
Ask HN: What is your experience with third party recruiters? - jcroll
The more I work with them the more they seem like used car salesmen: stupid and sleazy. I&#x27;ve honestly not much respect for them at this point.
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twunde
I've had some good luck with third-party recruiters. There are some truly
excellent recruiters, often running their own boutique firms, but the quality
definitely varies and frankly a good number of firms do feel like a used car
shop. For me, the purpose of 3rd-party recruiters is to inform me of new
opportunities within my salary range and to get me an interview (if you're
into contract work, they can often help with that). When I use 3rd-party
recruiters, I have a few guidelines in place that I use to ensure I have a
successful experience. 1) If a recruiter asks that you take time off work and
come in to their office then they better deliver multiple interviews or else
the firm gets blacklisted (Goodbye Talener and Robert Half NYC), 2) If a firm
is sending you completely unrelated jobs outside your region they get
blacklisted (bye CyberCoders), 3) If a recruiting company ghosts you they get
blacklisted (Goodbye appcoresolutions). Firms that are blacklisted, I won't
work with EVER. 4) Recruiters are there to get you the interview with
companies that fit your requirements. I'm ok with the used car salesmen
schtick as long as you get me interviews with companies.

Some things that I take to be a good sign that I should work with a recruiter:
they want to discuss what you want AND then actually use those notes. One of
my first jobs came about because a recruiter called me, talked about what I
wanted and then called me back 3 months later when he had an open req that fit
my profile. Those I value.

~~~
twunde
If you're doing the hiring, then what you're looking for in a 3rd-party
recruiter is really one thing: can they provide qualified candidates to you
without you needing to do much work or hand holding. They should be doing
basic filtering for skill level, relevant skills and location. Preference is
given to companies that can find people quickly, that can recruit diverse
candidates, or that can do a good quality tech screen (Triplebyte)

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thrownaway954
i weed them out by asking the following:

what is the name and location of the company? is the position permanent,
contract or remote? what is the salary / hourly rate? what are the benefits
(if any)?

if they are not willing to answer those simple questions, then they aren't
worth your time.

these companies are a dime a dozen. you can also find the same opportunity
advertised by 10 different companies so don't think that by not entertaining
one of these companies you will be missing out on the opportunity. I think
that is why candidates waste their time with the scrupulous ones... they fear
that if they don't bow to these companies, they won't get the job... not true
at all.

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muzani
They have a lot of work. They play the numbers game. They tend to drop the
ball a lot.

Honestly, they're also as useful as used car salesmen as well. It's a dirty
job. I seriously considered doing it before, but couldn't really cope with the
environment.

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pmullins
I just landed a great job via a third party recruiter. She was professional,
courteous, and most of all, very good at her job. An extremely positive
experience overall. Don't give up!

