

Finding A Job You'll Love: Recruiters - martincmartin
http://www.martincmartin.com/blog/?p=119

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ivenkys
"When you first talk to a recruiter, describe what you liked and didn’t like
about past jobs. Then ask them for career advice: what sort of job do you
think I’d enjoy?"

Very much an idealist's view of the standard average Recruiter - The last time
i spoke to a recruiter was well over 4 years ago and she would have been
totally confused and have no clue what to say if i had asked her such a
question.

This is in London, mind you, Boston might very well be different ( though i
have my doubts ).

~~~
dabent
I have known ones who get confused about career questions like the one the
author posed and a few who actually know where I'm coming from. I work with
the latter.

All recruiters need to think about the customer, which is the employers who
pay commission for connecting them with talent. Those who survive in the
industry excel at making that connection with the employer. They learn the
fine art of kissing up to executives and hiring managers while performing the
bureaucratic gymnastics required by HR. That's important, but those who really
understand the needs of talent can add more value by bringing better hires to
employers and foster deeper relationships. Sadly, many recruiters are too
short-sighted to see that.

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btilly
I've tried working with recruiters in the past. They have never found me a job
that was better than the ones I found on my own.

Am I unusual in this?

~~~
alaithea
During my last job search (this past summer), I was contacted by several
recruiters. I had phone interviews with several, and an in-person interview
with one. I found them to be unhelpful and a waste of time at best, and
demeaning and condescending at worst. They treated me like fodder, and were
obsessed with keyword and "years of experience with X" matching.

In my entire programming career so far, I have always been hired by principals
who valued my intelligence and problem-solving ability over my experience with
particular languages or frameworks (e.g. I always get hired to do something
I've never exactly done before -- though not intentionally).

I plan to never work with a recruiter again, since their approach is
completely orthogonal to mine. I suppose the author's point about higher-
level/management positions might be worth considering, so I might reconsider
my position on recruiters if/when I cross that career bridge.

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bavcyc
I've found 2 recruiters who seem to be good; one enabled an interview while
the other never did obtain me an interview. On the bad side; I've had
recruiters try to intimidate me to acquire information, contact me at work
despite my limiting information to prevent this and best of all 'we need your
resume in a specific format before we can help you.' Not to mention my
favorite, this job promises this and when you interview you find out that it
doesn't.

A good recruiter will have contacts that can help you but it probably helps
you more to develop the marketing skills yourself. Know how to format your
resume to obtain the interview along with writing a good cover letter. Develop
your professional contacts.

Several friends, a.k.a. professional colleagues, and I have concluded that
very rarely will recruiters add value to the job search process for the
candidate but they do help HR folks who have no idea how to find people.

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larsberg
Some points in this article could use elaboration:

\- If you have already contacted a company (even just blind-sent your resume
to their HR department and gotten no response), the recruiter generally will
not be able to get a commission on your behalf, and will not use their
contacts to get you in there

\- Recruiters' pay is usually contingent on you staying at the job for 3-6
months. This encourages recruiters to get you jobs doing work you have already
proven yourself able to do. Whereas many tech job searchers are looking for a
new stretch job with greater responsibilities. This is a fundamental
incompatibility in goals you'll have to deal with.

