

Ask HN: Have you transitioned from development to recruiting? - wtracy

If so, how did it work out?<p>I'm considering alternatives to my career in software development for the simple reason that there is no such thing as a part-time programming job (consulting doesn't count). I'm not in a hurry to become a bike messenger, so I'm looking to see if there's a career where I could leverage my software background.<p>Recruiting is an obvious choice, since there's a dearth of recruiters who really understand the software industry. Does anyone have any other suggestions?
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leeny
I am an engineer-turned-recruiter and currently head up tech recruiting at
TrialPay in Palo Alto.

There is definitely a dearth of recruiters out there who understand this
industry, and if you're able to filter candidates, that is a huge asset. On
the other hand, there is a lot more to recruiting than figuring out if a
candidate can reverse a linked list etc -- you have to be able to consistently
bring good people in, figure out how to promote your company's brand (if
you're in-house), and keep working on ways to bridge the gap between
recruiters and engineers, many of whom are jaded by several suboptimal
recruiter interactions.

If you'd like to chat, drop me a line: aline@alinelerner.com

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iamdave
I did breifly, for a healthcare IT firm.

It was maddening, but for purely anecdotal reasons. It did not turn me off at
all to recruiting, because I think when done well, with the right approach and
attitude it can be a great boon to other fields.

That being said, I think focusing in on software recruiting and maybe delve a
little deeper and zero in on language recruiting (for example South Carolina
is on a full-out sprint to hire Java developers) you may have some luck.

As for recommendations, I definitely suggest checking out ere.net. Not a bad
recruiting site at all, up to date on all avenues of the industry.

