Why are so many IT recruiters F'en idiots?

[stitch]

And.........GO

[CYCLE_MONKEY]

Are they? Terri certainly isn't.

[Ricky]

A lot just don't know enough about the field they're searching in.

[DevilsTonic]

The ones I've dealt with in the past have been great.

[Devaclis]

I have dealt with them for 20 years. I have only met 1 or 2 who were dolts. The rest have been pretty good.

[salsashark]

Maybe because people expect IT Recruiters to work miracles...

Just because you used Frontpage/Dreamweaver in college/high school doesn't mean you're a web developer now.

[Spiderman]

Just because you used Frontpage/Dreamweaver in college/high school doesn't mean you're a web developer now.

I never used Frontpage or Dreamweaver... does that mean I AM a web developer now?

[salsashark]

^^ Why not... I'm no recruiter

[64BonnieLass]

Thank you Frank. That was thoughtful.

Stitch, just like every other industry or job title you can think of, there are good and there are not so good.

I can't really answer your question however, as you didn't indicate your particular gripe.

Hopefully, whatever your experience has been, you won't generalize on all recruiters. There are those of us who truely try to make an effort and help change other's lives in a positive way - at least to the best of our ability.

Conversely, there are job seekers who need to help us help them. Plenty of retards on the other side of the fence. Just sayin'.

If there is something I can help explain, I surely will help out.

[CYCLE_MONKEY]

Thank you Frank. That was thoughtful.

Stitch, just like every other industry or job title you can think of, there are good and there are not so good.

I can't really answer your question however, as you didn't indicate your particular gripe.

Hopefully, whatever your experience has been, you won't generalize on all recruiters. There are those of us who truely try to make an effort and help change other's lives in a positive way - at least to the best of our ability.

Conversely, there are job seekers who need to help us help them. Plenty of retards on the other side of the fence. Just sayin'.

If there is something I can help explain, I surely will help out.

I got yer back darlin'!

[stitch]

The barriers to entry for the IT recruiting industry are so low to be almost nonexistent. While there may be some small percentage of IT recruiters who are capable in some way, my experience has been poor at best. I've had to deal with them on both sides of the fence. As both a job seeker and a hiring manager. I have been in IT since the early 90s with steady progression up the food chain to even holding a Chief Technology officer position. So I know how the hiring process works. I studied advance engineering in collage and have a few software patents to my credit so I am not an idiot by "most standards".

I left the IT industry 2 years ago for a startup in a different industry. That didn't work out so now I am getting back in. Seems nothing has changed. It almost seems like it has gotten worse since the economy tanked.

Some of the highlights of my experiences with IT recruiters are as follows;

One was looking for a PM with agile experience. My resume is covered with Scrum, XP and RUP (yes I know there is some debate about RUP being an Agile method). The recruiter I spoke with was only looking for the term "Agile" on my resume and could not understand that Scrum for example is a "Agile" methodology for software development. She actually wanted me to change my resume to "Agile" everywhere it said Scrum, XP and RUP.

Another wanted me to come meet with her before I went to an interview to make sure my "Tie was straight". She was 45 minutes in the other direction on the same highway making my commute to let her "Adjust my tie" an hour and a half. This was supposed to be a quick interview during my one hour lunch from work. Would not "Let" me go to the interview until she had approved of my appearance. Would not leave her office to meet me half way because she had a busy schedule.

Another sent me a document on how to act and dress during the interview (Things like don't chew gum, wear a suit, don't pick my nose) and a list of questions to ask during the interview (None of which had anything to do with the job, wanted me to ask the hiring manager about his hobbies and get a list of contacts at the company or leads).

Another met me for a lunch interview at a sushi place, drank too much sake, clearly drunk tried to drive away, and hit a car leaving the parking lot. Yes I tried to stop her and was on the phone with 911 when she crashed. Nothing short of assault was going to keep her from getting in the car because "she had another lunch meeting", when I physically tried to take the keys from her she pulled a stun gun on me. Got to go testify at her DUI trial. That was fun. She spent a ton on a lawyer who did squat for her.

Another had me take some computerized tests to ensure I had the skills for the job. I was expecting C or PHP programming tests. Nope, got a rudimentary math and English test, then a strange multiple choice test on American customs at work (things like how to greet your boss, how to answer the phone, how to shake hands).

Another offered to take me to lunch, racked up a huge bill and "forgot his wallet". Promised to pay me back that afternoon then never returned my phone calls. Never did get my money back.

Another had me come in four times to interview with their staff in one week, each time telling me I was meeting with someone with hiring authority. The company was over an hour away (2 hours round trip). Come to find out they have a process of interviewing candidates at least 3 times by three different people before they will submit resumes to a potential hiring company. Didn't validate the parking ($5 an hour). Wanted to ensure commitment to the job. Each time I was told we need you to meet with one more person before we make the final decision. Turns out the job description was bogus. They weren't in business long.

Another company wanted me to sign a contract giving them exclusivity in finding me a job for 6 months. If I tried to find a job on my own during those six months I would owe them 6 months of my salary should I be hired "ANYWHERE". And no they were not going to pay me while I was "on the bench" for up to 6 months.

A couple have sent me to the wrong job interview.

How about the 100s of emails I get every week from someone in India (I assume India because of the Indian names) who wants me to start tomorrow on a 6 months contract 1000 miles away (Fl, NY, Seattle, etc) for 25 an hour on a entry level Database admin or programmer project.

Another was a recently divorced woman who latched on to me "Because I was a nice guy". Started to call me every day and we went on a few "dates". She was actually pretty cute until I found out the kids she was claiming were "Her sisters who was in drug rehab" were actually hers and she didn't want anyone to know that she had kids. She had them call her "Aunt". That's got to mess with a kids head....When I confronted her she had a "nervous breakdown" at work and had to be rushed to the hospital.

And the piece de resistance! I had a recruiter once try to submit my own resume to me as a potential candidate. I was leaving a company and agreed to hire and train my replacement. I was a manager at the company and had hire and fire responsibilities. The company had a policy of using outside recruiting (HR department was useless but well paid). I had been looking to leave for about 6 months and had my resume out there. This total numb nut calls me up and says I have the perfect person for you. Proceeds to tell me all about me (I didn't know it at the time as I had not seen the resume). It sounded great because the description was exactly what we were looking for. I had basically just described myself for the job description. I told numb nuts to send me the resume and lets set up a interview. I got a voice mail from him on my cell about half an hour later telling me what a great position he found for me and to call him right away. I was in a meeting and had not looked at the resume yet. Putting two and two together, I quickly took a moment to review the resume and found that he had doctored up "MY" resume to their format removing any identifying information and sent it over to me (no wonder this guy sounded so great, IT WAS ME!). Had a blast fucking with this guy when I had him and his boss come meet with me.

I could go on and on....

[WolFeYeZ]

I read your post Stitch and burst into laughter in the middle of my finance class. Got many shitty glares from students and the professor

I hate you for being so funny.

[Ricky]

Man, if I ever had a recruiter try to teach me life lessons, I'd go ballistic.

However, now I know a great way to get some free lunch!

[stitch]

I read your post Stitch and burst into laughter in the middle of my finance class. Got many shitty glares from students and the professor

I hate you for being so funny.

Oh how I wish I was being funny......

[Spiderman]

^^ Why not... I'm no recruiter

Funny thing (at least I think it's funny) is... I AM a web developer. I've just never used Frontpage or Dreamweaver... well, I used Frontpage once or twice (back when it first came out), but only to ascertain that it sucked.

[gtn]

Have you considered the possibility you are contaminated with anti-bogons? This could explain why you are attracting others with obviously high bogon flux, and why some of them experienced self annihilation.

[stitch]

Have you considered the possibility you are contaminated with anti-bogons? This could explain why you are attracting others with obviously high bogon flux, and why some of them experienced self annihilation.

I did get tested for my anti-bogon levels. The results were normal unfortunately. But my awesomite levels were exceptionally high. That might explain why some experienced higher incidents of nullification in proximity. My awesomite levels were so over powering that it affected their internal balance leading to increased events of bogoness. But I got the doctor to give me a prescript for E.G.O. It makes my skin shine a bit but leaves me with high levels of photonic material which is good. I think I get three times the level of photonic per the same level of positronium. This should cancel out potential bogons at a more distant rate allowing me to avoid these incidents at an increased efficiency. We seem to have a high rate of bogon here in Denver. I suspect it is due to the altitude and lower air pressure. Could also be our closer proximity to the Sun. All three can effect one's ability to properly format coherent thought. But clearly from your post you had some experience with that. Your bogon levels are probably pretty high. You might want to see someone about that.

[TurboGizzmo]

Have recruiters always been around? (aside from military)

When I was in my business course it was all about marketing yourself and selling yourself and pounding the pavement and job hunting....never anything about a recruiter or picking the right recruiter.

[stitch]

Have recruiters always been around?

They have been around for as long as I have been in IT (1989). My experience is most HR departments are so lazy they have allowed recruiters to become the front line for resume submittals. In my experience "Most" IT type companies outsource their resume collection process. If you don't know someone already in the organization usually you have to work through a recruiter to get submitted for a position. The claim is that outsourcing is cheaper than doing it in house. Even when hiring consultants. Consultants makes some sense, since they are listed as an expense rather than overhead for tax purposes. But employees are a completely different matter. And reviewing resumes to hire for employees is a whole nother ball of wax.

Speaking of HR, I was involved in a discussion once during a Sr. Staff meeting where the head of HR was trying to show how outsourcing resume collection was cheaper. I ran the numbers for her and blew holes in her "Theory" and showed it actually cost us two or three times as much or more for us to outsource than use our internal HR staff to review resumes. She claimed her staff was overwhelmed with reviewing resumes. Then while we were sitting there I went online to our web trends to see how often the HR staff looked at the company website resume submittal system (We had static IPs and I could see what everyone was doing based on an IP report. They were rarely (in some cases never) going online to look at submittals to jobs posted. Lots of not-business related web surfing though. In many cases they were not even posting jobs online on our website. It ended very messy for her. She tried to make my life a living hell after that.

[rforsythe]

Best. job. thread. ever.

And yeah, I've dealt with the shitty recruiters over the years (none quite that bad) and the ones who just scan for keywords without having any clue what they are filling. But have also worked with some great ones. I think some of it has to do with one's specialties however, since many recruiters don't have any grasp on what I do, so companies gravitate towards the ones that do (the type of companies I'd choose to work for, anyway).

[stitch]

Today's moron....
Called about a job for a PM that must have Linux experience. Apache is all over my resume (as well as Linux specifically). When I pointed this out to her she asked me to add it to each job I had listed. Many of these jobs had Unix listed. When I tried to explain to her the similarities of Unix and Linux it fell on deaf (or dumb) ears. So I had to go in and add Linux next to everywhere it said Unix. And people wonder why I tried to get out of IT.

[Captain Obvious]

Stitch, I thought of you and this thread yesterday. Wednesday got a call from a headhunter, Thur had a intro interview with the headhunter to discuss the position and my background. It was clear she was reading, reviewing a script on the responses from me, knowledgeable due to recruiting, not form working in the field. She set me up with a secondary interview with a guy on Friday from her org. He and I spoke and it was clear he had a background in IT based on our conversation about the hiring company and his responses/discussion to my responses.

All that to say, sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. Can't expect them to have a user level knowledge in all things IT related. But that they had me speak to someone internally to actually evaluate my experience and provide a true review of my skills matching the job needs was a very good step in the process, I wish more would do that vs just trying to submit as many candidates as possible and see if any actually get hired.

[fasterlaster]

Putting two and two together, I quickly took a moment to review the resume and found that he had doctored up "MY" resume to their format removing any identifying information and sent it over to me (no wonder this guy sounded so great, IT WAS ME!).

You should have just worked that to your advantage. Hire the new (you) then just stay on without leaving. Get double the salary

[stitch]

I just spoke with a recruiter who wanted to wait till Monday to schedule an interview in the off chance he would not be here come tomorrow. He did not want to schedule something in case he was out due to the rapture. Said he would call me back on Monday to schedule. I shit you not. At first I thought this was a joke but no this was a real conversation. The guy was very serious and promised to pray for my soul as I hung up crying from laughing so hard. How do I keep finding these idiots.