Oct 31

Happy Anniversary

Oct 14

Happy Birthday

Recruiters

The tech job market in Columbus seems to be picking up quite a bit. This is a wonderful thing for a lot of people since we like to be able to pay rent and buy sandwiches.

Unfortunately, it also means an increase in the number of people that call themselves recruiters whose only purpose is to spam as many people as possible in the hope that some company will hire one of them so said “recruiter” can get a commission.

These people are not really recruiters. They’re parasites. Real recruiters are a completely different creature.

If you’re a “recruiter” and are located in an off shored call center, you aren’t really a recruiter. I’ve gotten a few calls of this sort in the last few weeks and they’re driving me up the wall – Broken English, lots of call center noise in the background, and follow up emails that say things like “I enjoyed speaking with you” when all they did was leave a voicemail.

If your “job description” is a page full of bullet points that tell me absolutely NOTHING about the position, you’re doing it wrong. I once got an email from a “recruiter” that had about 20 bullet points worth of “description” and all it really said was “write code, conform to company standards, and you won’t be supervising anyone”.

Don’t tell me that you have something you think I would be “perfect” for without telling me why. This is especially true when the job is for something I’ve never done before. This is the most common kind of resume spammer “recruiter”. Thankfully they also tend to be the least tenacious and easiest to ignore.

If you’re contacting me about a job in Ohio, but you’re located in New York, you’re doing it wrong. You can’t know about the developer community in Columbus, Ohio if you’re located in Rochester, New York. If you’re not in the geographic area that you’re hiring for, you’re probably doing it wrong (there are exceptions, but they’re not that common).

Bad recruiters leer at and hit on my girlfriend while she’s at an after users group meet-up with me (true story, sadly. Karyl almost dumped her drink on the guy).

By contrast, good recruiters generally display the following qualities:

• They work through word of mouth networks in the developer community. Referrals are the source of most of their candidates.
• They will tell you the name of the company that they are trying to put you in touch with to make sure you haven’t already submitted to them since multiple submissions basically kill your chances.
• They take some time to learn what you’re looking for instead of trying to shoehorn you into every position that comes across their desk.
• They take time to help prepare you for the interview. They will give you an idea of what to expect both in terms of interview techniques (if there are any tests, etc) and corporate culture including suggestions of how formal or casual to be in the interview.
• They do not act like a creep and hit on my girlfriend.

Good recruiters are worth their weight in gold. Bad ones only serve to make everyone’s lives difficult. Sadly, the good ones are also about as rare as gold while the bad ones abound.

Current mood: tired

Current music: The Call – Let The Day Begin