Comment by mratzloff | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mratzloff | Hacker News Reader

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The problem is, as you say, 95% of tech recruiters are utterly incompetent, and even the good ones don't have a firm grasp of specific technologies.

I once had a conversation with a recruiter that went like this:

"I see you're very qualified for this senior back-end position I have. Do you know HTML, CSS, and JavaScript?"

"I do, but those are front-end technologies, and I'm not interested in a front-end job at this time. Thanks, anyway."

"No, this is a back-end job."

"I think you have the definition of front-end and back-end switched around."

"You know, I'm looking at your résumé again and I think maybe you're under qualified for this role. I have a junior position..."

"Goodbye." (click)

----

It's not just the emails. It's the constant phone calls, too. Software developers get tired of talking to "air-quote recruiters", e.g., "Are you familiar with... 'Hadoop'?"

I understand these guys aren't going to be experts, but given that most positions are found through referrals, some tech people just feel like it's not worth the hassle.

>The problem is, as you say, 95% of tech recruiters are utterly incompetent

The real problem is the barrier to entry for a recruiter is low. Companies will create a supplier portal and recruiting firms will take a req, and have Offshore "recruiters" troll dice, LinkedIn, etc and cold call on their crappy VOIP lines.

I understand your concerns, but you're basically doing exactly what I was complaining about. Deciding that because you had a bad experience, EVERY SINGLE PERSON in this field is an idiot. Hell, I've interviewed thousands of engineers over the past few years. If I decided engineers had x feature because a few engineers did something stupid that would be unfair, as is this.

That's an example, not the sole occurrence.

You are the one who called 95% of your colleagues worthless. I was agreeing with you.

I said 95% are bad, but the good ones are really good and can provide a ton of value. You said 95% are bad and the rest are clueless. I don't see that as agreement but maybe I misread.

So how does one find the good ones? :)

Look at their work history, read what they are actually writing. If they are specific about the role, the company and why you fit, they are probably good. If there is a list of qualifications and no real reasoning as to why they are contacting you specifically, they probably aren't very good.

I said this in another post, but even as a recruiter, I get contacted constantly and I usually just look at the persons work history, the specifics of the offer, if they actually seem credible, (does person offering you job at Google actually work at Google?) and if they're offering something that actually makes sense for you. If those are the case, they're probably not dreadful.

I read it as "95% are bad, so its not worth the hassle in the hope that you end up with one of the good 5%".

I and most of the people I know have received all of their jobs through conferences/meetups, word of mouth/direct referrals etc and I find that much more pleasant than dealing with linkedin and phone spam. I do still maintain a LinkedIn account though.

I am now cofounder of a startup and, despite my LinkedIn profile clearly stating this, I still received messages from recruiters about jobs.

Answer these please:

How can I know you aren't one of the 95% who will waste my time? Why should I even talk to you?

How can I know you won't misrepresent me?

What are the consequences of you screwing me over? (Lost time, lost opportunity, reputation damage)

How is your rate of success measured?

It's not like this is a single "oh, I met a bad recruiter once" anecdote, this is an industry wide plague.

> It's not just the emails. It's the constant phone calls, too.

Why do people make their email and phone number visible and then complain about unsolicitied contact? LinkedIn has privacy settings, you might as well use them. I have an account for years and only get a handful of job invites per month, if that.

Making your details private does not stop unsolicited contact; there are common tricks recruiters play to contact you anyway.

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