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This. Recruiter's daily job is to talk to people to convince and pressure them for positions that are potentially undesirable (otherwise, the roles will be hand

This. Recruiter's daily job is to talk to people to convince and pressure them for positions that are potentially undesirable (otherwise, the roles will be handled by an internal recruiter or filled very quickly); it is a cold-calling sales job where rejections and cold feet are common, and the final closing are far and between. Their emotional response to rejections should be equivalent to a programmer's emotional response to debugging a difficult trace-stack error. However, their job is also to elicit emotional response from their applicant-side to further pressure them if the applicant is sitting on the fence, sure most of you whom have experienced the sales cycle have heard the following: e.g., * "I need to feed my family..." (everyone has to make a living to feed their family) * "[The hiring manager] told me specifically 'make sure to get this guy', we worked really hard on getting this package ready for you..." (every car sales involve printing a standard package, the sales person didn't handwrite a love letter addressed to you) One time, I've received a particularly nasty call from a recruiter because I made up my mind, turned down a job offer and addressed the e-mail directly to the hiring manager cc'd to recruiter instead of just to the recruiter. The recruiter was upset and said that "[I] burned all bridges now for any alternative negotiations... and that's why I make the big bucks."; never mind that the hiring manager was very polite and replied that "next time, if you are interested; feel free to e-mail me directly". The whole experience taught me that most of the time, the recruiter (agency) is not on your side and some of the time, they're not even on the hiring company's side either; they like everyone else, is frying the fish for themselves.

djsumdog 10y ago
I really despise all things recruiter. I frequently hang up on them. They are the scum of the industry. I've had several jobs I've gotten via recruiter and several that were direct hire. In every single case, the direct hire jobs were better (quality of the work environment, treatment, quality of the software and environments .. I'd even dare the say the quality of the team/other employees in some cases). Another thing about the writer of this article; he mentions his loyalty and how it felt like he was "cheating on his wife". You should never feel loyal to a company. It's not a personal relationship. I talk about it a bit in this writeup: http://khanism.org/society/loyalty/ http://khanism.org/society/loyalty/
- logfromblammo 10y ago
  If you were really married to the company, you could actually get something in the divorce. Your employer is not like your spouse. Your employer is more like a f'buddy that is into "S" when you are not into "M", who gives you a booty call every weekday at 9AM without fail, who leaves a fat wad of cash on your nightstand every two weeks, and who all your other friends think is a colossal jerk. Also, your employer is anything but monogamous, but expects you to be. You would dump them in a second, if it weren't for that cash, because that would make you a fool rather than a prostitute.

djsumdog 10y ago

I really despise all things recruiter. I frequently hang up on them. They are the scum of the industry. I've had several jobs I've gotten via recruiter and several that were direct hire. In every single case, the direct hire jobs were better (quality of the work environment, treatment, quality of the software and environments .. I'd even dare the say the quality of the team/other employees in some cases). Another thing about the writer of this article; he mentions his loyalty and how it felt like he was "cheating on his wife". You should never feel loyal to a company. It's not a personal relationship. I talk about it a bit in this writeup: http://khanism.org/society/loyalty/ http://khanism.org/society/loyalty/

logfromblammo 10y ago
If you were really married to the company, you could actually get something in the divorce. Your employer is not like your spouse. Your employer is more like a f'buddy that is into "S" when you are not into "M", who gives you a booty call every weekday at 9AM without fail, who leaves a fat wad of cash on your nightstand every two weeks, and who all your other friends think is a colossal jerk. Also, your employer is anything but monogamous, but expects you to be. You would dump them in a second, if it weren't for that cash, because that would make you a fool rather than a prostitute.