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Comment by dsr_ | Hacker News Reader

The typical recruiting-house recruiter has a script that was given to them by someone else, has no particular job in mind for you, and does not know the difference between Java and JavaScript. They are, in short, one small step above spammers. Unless you are currently thinking about changing jobs, you should definitely ignore them.

None of that applies to an in-house recruiter. Someone who works in HR for the hiring company, directly, may have years of experience, good training, and have a good idea of what the hiring manager is looking for. You shouldn't ignore them, although if you're entirely happy you should have a short message prepared -- "Thanks for thinking of me. I'm happy with my current position, but you never know what the future holds. Feel free to check in with me again in six months or so."

TL;DR: reputation counts.

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Absolutely true. 3rd party recruiting agencies have very different motives than an in-house HR department recruitment.

An easy tell-tale sign is that they withhold the name of the company until they get you on the phone. They have a contract saying once you're in direct contact with the recruiter, you are in their pipeline and they get rights to bill a portion of your contract.

3rd party agencies are incentivized to get you the most amount of money they can, so they can skim off the top. They are highly motivated to move you through and get you signed as quickly as possible, qualified or not.

In house recruiting doesn't have this constant need to move candidates, and will be fast or slow depending on the needs within the company.

My experience has been the opposite. 3rd party recruiters cold messaging me have led to my last two job changes and significant bumps in salary. One of them put my salary in at a higher level than I had asked for.

In house recruiters on the other hand have not been more knowledgeable about the team they are trying to fill for. Also, I have a theory that companies that are willing to pay a huge commission check to 3rd party recruiters are more likely to pay more for talent.

Hmmm... maybe I should have been clearer and more explicit about the fact that there are times when you ignore the script entirely.

Companies that are known to pay top of market... Like you're not going to hammer Facebook or Netflix by saying "how much sucker?" if you're in a bottom of the market bracket.

I also ignore the script when it is a company that I'm really interested in and excited by.

I should clean that up. Thanks for the comments.

I liked your article, you don't need to cover every edge case imho. Its on people who want to take inspiration from your script whether they apply it like a sledge hammer or a goldsmith's tool.

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