3 ms·

Why so many developers hate recruiters

4 points by quincyla 10y ago

quincyla 10y ago
Recruiters aren't all bad, but the vast majority you're likely to encounter in the wild are.
stephenr 10y ago
Recruiters, real estate agents, car salespeople, etc, in general seem to be people that have no actual skills and get by in life as a warm body that's generally accepted as a required party when two other parties have a supply/demand situation.
- lscore720 10y ago
  If you comb through HN threads related to recruiters, I promise you'll find less biased comments than mine, but I want to clear up your misconception. I'll grant you that most sales professions have a low barrier to entry, as they're commission-based (no harm in throwing as many rookies at the wall as possible and seeing who sticks). Therefore, everyone on the receiving end has been disappointed, frustrated, or angered by a salesperson at some point. On the flipside, this profession is the most pure form of Survival of the Fittest. The commission-based compensation structure actually forces people to either perform or starve (as opposed to other careers, where mediocrity is generally rewarded with salary and raises). Ultimately, the vast majority of salespeople rarely last more than a couple of years. That leaves you with higher performers, who clearly have essential skills to achieve success; it might not entail a technical understanding of data structures and design patterns, but they are skills that are essential to keeping the machine of our economy running. Not to toot my own horn, but just an example: I earned a degree in Accounting/Finance from a top 10 university and decided to drop out of an Ivy League MBA to pursue commission-based sales. To me, it's the most exhilerating, unpredictable, and (financially and emotionally) rewarding career. There's nothing more enjoyable than listening to my software engineering candidates from the very first contact to the acceptance of an offer. A career is an essential part of an individual's livelihood and it's incredibly satisfying to be a catalyst for positive change in one's life. All it takes is one positive experience, then hopefully you'll have a change of heart!
  - stephenr 10y ago
    > That leaves you with higher performers, who clearly have essential skills to achieve success The problem is that skill is usually deception, omission of information, or outright lying.
mpbm 10y ago
Seems like recruiting has the same basic problem as every other human-to-human matchmaking in that it is possible to identify potential, but not to predict the future. There are some advantages to employee-employer matchmaking in that the relationship is primarily based on money and there's a one-to-many pattern that repeats frequently. I didn't know that the spammy recruiters were literally stealing your identity to apply on your behalf. No wonder they're hated. Still, I wonder how low the response rate would have to drop before spam is no longer profitable. Seems like that industry runs reasonably well on extremely low response rates.
chrisbennet 10y ago
"Since they get paid based on your starting salary, they are inclined to help you negotiate as high a starting salary as possible." It isn't quite that simple. They get paid nothing if you don't get hired and thus aren't going to negotiate very hard for you and risk losing the placement. It's like the real estate situation where brokers won't keep a house on the market as long for a client as they will if selling there own house. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=17jO_w6f8Ck https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=17jO_w6f8Ck

4 points by quincyla 10y ago

Recruiters aren't all bad, but the vast majority you're likely to encounter in the wild are.

Recruiters, real estate agents, car salespeople, etc, in general seem to be people that have no actual skills and get by in life as a warm body that's generally accepted as a required party when two other parties have a supply/demand situation.

lscore720 10y ago
If you comb through HN threads related to recruiters, I promise you'll find less biased comments than mine, but I want to clear up your misconception. I'll grant you that most sales professions have a low barrier to entry, as they're commission-based (no harm in throwing as many rookies at the wall as possible and seeing who sticks). Therefore, everyone on the receiving end has been disappointed, frustrated, or angered by a salesperson at some point. On the flipside, this profession is the most pure form of Survival of the Fittest. The commission-based compensation structure actually forces people to either perform or starve (as opposed to other careers, where mediocrity is generally rewarded with salary and raises). Ultimately, the vast majority of salespeople rarely last more than a couple of years. That leaves you with higher performers, who clearly have essential skills to achieve success; it might not entail a technical understanding of data structures and design patterns, but they are skills that are essential to keeping the machine of our economy running. Not to toot my own horn, but just an example: I earned a degree in Accounting/Finance from a top 10 university and decided to drop out of an Ivy League MBA to pursue commission-based sales. To me, it's the most exhilerating, unpredictable, and (financially and emotionally) rewarding career. There's nothing more enjoyable than listening to my software engineering candidates from the very first contact to the acceptance of an offer. A career is an essential part of an individual's livelihood and it's incredibly satisfying to be a catalyst for positive change in one's life. All it takes is one positive experience, then hopefully you'll have a change of heart!
- stephenr 10y ago
  > That leaves you with higher performers, who clearly have essential skills to achieve success The problem is that skill is usually deception, omission of information, or outright lying.

mpbm 10y ago

Seems like recruiting has the same basic problem as every other human-to-human matchmaking in that it is possible to identify potential, but not to predict the future. There are some advantages to employee-employer matchmaking in that the relationship is primarily based on money and there's a one-to-many pattern that repeats frequently. I didn't know that the spammy recruiters were literally stealing your identity to apply on your behalf. No wonder they're hated. Still, I wonder how low the response rate would have to drop before spam is no longer profitable. Seems like that industry runs reasonably well on extremely low response rates.

chrisbennet 10y ago

"Since they get paid based on your starting salary, they are inclined to help you negotiate as high a starting salary as possible." It isn't quite that simple. They get paid nothing if you don't get hired and thus aren't going to negotiate very hard for you and risk losing the placement. It's like the real estate situation where brokers won't keep a house on the market as long for a client as they will if selling there own house. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=17jO_w6f8Ck https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=17jO_w6f8Ck