

Knyle style recruiting - broccolini
http://warpspire.com/posts/knyle-style-recruiting/

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jtreminio
Recruiters don't have a magic wand that tells them when new job postings have
posted - they get the same information in much the same way as you do (at
least the ones I've interacted with). They basically trawl job boards looking
for new jobs, then take that one post and throw it up on 10 other sites with
slightly reworded text so you can't do a simple Google search to find the
original post.

4 months ago when I was job hunting, I came across 6 separate postings from 6
different companies, all advertising for the exact same position. It was
incredibly aggravating, because this practice of reposting as many jobs as
possible has clogged legitimate job boards to the point that a clear majority
of job postings are from "recruiters". There's so much crap you have to wade
through to get to any real postings, and that's how they operate. These
companies basically impede your job search to the point that you are almost
forced to go with them - unless you have patience, a strong dislike for
recruiting agencies/agents, and maybe a network of professional acquaintances
you can announce your availability to.

Thankfully I have the first two (not the network :( ), and have so far steered
clear of recruiters when I find my jobs.

I don't want this to become a pages-long rant, so I'll make the rest short.

I do not know of job boards like Monster have methods to report spam from
recruiters. Not only email spam (that I can easily deal with), but phone spam,
especially when it's an Indian (it's ALWAYS Indian) recruiter calling me for
an AWESOME 3-month opportunity in New Jersey (I'm in Texas).

Most American recruiters I've dealt with have the unfortunate tendency to
overstate the salary range their hiring-mark is open to. One of the very few
interviews I've had thanks to a recruiter went downhill quickly after I was
told the salary range they were going for. This after 3 interviews that I
thought had gone splendidly. I was more than a little pissed, and so was the
hiring manager after I called him and explained to him exactly what had
happened.

Long story short: I no longer entertain any recruiters whatsoever (unless it's
an internal company recruiter, of course).

~~~
Woost
Some recruiters I've talked to do actually have a magic wand that tells them
when a new job posting has arrived. It's called a personal relationship with
the hiring manager at the company. IE: The hiring manager informs the
recruiter when they're looking for new talent. (we need 3 mid level QA, or
we're going to be looking for new developers next quarter) Rare, but it does
exist.

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sgdesign
If you're looking to hire a designer, you can also check out my project,
Folyo:

<http://folyo.me>

It's cheaper than most job boards, and much more effective (and I'll refund
you if you can't find someone). Plus I personally vetted all the designers on
the site.

~~~
jtreminio
Just went through your website. I really think it's a great idea! Personally-
vetted designers, even the idea of it, sounds like it would clear out a ton of
fluff. You're like an Apple App Store of designers :)

Now I wish there were something similar for web developers.

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tom_b
I'm a firm believer in the personal network. Finding qualified co-workers
through friendship networks has been productive for me and anecdotes I hear
usually say this is a good approach.

Asking about family when interviewing a candidate is inappropriate and
illegal. Don't.

Please do engage candidates about their current job, dream job, give that
open-ended "what have you been working on lately that is really interesting to
you" question that lets you find about what really drives them forward.

<edit>

we all should remember to skim the eeoc guidelines occasionally:

<http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/practices/index.cfm>

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dsr_
AFAICT, most recruiters are essentially independent matchmakers. That is, they
aren't working for the employer and they aren't working for the employee:
they're trying to reach out in both directions and bring people together.

The incentive is to cut in on a share of the new employee's income. OK, book
agents and talent agents do that too. The difference is that those agents have
a contract with the employee. It is in their interests to take on exactly as
much work as they can handle, and to do a good job on each transaction.
They're looking for repeat business in both directions -- getting jobs for
their clients, and addressing the needs of employers.

Recruiters, on the other hand, don't have a contractual relationship with the
talent. They have no incentive to do a good job for any given prospective
employee, and little or no hope of repeat business.

Meanwhile, the same network technologies that let you tell everyone what you
had for lunch today and let you look up the difference between "deciduas" and
"deciduous" in half a second will let you put your resume up and tell all your
friends that you're looking for a new job.

Facebook and Google+ don't have employment features yet, but it's more or less
certain that they'll be after LinkedIn's lunch in the next year or so.

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teamgrep
I'm having trouble understanding the disconnect between the complaints about
recruiters expressed here and my own motivation as a recruiter.

I wrote a longer response here: [http://blog.teamgrep.com/2011/11/08/response-
to-knyle-style-...](http://blog.teamgrep.com/2011/11/08/response-to-knyle-
style-recruiting.html)

I think it boils down to: what are you trying to achieve as a recruiter? For
me, it's about stepping outside my boundaries as a single engineer and my
curiosity about the greater startup community.

Perhaps these organizations aren't doing their due diligence when selecting a
recruiter?

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DTrejo
A few days ago I heard from a recruiter who had scraped all the emails from
the contributors list for a popular open source project.

They sent a mass email; it contained two typos.

Tip: this is a great way to make tons of people not like you, or the company
you purport to represent.

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saraid216
I was shocked when a recruiter email came into my inbox all excited about my
passion as demonstrated by a hobby project I had sitting in my Github account.
It was so unique that I not only forwarded their message to my network, but
also replied with a thank you.

The firm was Captain Recruiter. I don't know if that was a quirk of the
particular recruiter who contacted me, or a company policy, but it was very
cool.

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georgieporgie
_It’s vitally important that you sit down face to face and grab a beer with
every potential hire. Or sit down for dinner. Smoke a joint. I don’t care what
it is — you need to sit down in a relaxed environment and figure out what kind
of person they are._

I have an old Mormon friend who would be put off by this phrasing. Good guy,
very competent. Positively useless around beer.

As for the "hire someone you want to be around all day" angle, that's why I'm
putting personal interests back on my resume. I'm tired of pretending I'm a
soulless automaton, only to gingerly feel out the place when I get there for
the interview. From now on, there's a list of interests, and a note reading,
"if you wonder why this list is here, or if your first reaction is not, 'I
want to meet this guy!' please move on to other candidates." Maybe it will
come off as arrogant, but I just can't take the games anymore, and I want to
work with people that I actually like.

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shareme
thanks for the article as I knew about Forrst but not Dribbble.

