
Ask HN: How do I contact a recruiter? - mattchue
I&#x27;ve seen sites like Hired or Triplebyte that are supposed to put you in touch with potential employers, but they seem more geared towards people with a lot of experience. I&#x27;m a new developer, mostly focusing on the front-end and I&#x27;m trying to get a feeling for where my skill level is at with respect to the rest of the field. I have a little less than two years experience. I&#x27;ve been struggling getting responses or meaningful feedback from the places I have applied to, but I believe a recruiter would be able to give me some insight as to what I need to be a more enticing candidate. What is the best way to find or get in touch with a recruiter?<p>Thank you!
======
JSeymourATL
> I've been struggling getting responses or meaningful feedback ...

Recruiters are NOT in the feedback business.

They lack brains, time, and professionalism. Plus, they're often afraid they
might say the wrong thing, better to say nothing at all.

What to do?

Jump on Linkedin's advanced search feature. Zero-in on interesting profiles in
your market of senior managers/executives you can possibly help. Ping them,
tell them you're seeking career advice. Ask for a 10-15 minute phone call. You
may be may surprised how responsive people are to your request. BTW, stay in
touch with those folks with updates. Start building your network.

~~~
mattchue
Cold calling? That's pretty old-school :) My sales background jives with that,
though, so I will investigate that option. Thus far, people in the industry
that I have been introduced to are extremely helpful, so this definitely
sounds like a good approach. It's more so hiring managers at companies I have
applied to that I am struggling to get feedback from, but I suppose that's not
exactly their job. Thanks for your response!

As a side note, why is it that recruiters seem to be strongly disliked by the
HN community? As a new developer, I figured a recruiter would probably be the
best person to talk to seeing as they handle a lot of hiring.

~~~
JSeymourATL
> why is it that recruiters seem to be strongly disliked by the HN community?

Chief complaints-- recruiters are spammers, individuals get treated like shark
bait, and general lack of tech savvy/business acumen. *Of course, there are
exceptions. Those guys can be GOLDEN. Always keep an eye-out for the
exceptional ones.

> Cold calling? That's pretty old-school :)

Try using Linkedin Inmail & email first to warm-up the call. Keep in mind--
hiring managers can be crazy busy people. Try a few times to show you're
serious. Make sure your message is buttoned-up.

------
mathattack
Get an introduction.

Go out and meet as many people as you can. (Meetups, Random drinking nights,
etc) Connect to everyone you meet on LinkedIn. Have someone introduce you to
the recruiter. Not everyone will do it, but enough people out there will be
helpful. The recruiter has many more resumes than jobs. A referral will almost
always cut the line. If you can the introduction to the hiring manager, even
better.

By recruiter I mean corporate recruiter, not headhunter. No need to get an
introduction to a headhunter. If you're a 100% match to a job, they're
helpful. Otherwise they're not.

Good luck!

~~~
mattchue
I would absolutely love to attend meetups as Ionic/AngularJS is my core
competency (which, as I understand, are big meetup topics), but I am currently
seeking a job in Seattle, and I live just far enough away where day tripping
on a weeknight doesn't mesh with my work schedule. This sounds like the most
direction option for a referral, so taking time away from my current job to
attend a meetup may be necessary. The 100% match is a great explanation, I
guess if they're getting paid to find people jobs faster money takes a higher
priority. Thanks so much for your response!

~~~
mathattack
Attend meetups where you are. You never know where the connection you make
tomorrow will have connections. I had a friend in India refer me to a job
halfway across the country.

Also... The best networkers give before they ask. Volunteer to help at the
meetups you attend.

~~~
mattchue
With JavaScript and AngularJS as my core competencies, I'm a little
intimidated to attend the only meetup I'm aware of in my town, which is for
PHP. Are devs of all kinds usually welcome at these sorts of events?

Great note about volunteering, that was something I hadn't otherwise
considered.

~~~
mathattack
Yes. Go and learn too. And help!

------
sebg
Rather than waste your time with a recruiter, do the following:

1) Figure out exciting companies/teams/individuals 2) Research what they are
doing 3) Reach out with a humble email almost like what you wrote, but make it
about their company and what you like about them. 4) Rinse, repeat

~~~
mattchue
Thanks for the response! I've been trying to do a bit of this with my cover
letter: the way I have it structured allows me to write a portion of it
specific to each application, and I've been including the cover letter even
when not required. It sounds like you are suggesting I ditch the letter
altogether for a more succinct note explaining why I am interested and why I
would be a good fit in situations where it is not required. I will definitely
give that a shot.

~~~
davismwfl
I have found that most technical people won't read a cover letter, HR will
generally, but if there is an HR then it isn't an issue. Instead, use a quick
2-3 sentence description why you are applying and why you think you are a good
fit.

And in the end it is a numbers game, as sebg pointed out, rinse and repeat.

I highly recommend customizing each note you send with your resume, don't ever
use a "form" style. In the past I would even sometimes adjust my resume to
highlight specific skills that are relevant, but that usually comes when you
have a lot of varied experience and you need to draw peoples attention to
specific skills.

~~~
mattchue
Noted. I imagine systems like Lever or proprietary hiring platforms usually
appear more with companies that have HR, whereas a few sentences for a
position that only accepts application materials via email will go a lot
further than a multi-section cover letter. I've been trying to stay away from
making my cover letter feel too much like a form, but because I'm shorter than
most on experience, I feel like it's important to explain myself a bit in the
cover letter, but, if it never gets read, it's kind of a moot point anyway.
I've thought about switching up my resume depending on the position, but I
don't really have a big collection of tools to showcase quite yet so I'm
thinking its current permutation is more or less complete.

Thanks so much for your feedback!

~~~
davismwfl
You might try two things, just as ideas -- even just try it on a few and see
if it changes responses any. Or send these to people who never got back to you
the first time.

1\. In your cover letter quickly describe one/two thing(s) that you have done
that is relevant and might open a dialog for further discussion. Or peak
someones interest at least.

2\. Try reformatting your resume to be less about chronological order and more
about skill set and tasks you have done. Use bullet points for libraries,
API's etc to help bulk it up and make it obvious what you have worked with.
Just don't ever lie.

Option #2 is what people with only a little or people with a lot of experience
generally use because chronology puts an age on our head. Personally, I have
seen that many people immediately calculate my age after seeing that I have
been in industry for quite a while. Sometimes it is funny to watch/hear, other
times it is just sad as you literally can watch their attitude flip, same goes
for when you are young too. It is just human nature to some degree.

~~~
mattchue
I'll definitely play around with this. I hadn't considered trying to turn my
cover letter into more of a factsheet, or at least formatting information
about technical skill. Really appreciate the specific suggestions you're
lending.

I am interested to get into a face-to-face conversation with a potential
employer, because I sound significantly older on paper and I'm curious how
that'll affect the interaction.

------
MalcolmDiggs
Well, to answer your question: Post your resume on a job board (dice,
ziprecruiter, monster, whatever), make sure the text is machine readable, and
your contact info is included. If you do that, the recruiters will come.

But as everyone else has mentioned, you probably don't wanna do that. The best
feedback comes directly from hiring managers themselves, not recruiters.
Recruiters aren't necessarily incentivized to paint you an accurate picture.

------
cblock811
Recruiters aren't going to give you a good idea of where you are. They largely
know clusters of keywords (Rails, Ruby, RSpec) from what I gathered. When I
last used recruiters I had ~1.5yrs experience and one said "I think you're at
a Senior Engineer level..." And I thought "You have no idea what you just
said".

Talk to a more senior engineer you know, or go get to know one to get this
feed back. They are more qualified.

~~~
mattchue
Thanks for your response. I'm sitting at about 1 1/2-2 years experience right
now. How did your job search go around the time you were talking to the
recruiter?

------
monroepe
If you want a bunch of recruiters to contact you. Put your resume on job
boards like monster.com, indeed, careerbuilder, etc. It might not be the best
way to get a job (as others have mentioned), but I guarantee recruiters will
contact you.

------
shofetim
Contact the recruiters directly. This is one:
[http://arrowsolutionsgroup.com/](http://arrowsolutionsgroup.com/) that I have
found pleasant to work with.

~~~
mattchue
I will definitely contact them. Thanks for the lead!

------
kasey_junk
If it were me I'd do stock fighter.io. patio11 & tptacek are the only
recruiters I'd bother with & the game is going to be Nx more interesting than
any other recruiter pipeline.

------
tmaly
create a linkedin profile, add your skills. The site is well used by
recruiters. A few should reach out to you.

~~~
mattchue
My LinkedIn has been updated for quite some time now, and I've yet to hear
from anybody. I have a little less than two years experience building SPAs in
Angular, and an Associate's degree, so perhaps my profile is not as enticing
as others.

~~~
brianwawok
Wow. I put 0 work into linkedin. Literally a list of jobs and techs. No
description on any of my jobs. I get 5 or so LinkedIn emails per week. No idea
what they search for though... a lot mention something like Java or Scala
which I have n my resume, but no reason people would not also be looking for
Angular or JavaScript...

~~~
mattchue
Hmmm, interesting! Do you have things related to Java or Scala in your
'Skills' section on LinkedIn? I have it listed under my experience, but I
didn't have it added to 'Skills', which might have been what it was. Oh well,
it's updated now. I think the rest of my profile does a pretty good job of
explaining my capabilities. Thanks for the response!

------
anilgulecha
(I work at Hackerrank)

You could give hackerrank.com/jobs a try -- if you qualify, recruiters are
required to respond within a few business days.

