from my Github.

Thoughts?

I have worked in this space as well, as a recruiter for full-time roles and now account manager for contract staffing. The biggest thing is getting to know your candidates and understanding their goals, desires, and path. There are so many recruiters who are in the game because they aren't good enough for sales or not really qualified for much else. This gives the industry a bad name. Not a lot of people go through college with the dream of being a recruiter, but many end up there for lack of other options.

Changing the recruitment game is hard because there are so many little IT shops popping up with the low barriers to entry, looking to be a middleman and grab their piece of the pie. They see a $10-15/hr margin in contract staffing and think, wow, this is easy money by just submitting a resume. Of course, these small contract staffing recruitment shops often have offshore recruiters because you pay them 1/5 of what a U.S. based entry level recruiter would make.

I am currently on the path of teaching web development to myself so I can implement my own ideas on small scale rather than relying on finding a willing technical partner. It's rewarding on it's own and gives me a little more insight into the technical world.

Whilst I agree that people don't set out to become recruiters, I disagree that it's due to a lack of options.

My reasoning for making the switch was simple. My best friend was a recruiter with little to no practical IT experience and average sales patter. He showed me a series of payslips covering a 6 month period where he had earned £70k during that period because of his commission. I was young and exclusively money driven so it was a no-brainer.

As for upskilling yourself, it never hurts. I'm adding to my skills at the moment by learning Python and loving it!

A friend of mine worked for a tech recruiter in 2009, in Houston. She reported being 'trained' to take the references from people who were looking for a job, and recruit only the references for open positions. The original applicant was generally ignored altogether, and often lied to.

So, how about convincing everyone in your industry to not do that? Good luck...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com