
Ask HN: Survey – Would You Use a Recruiter? Yes/No - mrburton
I&#x27;m very curious to whether other engineers would use a recruiter and understand the ratio. As you can see, I&#x27;m very passionate about this space and I&#x27;ve been asking the Hacker News Community a lot of questions to do research :)
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scarface74
I exclusively use recruiters. My most important filter of whether I should
waste my time pursuing a job lead is salary. You hardly ever see salary posted
with job posts. I can always find out salary when talking to a recruiter.

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olalonde
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newpoll](https://news.ycombinator.com/newpoll)

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mrburton
"Sorry, you need over 200 karma to create a poll." I still have more points to
go :)

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bsdpunk
No. I try very hard not to use a recruiter, I have done a lot of contract jobs
and worked at a few short lived startups. All and all this means I am in the
job market a lot. And I find that recruiters take up 80% of my time, and get
me 20% of my jobs.

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arcanus
I would and have. I've also used then to fill positions I've got open at my
current employer. But in either case you need to have a clear idea of what you
are getting.

If you are looking, then are going to try to sell you the positions they have.
This can open doors and of course, it's free. But they will never tell you not
to take a position.

If you are using a recruiter for a position you have, they want you to hire
someone, regardless of how well that person will perform.

Nevertheless, they can automate key parts of looking for a position.

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tixocloud
I have used recruiters in the past and have gone direct as well. I've had good
experiences with recruiters especially the ones who are knowledgeable.

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calciphus
Generally no. Most companies I've worked at have a no recruiter policy, and
many recruiters seem to overstate the relationship they have with a company.
On the receiving end, random recruiters using a candidate as a sales pitch
often "apply" on the candidates behalf only to discover we won't pay their
fees and so they don't tell the client about the position.

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thecolorblue
Yes.

Most of the time if a recruiter does not come to me with a job in mind, it
does not work out. I have had lunches with a lot of recruiters who just want
to network and none of them have come back to me with an opportunity. The
times working with a recruiter has worked, the recruiter had a job already
setup, found me online or through my network, and made the connection that
way.

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tonyedgecombe
Never have, even when I was contracting I was able to find plenty of work
through existing contacts and reputation.

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le-mark
Out of my last five jobs:

Recruiter: 3

Network: 1

Direct: 1

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kapauldo
To hire?

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bogomipz
no

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myroon5
Vote on answers:

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myroon5
no

