IT recruiters, in their own words

You're paying for the recruiter's database of programmers. I get calls from recruiters who first contacted me 5 years ago, from time to time. That database is invaluable in most cities, where programmers are more sparse than in the west coast. If you have to rely only on people who are applying or putting their resume on Monster, CareerBuilder, etc. it can take a long time to find someone competent (I've seen it first hand). But recruiters have no problem calling up people they've placed as recently as a year ago.

The future is dangerous! looking forward advanced recruiters could begin to use API from sites like StackOverflow to retrieve developers with high reputation. Yesterday I just wrote a small post about it since I needed to recruit people for my company around my location (Buenos Aires, Argentina). If you're interested for a responsible use :-) http://blog.databigbang.com/converting-excel-cells-to-hyperl...

So when recruiters contact me (Python, Seattle or telecommuting), what might I ask them to find out whether it's worth my time? I guess first I'd want to know all the things recruiters are influenced by or tend to do that I don't like, and see what I can ask them that would suggest they're less likely to do those things than most.

  o Do you get paid a flat-rate?
  o What's the difference between Unix and Linux?
  o ...

Heh, I spoke to a recruiter recently who was concerned that I had no Unix experience. What it has on my CV is about 15 years of Solaris and Linux...

Cost: There's more to it than just the filtering and introduction.

Agencies we've worked with have had a guarantee clause. If the person quits within 90 days, the recruiting company pays their salary. If they quit after 90 days, the hiring company pays them.

This gives companies a way to soften the blow of bad recruits, at the cost of higher fees to the recruiter.

It's insurance.

I only know one excellent one, one where I could hire all developers unseen from.