Tips For Tech Recruiters, From an Engineer

The single biggest determinant of a successful recruit is (drumroll, please) whether the candidate is currently looking for a job.

I just went back to read the recruiting email that kicked off my current job. And I quote:

"I came across your profile online and would like to chat with you about the exciting career opportunities that we have available at Facebook."

Wow. That sure sounded a lot more exciting at the time, because I was looking. And that's my point. Timing is nearly everything. Maybe you could find ways to predict when or if someone is looking, say, close to anniversaries of their current job (ie vesting cliffs) right before or after performance review time, etc.

But when the cost of a mis-timed email is essentially zero, there's no point. In a tight market like we have now, there will be a lot of smarmy, cut-n-paste junk in your inbox. Because it works.

Good recruiters are basically your sales force. They'll be out there building connections and holding a very wide book of open opportunities for you the moment you need them.

The good ones will also be respected on the other side, by the employer. If they think you are a particularly good fit for a good role, they can have both you and the employer walking into a very warm lead before you even start your search.

I have two or three recruiters who have kept me busy for a decade. I tend to think of them as partners as much as anything. They know I won't make them look stupid in front of their clients, and I know they will do the right thing by me by being frank & honest.

As with all professions, some are better than others. However, if you treat all recruiters with disdain you are also damaging your own prospects in terms of building some potentially mutually rewarding relationships.

As developers / engineers we are privileged to be in a position to choose our employer more than they choose us, to be "chased" by recruiters and flattered about our much desired skills. It's important to maintain some humility and not forget how hard it is for other people (recruiters included).

I have no doubts that the author didn't intend to patronize and that his advise to recruiters is ultimately a positive one, (yes - it would save both the recruiter and the engineer time, if the recruiter wouldn't call about a java job when the CV says javascript). I just wish it was coming across a little less arrogant.

This needs to be on a billboard.

As an engineer who's just starting out, I get no solicitations at all. I've heard about people being constantly contacted about work, but that's just not happening to me. If I lost my job, I'd have no idea what to do. How do you get on these people's radar? I'd love to feel more in control of my career instead of like my whole life depends on the good graces of my current boss.

For example, in major cities, recruiters can find out information about every real job in the city and essentially build a relationship with every major company out there. In theory, they can own the job market.

The HR recruiters don't have the time to scan over all the resumes they get. And the new job seeker doesn't have a relationship with the company, so he is just sending out email blind. Oh yea, I see recruiters from all over the country connecting with companies and trying to fill those positions. So it isn't even local anymore. Pretty much any shady recruiter can see an open position and try fill it.

So the third-party recruiter has a gold mine on their hands. They upsell on finding good candidates because they are the only people that have the time/resources to actually do that kind of scanning. It is pretty shady but apparently lucrative. So the job seeker almost has to contact at least one recruiter.

My question, what percentage of open jobs out there get filled by third-party recruiters?

Like I said earlier, a HR person at a big company normally deals with the HR things. They aren't pouring over technical resumes. The technical recruiter, their sole purpose is to match candidates with job openings. So they have the time and resources to match candidates. This is bad for the lone job seeker that is just trying to find a job and he sees an opening out there.

On the recruiters themselves, you want to look for big company technical recruiters of high-rated firms. E.g. ignore all the random emails from sys-inc-ez-find.com. You can search for the four or five top recruiter firms in your area.

You don't have to talk to the 20-something recruiter. Normally, there is an account manager or manager that may even have a technical background. He/she is the person that typically seals the deal and knows his stuff.

This has proven very useful since you can immediately tell which recruiters have actually made an effort to qualify me, versus the ones indistinguishable from spam. I even go so far as to block the more egregious ones at my mail server which keeps the nuisance emails down.

One external recruiter contacted me on Linkedin and said they knew of open positions I might be a fit for, but insisted, like most of them do, that I come in and meet them. So I wasted an afternoon meeting them. Then I hear nothing for months. Then I get an e-mail from the same firm. The last guy I met moved on from the company, a new person is now handling me there. They know of some positions I might be a fit for. But since this was a new person handling my account, they wanted me to come in for another meeting before they referred me to any of these clients they theoretically had. Of course I didn't go.

Once when I was on the other side of things, when we were dealing with recruiting firms for a hire, my boss said he wanted to phone screen interviews before bringing them in. One of the recruiting firms was unhappy with this, and was insisting its interviews come in without a phone screen. Luckily I had a good boss, he insisted on the phone screen and they gave in.

Who benefits from no phone screen? As an interviewee, I don't want to a waste an afternoon, maybe a whole day going in to interview for a position which I am unqualified for, or which has some requirements (50% travel, whatever) that I do not want to go along with. As an interviewer, why waste my time, and my co-workers time, and their time bringing in someone who can't answer the most basic technical questions I can ask? I wonder how many people who gave those recruiters their resumes knew the recruiter was pushing against phone screens and for in-person interviews only.

I have yet to put out my phone number when applying for any job. Somehow recruiters found my number from a few interviews I did from 10 years ago.

When ever it suits them, they still call.

Thanks to google voice I have a pretty good setup I don't have to respond

I see that often from recruiters, but usually the other way around. They say Java, but really mean JavaScript.

1) they misrepresent you and lie. "Kevin has 10+ years of experience with Ruby on Rails". I go "huh, Kevin's a lying shit. Bin."

2) 40% of your goddamned salary finders fee?! Fuck that shit I'll find someone else.

3) why would I be interested in employing you if you're not interested in us? The fact that you've gone to a recruiter just says "I have no idea what I'm doing or where I want to go, and I can't be bothered with research"

4) why would I hire someone that's already on myriad recruiter databases and therefore likely to be poached by the same shyster that placed you?

So, yeah, don't use recruiters. As an employer, I get 20+ emails per day from these animated coproliths, and they all get deleted. I don't have time to read 30 CVs for "javas php rubo on rales" developers.

I'll just hire the smart cookie who wants to work for us and approaches us directly.

Edit: also, the only reason recruiters exist is because they exist. They introduce artificial scarcity in the labour market and then exploit the deficit they created.

No better than ambulance-chasers.

Double edit: just to ram home how useless these people are, in the last seven years I've had recruiters try to sell me myself, no fewer than three times. Not a single thought between their immaculately preened ears.

Just yesterday I responded to a recruiter, explained my situation and asked a couple specific questions. The response was a totally generic email that made it clear he didn't bother to read what I wrote, and just was eager to get me on the phone.

One thing I've learned is they want to get you on the phone ASAP so that they can waste your time, because somehow in their minds, the more time they waste on the phone with you, the more likely your'e going to be interested in them sending you jobs. (If I'd ever had a productive, business like conversation with a recruiter that wasn't full of weasely words and them evading questions, I might feel differently.)

I think this must be a Sales 101 tactic.

Well, I'm in a position to be picky. That makes me the kind of person you probably are really desperate to hire.... so why not take the time to read my reply and respond to it?

I mean, I expressed interest. Now I know I'm going to get follow up mails along the lines of "you expressed interest in blah... lets set up a call" for weeks... he'll never go back and actually read my response, I'm almost certain.