Questions from 'My experience as a Recruiter on Hacker News' | Hacker News Reader

Questions from 'My experience as a Recruiter on Hacker News'

voltsteve.blogspot.com

84 pointsPeroni12 comments

Your posts are great. Keep up the good work :)

I work in a startup and have been fielding a lot of recruiter calls. Like many other startups, recruitment costs are simply not something we can afford with our tight budget.

One tactic I found to stop getting constant calls and emails from the same recruiter is thru honesty and building awareness of our business position.

I let them know that we can't afford the costs now but we might be in a better position in a couple of years. By that time, I'd like to select a recruiter based on their professionalism, practices and ethics.

Honesty works brilliantly both ways. If you are honest with recruiters and inform them the budget doesn't exist to use agencies then hopefully the smell of blood will dissipate!

Do you reckon that when describing what you did on a CV the frame should be on how my skills can help the new employer or describe your experiences and leave the rest to a cover letter or a face to face? I would prefer the former but from I am reading in your post you are suggesting the latter?

If the focus is on highlighting how your relevant skills can help the employer then you may have to adjust the CV every time you apply for a role. I suppose my advice is geared more towards getting your foot in the door. There is absolutely nothing wrong with following your CV with an email listing your relevant skills and how they may help. The issue with cover letters is that most people write exactly that, a letter. Employers don't want to read a story, they want concise, easy to read facts that you can substantiate.

You almost make recruiting sound like a fun job!

Almost! You know what, I've worked in a variety of industries, Software Development, Creative Advertising, Sales & Recruitment and I can honestly say that none have given me the job satisfaction that this one delivers however it can be equally frustrating.

Very well written.

For a portfolio, how much difference does an on-line video make?

Thanks.

Video: It depends on the context. For a creative role or Project Management role I believe it would have a significant impact. For a back-end dev, I would struggle to see the value. What context had you in mind?

Leadership roles.

Then go for it. Any role that involves delivering presentations or reports to teams or stakeholders requires people with confidence and strong delivery skills. Having a video that demonstrates these qualities will always be a bonus.

cwjobs claim to bring the first "augmented reality" cvs, judge for yourself: http://arcv.cwjobs.co.uk/see-the-winners

This is interesting, thanks for the link.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com