So I always hear people make fun of recruiters (myself included), or talk about awful experiences with them but I never really hear anyone say anything good.
I'm interested to hear if anyone has ever had a good experience with recruiters and would care to share. Maybe some tips on how to spot good recruiters. I think that could help many people in the future.
Top comments (5)
Sure, but not a lot. Most of the better ones end up working in the HR departments of big companies or head hunting more senior people, which is where the money is in this industry.
I usually apply the hollywood principle: "don't call me, I'll call you". A good way to filter out the trash is to discuss rates early on in the process. Good recruiters will figure this out by themselves and not bother you with poorly matched offers. A bad recruiter will insist on getting you on a rate that is 30-40% below what you are worth for a project that is a poor match to your profile. A good recruiter will know what you are worth and not bother you with the wrong projects. Reaching out with poorly matched offers and then wasting a lot of time on those is a sign of desperation and poor competence.
I've worked with contractors on many projects and they all consider recruiters a necessary evil. Some of these were genuinely good and some coming from the same recruiters were consistently good. So, these unicorn recruiters do exist but there are certainly a lot of bad recruiters out there and the worst ones are spamming linkedin continuously to "reach out" or whatever rubbish euphemism they use in the hope that you respond.
Figuring out what recruiters are used by companies you respect is a good way to cut through the BS. Seek them out and tell them what you are looking for in terms of project and rate and they will work for you effectively. Especially bigger companies tend to work with recruiters that deliver them what they need and you can judge a recruiter simply by the customers they work with. Many of these companies have exclusive relations with an agency or agencies and the only way in is via these agencies. A recruiter can only be as good as the companies they serve.
In any case, I prefer to find gigs via my network and this has yet to fail me. Most of the conversations with recruiters I've had never go anywhere and I tend to not put a lot of energy in them. The projects looking the hardest are exactly the ones I'm least eager to join and the most likely to engage with bad recruiters. A's hire A's and B's use recruiters to hire C's. I'm not a C and I hate working for B's.
Other red flags:
That makes a lot of sense. I suspect that the top companies would just fire the recruiter/recruiting agency if they were wasting their time. Also if the recruiter is a direct employee of a company that probably also helps.
A quick trick I use to filter out the terrible ones is to ask them for a copy of the Job Description. Copy and paste it into Google you you find the job on a job board đźš© (to me at least)
Another bad one but common (annoys me due to lack of trust all around) they ask for you to send a resume in Word format. In my experience they rip out your contact info and then send to potential employer. Why it annoys me is they generally pitch “I have a long relationship with the hiring manager” if that is true why do they not trust the hiring manager with your contact info?!?
All that said I more than 2x my salary working with recruiters but I did have to hold their feet to the fire multiple times.
It sure seems that way haha. I say this as I wake up to 2 recruiter messages...