6 reasons to hate recruiters, 3 ways to get revenge and 1 way to keep everyone happy
Karen Mattonen shared an interesting post with me the other day and after reading it, I had to share it. Here are the highlights…
6 Reasons to Hate Recruiters
1. Managers hate recruiters because they are after their best people (and it took forever to get the team just right.)
2. Ego-geeks hate having to use a recruiter to find work because (they feel) that it is an admission of weakness. (After all, shouldn’t all companies be beating down their door to hire them?)
3. Clients hate recruiters because there is (at times) the perception that recruiters are merely slinging resumes with the hope that something will stick to the wall.
4. Candidates hate recruiters who treat them like a piece of meat; promising the world, then dropping them like a bad habit when/if the client is not interested.
5. Geeks hate recruiters who think they are qualified for a particular role when they are (obviously) not. (Its called “reading the resume people.”)
6. Geeks hate recruiters who submit their resumes to companies they worked at previously (or anywhere else, but especially that) without their permission. (Again, it goes back to reading the resume.)
3 Ways to Get Revenge on Recruiters
1. When a (search firm) calls, tell them your current company is doing a huge project and you are looking for a firm, then once you get them excited, do not return any of their phone calls or voicemails.
2. If a (search firm) is just plain rude, call them once you get established in a new position and have them submit resumes for a position in which you are the hiring manager; make the candidate screening extrememly difficult and intentionally not hire anyone represented by that agency.
3. When you are at the point of being hired, raise your rates (or salary expectations) to an unreasonable level and then walk away once the last-minute demand is not met.
1 Way to Keep Everyone Happy
Do unto others as you would have them do onto you.
Read: Why Do Geeks Hate Recruiters?
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Comments
Jim,
Stumbled. This was great - you just made my day. Recruiters can be very useful, but the incentives in the relationship are very off. The goal for them currently is to just get you in somewhere, anywhere, even at the cost of lying to the hiring company about you and your qualifications.
Jim,
Just another lovely one from you.
Self explanatory | I guess pretty clear to few of the many overnight recruiter.
Pinny is right, the incentives in the relationship should not or never be over looked…
Lads I hope we all are listening!!!
S.G
I hate recruiters!! The recruiters that call me 7 times a day with “Oh, just one more thing. Would you… uh… uh…. oh, I remember, you need to talk to this other guy Joe smith. He’s our account manager. He’ll call you later”. WTF?!?!
One recruiting company insists that they meet me at the interview and introduce me to the hiring manager. I went to the first interview they set up, and the hiring manager flat out asks the recruiter “You’re not sitting in on the interview, are you?” Do you know how bad that made me look?? I looked like I needed my hand held. Like I’m incompetent. That I’m so inept that I can’t possibly make it through an interview without these guys showing up to make sure I did it right. I thought it was a fluke. I thought, “They can’t possibly do this every single time, right?” Next interview I have that they set up I’m told that someone from the recruiting company will meet me there. I tell them no. I do NOT, under any circumstances want them to meet me there. Do NOT do this. I get an email later telling me that so and so will be at the front of the building 15 minutes before my interview to walk me in. Not only are they directly going against something I SPECIFICALLY asked them not to do, they’re also making me look like I’m a poser. You do NOT walk a programmer into an interview. You don’t do it. It’s all about confidence, and skill. First impressions are critical. If the recruiter is a dweeby idiot, then *I* look bad. This is MY interview… I can sure as hell handle myself without needing my hand held.
I’m never using a recruiter again. I get more interviews on my own then through any recruiting service. And it’s for positions that actually MATCH my skills.
Recruiters don’t know VB from C++.
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