

Why Recruiters Are Bad For Your Career - tzz
http://www.brandonsavage.net/why-recruiters-are-bad-for-your-career/

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nostrademons
I'm curious why the recruiting profession still exists when it's bad for the
employer, bad for the employee, and the recruiter isn't adding any value that
the two of them couldn't contribute? Why do people still pay for these guys?

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bonemachine
Great question. What it seems to come down to is:

(1) Companies are horrible at hiring in whole a lot of ways, most especially
at writing _meaningful_ job specs + quite often, simply knowing what forums to
post job ads in.

(2) Candidates suck at marketing themselves (though not quite as much as
companies are at writing job specs + knowing where to post them).

(3) And back to the company's side, a lack of a "DYI mentality", i.e. that
this is something that not only they _can_ do themselves, but which really
ought not to be outsourced, given the absolutely crucial and strategic role it
plays in their chances for success moving forward.

Taken together, these lead to a lot of pressure for hiring managers + HR types
to throw in the towel, and let hiring be a numbers game, i.e. get as many
resumes in the inbox with as little effort as possible, in the hopes that the
1 or 2 decent candidates will stick out like sore thumbs.

Which also leads to a tendency to simply blow candidates off when the search
pool narrows, and other accidental gruffness. And this is where recruiters
_do_ provide a value-added service of a sort, in that their job to say "no" to
a candidate, thus serving as a lightening rod for the negative feelings that
tend to arise when the decision turns negative.

