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Why use recruiters? They just submit your resume to an employer like you could have done in 5 minutes. For that five minute action they want to collect a $10-

Why use recruiters? They just submit your resume to an employer like you could have done in 5 minutes. For that five minute action they want to collect a $10-20k fee. That comes out of your pocket. Plus they do ridiculous things like want you to drive an hour down to their POS office for a face to face like you are their employee. Their most recent accomplishment is dropping out of college and they will try to make you wait in the lobby for 20 minutes. Fuck. That.

nicholas73 10y ago
That $10-20k only comes out of your pocket if you let it.
- codeonfire 10y ago
  Like it or not, that fee affects ability to negotiate compensation. Given a pool of equivalently skilled people, the one that doesn't come with a fee is going to be able to negotiate and get the job.
dogma1138 10y ago
The 10-20K fee doesn't come out of your pocket, if you are using a good recruiter they are actually more likely to get you a better deal. Most people don't know how to negotiate, recruiters do, mostly because more often than not their fee and reputation is somewhat dependant on it. A recruiter would usually find you a good fit especially if they aren't just some employment/vacancy agency but actually build their network. How much of a good fit and how long you stay at your job is tied directly to their reputation, recruiters that fill positions with people that don't stick around or worse don't even pass a probationary period don't get too many second chances. Overall the recruiter fee isn't even a major part of the onboarding cost, the time spent by everyone from HR to the tech guys on everything from defining the job to handling the interviews cost considerably more especially if you take valley salaries into account. The position not being filled or worse being filled by a contractor who often charges considerably more than the average daily market rate for a full time employee also costs the company money.
scarface74 10y ago
There are a lot of advantages to using a good recruiter. They serve as a decent filter for both you and the employer so you don't waste time pursuing jobs that are not a good fit. When I was looking for my last job, I had certain criteria - a salary that at the time was higher than average, it had to be located in a certain part of the metro area because I didn't want a long commute and I wanted a certain technology stack. Most jobs don't post salary ranges and for some strange reason it's considered bad form to ask about it at the early stages of the interview process but the recruiter knows what salary the company is willing to offer and it's perfectly acceptable to ask. Submitting your resume blindly to a company is a black box. A recruiter will know almost immediately if a company is interested in you and what stage in the decision process the company is in. They will also give you hints about what type of interview to expect. The last time I was looking for a job about two years ago, I was feilding 10 different opportunities - I had passed the phone screen and scheduling an in person interview. I stopped the process for 8 of them after accepting an offer that met my requirements.
- codeonfire 10y ago
  In my experience it's recruiters who get the salary and level wrong. I have a lot of experience, but I still get tons of spam that read "mid-level Java programmer 2+ years of experience, must have J2EE." They don't even look at my profile. I ask for a range and I am usually not going to be in it. I am not hiding anything on my resume.
  - JamesBarney 10y ago
    When they message you on linked in it's a number game. But when you sit down and talk with them about your requirements for a job, they will listen. They don't want to field jobs to the wrong people.

nicholas73 10y ago

That $10-20k only comes out of your pocket if you let it.

codeonfire 10y ago
Like it or not, that fee affects ability to negotiate compensation. Given a pool of equivalently skilled people, the one that doesn't come with a fee is going to be able to negotiate and get the job.

dogma1138 10y ago

The 10-20K fee doesn't come out of your pocket, if you are using a good recruiter they are actually more likely to get you a better deal. Most people don't know how to negotiate, recruiters do, mostly because more often than not their fee and reputation is somewhat dependant on it. A recruiter would usually find you a good fit especially if they aren't just some employment/vacancy agency but actually build their network. How much of a good fit and how long you stay at your job is tied directly to their reputation, recruiters that fill positions with people that don't stick around or worse don't even pass a probationary period don't get too many second chances. Overall the recruiter fee isn't even a major part of the onboarding cost, the time spent by everyone from HR to the tech guys on everything from defining the job to handling the interviews cost considerably more especially if you take valley salaries into account. The position not being filled or worse being filled by a contractor who often charges considerably more than the average daily market rate for a full time employee also costs the company money.

scarface74 10y ago

There are a lot of advantages to using a good recruiter. They serve as a decent filter for both you and the employer so you don't waste time pursuing jobs that are not a good fit. When I was looking for my last job, I had certain criteria - a salary that at the time was higher than average, it had to be located in a certain part of the metro area because I didn't want a long commute and I wanted a certain technology stack. Most jobs don't post salary ranges and for some strange reason it's considered bad form to ask about it at the early stages of the interview process but the recruiter knows what salary the company is willing to offer and it's perfectly acceptable to ask. Submitting your resume blindly to a company is a black box. A recruiter will know almost immediately if a company is interested in you and what stage in the decision process the company is in. They will also give you hints about what type of interview to expect. The last time I was looking for a job about two years ago, I was feilding 10 different opportunities - I had passed the phone screen and scheduling an in person interview. I stopped the process for 8 of them after accepting an offer that met my requirements.

codeonfire 10y ago
In my experience it's recruiters who get the salary and level wrong. I have a lot of experience, but I still get tons of spam that read "mid-level Java programmer 2+ years of experience, must have J2EE." They don't even look at my profile. I ask for a range and I am usually not going to be in it. I am not hiding anything on my resume.
- JamesBarney 10y ago
  When they message you on linked in it's a number game. But when you sit down and talk with them about your requirements for a job, they will listen. They don't want to field jobs to the wrong people.