Why are so many IT recruiters F'en idiots?

[LivingPools]

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.

I have to go with the anti-bogon theory somebody else mentioned.

Really enjoyed reading your posts. I'm checking out the IT job market myself, and you've helped me set the low bar on expectations

[TFOGGuys]

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.

No worries: Only those free of sin will be swept up in the Rapture...he's an IT recruiter, therefore cannot possibly meet the requirements.

[stitch]

No worries: Only those free of sin will be swept up in the Rapture...he's an IT recruiter, therefore cannot possibly meet the requirements.

[64BonnieLass]

Stitch:
I'm really torn here. I have thought about your post on this topic extensively, given it's what I have done for the past 12 years.

I can't tell if you are bullshitting for attention. If you are a smart guy who actually has shitty luck, or if you are a fucking idiot.

I just can't tell.

I need to put together a word.doc and cut and paste cause this forum won't let me without timing me out.

Jesus, are you serious? This pisses me off huge. More to come.

[64BonnieLass]

Ha! Better yet, call me, I'll PM you my number and figure it out very quickly. If nothing else, at least I can educate you on our world, and why assholes are assholes. Best deal I can offer.

If there is an honest IT recruiter in this world...it's me. Bring it!!

PM incoming!

[64BonnieLass]

BTW, as an afterthought:

I am more than happy to answer any questions from anyone.

I can't tell you how may people I have helped with resumes, or interviewing, or just common mistakes.

I'm not perfect, nor do I pretend to hold the answer for everyone in all the various industries, but I'm here for help.

I have been a member of CSC for many years. I'm a common person who rides. But if I can help, I sure will! And I think most people who know me here would say I do help as a matter of practice.

I just can't fix it all, ya know. Some of it relies on the job seeker too.

If you want my help, fine! But expect changes and honesty, because as great as you think your shit is, it probably isn't! I do it every day.

[stitch]

Stitch:
I'm really torn here. I have thought about your post on this topic extensively, given it's what I have done for the past 12 years.

I can't tell if you are bullshitting for attention. If you are a smart guy who actually has shitty luck, or if you are a fucking idiot.

I just can't tell.

I need to put together a word.doc and cut and paste cause this forum won't let me without timing me out.

Jesus, are you serious? This pisses me off huge. More to come.

Terri,
We've spoken. See the PM I just sent you. Not a troll. Probably just bad luck as you said. Or maybe ninety some odd percent of IT recruiters are "Fucking idiots". Present company excluded of course.

[64BonnieLass]

So here is what I don't think most people get about recruiters:

We are hired by X company to find a contractor to meet Y need.
We are also hired by (sometimes shit) corporations who want our skll set.
As a recruiter of 11 years, I refuse to work for certain "shops" who push their recruiters for crap. "it's called throwing shit against a wall"
The other thing that most people need to know is that there are "shops" who make their recruiters have a cerain amount of submittals and statistics to even stay in their job. Therefore, recruiters in those shops will do anything, I mean "anything" to make their "nut", so that they can have a job. It's pathetic. And that is how they are paid. So lots of shops will just throw shit against a wall to see "what sticks".

It's unfair. Go ahead and thank indian corps who love to fuck around with both candidates and the companies they "pretend" to represent.

And I won't do it.

[stitch]

I get that. If you read back in the thread you'll see I have held management positions and hired recruiters regularly. Most of the them are shit for the reasons stated. There are a few who are competent but far far FAR few of them.

The problem is often as you point out that you are hired to find someone with "Y" skills. So you would think, a hired recruiter would take the time to do a little research on that skill and appropriate terminology to go with it before just picking up the phone to speak with someone who is knowledgeable about "Y" skill. Or better yet take the time to actually review a resume before calling someone to discuss it.

Not picking on you Terri. Only referring to others over the past that I have had the extreme pleasure of adding as chapters to my future book entitled "What happens when morons breed" or "Making the case for retroactive abortion".

[stitch]

Terri,
Don't try to defend this industry. Not because you are a bad person. I am sure you are not, but becuase there are so many idiots in it. You will have to defend the very people you just pointed out were idiots. You are all lumped together. It's a loosing battle and not worth your time to defend. Best bet is to do the best job you can and so the small group of people you help will be loyal to you and come back again and again becuase you were different.

There are idiots in all industies and walks of life. This one in my experiance just seems to have a higher percentage than others. We have them on the IT side too.

[64BonnieLass]

Stitch,
We as recruiters aren't a perfect breed of cat.
We have 25 req's from 10 companies who all want "the perfect candiate". We are slammed!


However, the BS you know (not from me hopefully) is a result of our industry.

I should close this by saying: I'm sorry I can't get you a job. If I can, I will.

Its all I can do. I am one person,

[TFOGGuys]

Terri would be the exception to the generalization, a competent and conscientious recruiter, and a real sweetheart as well...

[stitch]

Terri,
Again I am not picking on you specifically just your chosen field of work. But I do want to point out that I responded to your PM and offer to help over two hours ago. In my response I reminded you of our conversations and offer to help a year ago. In your email you said "Wow, your resume looks fantastic. You have some great skills under your belt." You offered to help review my resume, we talked by phone once and you said you were going to look into a few things (my resume being one of them). I never heard back from you and you never returned my phone calls after our single phone conversation. So again no response to my recent PM. (Said in my best David Spade voice), SO I'm kind of seeing a pattern.

Hopefully you can see where this would be a negative experience for me. I know you are slammed and not expecting you to drop everything. But if you are going to offer to help try to follow through with it. Otherwise you just come across as someone trying to protect your public image. Saying one thing publicly and doing something different is the kind of thing I am referring too.

I'm not expecting you to get me a job, this thread is merely me venting about what I see in the industry and trying to make a little humor of it.

[64BonnieLass]

Sorry for the late reply Stitch. I read your PM and then the kids rolled in for a weekend of chaos so I couldn't respond.

I think you are right though. Too many bad eggs and I shouldn't defend myself or my industry. I know you weren't trying to pick on me.

I have tried to re-evaluate my chosen profession more than once. It's brought me to tears at times. Then from time to time, I actually get to make a difference to somebody and their family, it feels good for about 30 seconds, and I get sucked back in.

Also sorry I didn't do a better job for you. ADHD at it's finest, and it's no excuse. Sorry Jack.

[stitch]

Sorry for the late reply Stitch. I read your PM and then the kids rolled in for a weekend of chaos so I couldn't respond.

I think you are right though. Too many bad eggs and I shouldn't defend myself or my industry. I know you weren't trying to pick on me.

I have tried to re-evaluate my chosen profession more than once. It's brought me to tears at times. Then from time to time, I actually get to make a difference to somebody and their family, it feels good for about 30 seconds, and I get sucked back in.

Also sorry I didn't do a better job for you. ADHD at it's finest, and it's no excuse. Sorry Jack.

This is why you (specifically) have the reputation you have. You try to go the extra mile. When you don't you try to make amends. That's worth a lot in my book. Hopefully we both will find some relief at some point.

[ian22]

Great reading on this thread....I agree that, generally speaking, IT recruiters suck. One of the worst I experienced called me at lunch time during the middle of the week...from India. His east Indian accent was so strong that I had no idea what he was saying, I can't imagine he was very good at his job. I recently spoke with a recruiter from San Diego, a job I'd have been perfect for except some of my qualifications have expired. Anyway, I asked him how much it was paying and it was woefully inadequate pay for Southern California...I told him that and he agreed, replying they had a hard time filling this position because of the stringent requirements and low pay the organization was offering.
In general IT recruiters are notorious for mis-informing potential employees...basically saying whatever they need to say to get said candidate working asap. I can see that there is a distinct lack of trust between IT professionals and recruiters. It sucks but it is a product of companies/organizations trying to save a buck. It truly is hard to find good help these days...that statement is more true than ever today.

[stitch]

The Zombie uprising has already come and it is IT recruiters. Got a call from another idiot today. Looking for someone to lead a LAMP project. Thought I would be a great fit but didn't see "LAMP" anywhere on my resume. I pointed out Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP all over my resume. Couldn't seem to grasp the concept of what "LAMP" stood for. So why the fuck did he call me?

Last week I had another encounter with the undead. Got a call about a position in the springs for a windows server admin. Something I have some experience with but not a lot. I could do the job in a pinch if I was a last resort as I have a lot of server management experience but no "official" training (some certs from 100 years ago). But I wouldn't hire me for the position. I am not even close to being competitive. I told the guy so. But he kept pushing saying I was a perfect fit. I need a job so I told the guy "Look send my resume over to the client and see what they think" Phone goes quiet for a second and he tells me "We don't submit to clients until we meet you in person." Then he actually asks me if I can be there in the next hour to interview? Like we have nothing better to do than drop everything to go running an hour away to interview for a position we know we are not a fit for. Didn't want to waste the gas and told him so.

And the coup de grâce, I was interviewing for a awesome position as a project director. I am 5 interviews into the process. I was supposed to hear about next steps last Tuesday. I sent an email to the recruiter asking for an update on Wed. I get back a message saying the position is on hold for a month. Over the weekend I run into a buddy who was also being considered for the position. We actually originally met in the recruiters waiting room a little over a month ago and had a lot in common. The recruiter had double booked us accidently (another peeve of mine) and I drew the short straw having to wait. Like I have nothing better to do than wait for 45 minutes (I timed it) and read People Magazine, this after the half hour in the waiting room "To be sure I am on time". Then spend another hour while the recruiter tells me how great his company is but learn very little about the hiring company or the position because the official job description still hasn't been written yet. So anyway my buddy tells me he got the job and knew for a week. What the heck is the recruiter thinking telling me it's on hold? Why not just say "We chose someone else".

I wish I was making up this stuff for attention, sadly I am not. Not looking for a response other than fellow firing squad members when the revolution comes.

[Ghost]

It's not just IT, it's HR and their sub-contracted Kelly Service drones who have no idea WTF they're doing or how to hire real talent.

Case in point: I get through 4 pre-screening interviews, get the in-person with company X. The interview takes 90 minutes, everything goes great, and I go home being told someone will follow up within the week. Nearly one month passes and I get an email stating that they made a mistake and the position was for internal hires only...So, how the **** did I get that far along and no one "noticed" I wasn't a current employee?

In short, I'll join your squad as long as we're equal-opportunity and not just limited to IT

[stitch]

You're IN! I've got a score to settle in a few other industries as well.

[Ghost]

You're IN! I've got a score to settle in a few other industries as well.

Sweet.

[stitch]

Have not posted to this thread in a while. Been working too much.

Today I am sitting in a meeting and my blackberry starts going off notifying me of an email. I look down at it and my inbox is full of the same message over and over again. As I quickly try to mute my phone I realize some dipshit has spammed the hell out of my email. After the meeting is over I go back to my desk, log in to gmail and see over 2000 repeated messages with an attached word doc somewhere around 1 meg in size (love Gmail) and still more coming in. Yep you heard right, inside of roughly 1/2 an hour I got over 2 gigs worth of spam. Hey I work in IT, I understand sometimes things go wrong. No big deal, guy probably doesn't know there is a problem.

I contact the recruiter to see if he can do something about it. So he gets all snippy with me over the phone saying it isn't his problem my mail box is full of his spam. No apology, no "Sorry about that, I'll look into it right away". Just a "fuck you, it's not my problem". His actual words. I hung up on him.

So about an hour later I get a call back from the guy. He checked in with his "IT" department and they said it isn't their problem. Thankfully the emails had stopped already so I didn't push the issue (probably google flagged his server as a spammer and now he is hopefully on every blacklist out there).

Then the dipshit asked me what I thought of the job description........

[dm_gsxr]

My problem is with all the offers for 6 month positions in New Jersey for $20 an hour part time.

Did you even look at my resume???

Add in the "position is for $55 an hour" changed to "it's $45 and hour, is that ok?" and changed to "it's actually $25 an hour, is that ok?"

Bait and switch.

Carl