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Comment by arethuza | Hacker News Reader

I had one idiot who kept phoning me about a "great position" with an investment bank that offered less money, a lot less holidays, a lot more pressure (which I interpreted as being required to be available 24x7) and less interesting work than what I currently do.

I kept asking him why I should be interested in such a role, of course, he couldn't tell me. The sheer desperation in his voice was almost enjoyable.

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The sheer desperation in his voice was almost enjoyable

The first time I sent my resume out to recruiters, my phone rang nearly continuously for two days. I complained about it once to my wife. She said I should never be ungrateful for a recruiter calling. He father went through a few periods of unemployment and in her eyes a call from a recruiter was a cause for celebration. From that point on, I've always been patient with recruiters, even the dull ones.

I've been around long enough now to have the tables turn. In 2002-2003, calls from recruiters almost completely dried up. I had a job at the time, but I was looking to leave for greener pastures and became very grateful for any calls I received. Now I'm back to getting lots of unsolicited emails and calls, but I just politely decline and maintain a contact, because if the table do turn again, I'll have a wide net already cast to pull in my next gig.

You hit the nail on the head. In a bad economy/tech market like 2001, the recruiters were rude, unreachable and acted like Gods. After 9/11 2001, a recruiter sent me resume of few other candidates vying for the same job and asked me to write a page describing how I am better than those candidates.

Now, the tables have turned, we developers consider recruiters as dirt bags. I have no doubt that the tide will turn again. We just don't know when.

"Next time it could be you" is not the only or even best motivation for practicing compassion and tolerance. I have been cold called by inept recruiters and hired by companies with barely competent ones. Nurturing contempt for them does nothing good, in particular it does nothing good for you. It's also a missed opportunity: when a niche in the economy attracts ineptitude, that tells you there's a broken system possibly worth analyzing.

I encountered recruiters who were a bit short with me in that era, but I encountered more who had a who had a different sort of desperation than they do now. Third-party recruiters rely on a steady stream of jobs coming available so they can collect placement fees. In 2002, they faced a real pinch in what jobs were open and in what companies would pay to both developers and recruiters. Many recruiters went without work as they didn't have any jobs to place people in.

I talked with one recruiter about a job that paid about 1/3rd what I made just 2 years before. I said "has it really gotten that bad?" He opened up about the situation as he really didn't expect me to go after the job as it paid far less than what I was making, even back then. IIRC, it was the only job he had open at the time and rates had hit bottom, so he couldn't even find anyone willing to take it. Fortunately, things turned around for both of us.

I have one idiot who made me an offer which might have been somewhat realistic: it was at a networking company, doing C++ for APs/controllers (5 years experience wanted). I told him something like "sorry, no, I'm just leaving that field (and that city) for a little startup, I was more of an NMS guy anyway, and I wasn't using C++ - you could do a better job of convincing me that you understand my background and skill-set; I see you even are advertising for NMS positions on your company's site." I also allude to his company's competence using abstruse engineering language: "I've worked with your products before, and already faced some of these 'unique challenges' you promise."

Three months later he contacts me about the same C++ positions, with the same language. After me telling him exactly how to do his job. This time I was a little more explicit, and asked him to keep contacting me so I could make fun of him and his company to my engineering buddies. :P

Probably a bridge burned, but one I'll never use, and I don' t make a habit of this.

"you could do a better job of convincing me that you understand my background and skill-set; I see you even are advertising for NMS positions on your company's site."

I had a similar experience, and because I had multiple people from their office call me about different positions in the same time period, I became convinced that recruiters are just allotted a concrete list of positions that _they_ are responsible for. (think of it like randomly handing out a different list of target customers to each member of your sales team)

Even if you aren't a good fit for a given position, they'll call you about that position and not the one you're a better fit for, because well, it's not _their_ job to fill the other role.

I've always mentally associatted third-party recruiters with 'Glengarry Glen Ross,' so the idea that there are a number of 'leads' they all fight over would make sense. Just reversed with the easy to fill jobs being the good 'leads'. Some of the third party groups I've dealt with certainly had that aroma. (Some of the megaCo recruiting depts, too.)

That's exactly what happens at some places, from what I've heard. In some companies (the more commission-oriented ones) employees even own their "contact list" of candidates.

Sounds a bit like Ask the Headhunter's classic "Death by Lethal Reputation" essay: http://www.asktheheadhunter.com/halethalrep.htm

Did you happen to see if he remembered that initial call first?

Sometimes those "cold call" type (almost want to use the word drones) just phase out the after they hear no.

Oh course he didn't. That's the point.

Maybe having burned a bridge with someone he needs to impress will make him pay more attention next time.

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