

How To Disrupt Technical Recruiting - Hire an Agent - fecak
http://jobtipsforgeeks.com/2012/09/17/disrupt/

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robdoherty2
I appreciate the proactive suggestion, but I don't think introducing agents as
additional gatekeepers would be a good solution.

Think of how awful getting work in acting has become thanks to agents. Would
we want to give the keys to the kingdom to a middle-person? And who would step
up to be the first set of agents? I bet it would be the same recruiters we all
love to hate.

Much has been said about recruiting and hiring and all that. I'll only add
that I think the direction things are headed in seems to be that developers
are going to start needing a portfolio by which potential employers can judge
them.

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fecak
Actually, I'd see agents as a replacement for most recruiters, so it wouldn't
add an additional gatekeeper the way I see it. Now you have candidate -
recruiter - perhaps HR or company recruiter - manager, whereas you would
simply replace the recruiter with an agent. In my vision, the agent would have
a relationship with the candidate and often the hiring manager (that is true
in my case, but I may be unique), so it would only be one degree of
separation.

You would be able to choose an agent to represent you, so if you don't want to
choose the ones you hate, choose the one that you actually might like! (There
has to be one, no?)

I agree with your comments about portfolio, and clients are asking for GitHub
info and such. I think that is where it is heading as well, but many engineers
would still like someone else to do the job search legwork, negotiating,
resumes, etc, which is where an agent comes in.

