

What not to do as a technical recruiter - xynny
http://baglady.dreamhosters.com/2008/08/11/what-not-to-do-as-a-technical-recruiter/

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sh1mmer
Reposting my comment on the site for the lols:

We constantly get this crap at work. Normally they get hold of one name of
linked in or something and then call the main switchboard.

The worst we had was recruiting firms calling the switchboard to be
transferred through. Then they would claim to be Fedex and try to phish for
names. "Oh this package has to be signed for by a member of the engineering
team, is there anyone who might cover if you are at lunch when it's delivered"
Riiiiight!

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raganwald
The other dead giveaway is when you are working at an unusual hour. You hear a
phone ring down the hall, no answer. Then a phone closer to you. Then one
right next door, then your phone rings. The whole sequence is like something
out of a cheap horror flick.

You eye it with disgust, but pick it up, and sure enough it's a recruiter
sequentially dialling through the extensions. And they have the nerve to
pretend they are calling just for you!

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jgrahamc
Once upon a time I was VP of Engineering at a start up in Mountain View and
I'd get called by recruiters all the time. One time a woman called me and
asked about the company and I was particularly looking for people who had
written debuggers. So I told her that.

She repeated back to me: "Knowledge of debugglers".

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cperciva
I have two piece of advice about what technical recruiters should not do,
based on my own experience:

1\. Announce that someone is applying for a job _without first asking them if
they're interested_. (Yes, this happened to me: I was invited to go somewhere
and speak about my research; I agreed; and when I turned up, I was introduced
as "Colin Percival, who wants to work for us". To this day I still don't know
exactly what job I was "applying" for -- I talked about my research and got
out of there as quickly as I could.)

2\. Announce that someone is applying for a job _other than the one they told
you they were applying for_. (In fact, there were three different positions
involved, and in the end I was offered the position I originally applied for
-- but not before having a list of on-site interviewers selected on the basis
of a different position and then partially reworked on the spot.)

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bootload
_"... Apparently these recruiters just call random numbers and hope to be
directed to some hiring manager. ..."_

Poor phone screening technique.

All calls should be routed through one person where they can shield internal
people from _"unknown"_ callers. This simple hack works surprisingly well in
large companies and is a 101 social engineering technique. Kevin Mitnick now
makes a living writing books on this subject ~ [http://www.amazon.com/Art-
Deception-Controlling-Element-Secu...](http://www.amazon.com/Art-Deception-
Controlling-Element-Security/dp/0471237124)

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ConradHex
The core problem here is that recruiters are adding so little. It's fairly
simple to get a great job without involving a recruiter. Why not cut out the
middleman?

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sown
I dunno about the rest of you but I've been called once by my boss when he was
at home.

I just pickup and immediately hang up.

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vaksel
The person should spend 10 bucks and buy a domain name. Actually dreamhost
gives you a free domain name with the account, so I don't see why this person
doesn't use one.

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raganwald
Help me understand: How would this improve the content of the post?

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derefr
Perhaps dreamhosters.com is blocked where he works for some reason.

