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At 20+ years into my career is it super weird that I've never once worked with a recruiter? Everything I've done in the past 10 years has not been from a job t

At 20+ years into my career is it super weird that I've never once worked with a recruiter? Everything I've done in the past 10 years has not been from a job that was advertised as an opening anywhere, but through industry contacts.

waiseristy 5y ago
You might want to mention your industry though, IIRC yours is quite esoteric (backbone/wholesale/IXP's). Generic software engineering roles have an incredibly high signal-to-noise ratio. Recruiting was pretty much required at my previous gigs to try and cut through some of the fluff
- walrus01 5y ago
  I guess any industry seems less esoteric if you're in the middle of it - to me it doesn't seem esoteric, there's a LOT of ASNs globally and they all need network engineers... Or other people who work in the various specialities in the telecom business. I've never worked for a cellular carrier so as an example there's whole swathes of telecom stuff I only have a passing familiarity with. But I suppose that software engineering in general, there probably are a lot more coders out there. At least judging by what I see in Seattle. The isp community in and mid to large sized city is probably still small enough that most people know each other.
  - waiseristy 5y ago
    Could also be an aberration caused by the generally poor hiring practices used by these software companies. I have no idea what the talent pool actually looks like for these two industries. I have noticed there appears to be a huge divide between the FAANG'ers and the FAANG'nots from my perspective. The smaller companies in the area, all generally know each other. Similar to your experience
  - d0gsg0w00f 5y ago
    The networking world is...weird. Very different from the coder world. I think it comes down to the fundamental truth that the network cannot fail while code can fail fast. Therefore, networking hasn't undergone the multiple seismic shifts that software has and tends to be populated with a more conservative cast of characters.
decafninja 5y ago
How picky are you able to be with these jobs you get via contacts? One ex-colleague I know is able to get a new job within a matter of days by poking around his network. These are SWE jobs at NYC hedge funds of varying caliber. The caveat is that he can't be picky. He might have to work with unsexy tech, or in a boring project shuffling around XML feed files, etc. Hedge funds being hedge funds, they still pay at least above average. That said, he's the only SWE I know of who can land jobs through his network without being tortured by the leetcode gauntlet. Everyone else, myself included, might at best skip a phone screen but still ultimately be subjected to leetcode.

waiseristy 5y ago

You might want to mention your industry though, IIRC yours is quite esoteric (backbone/wholesale/IXP's). Generic software engineering roles have an incredibly high signal-to-noise ratio. Recruiting was pretty much required at my previous gigs to try and cut through some of the fluff

walrus01 5y ago
I guess any industry seems less esoteric if you're in the middle of it - to me it doesn't seem esoteric, there's a LOT of ASNs globally and they all need network engineers... Or other people who work in the various specialities in the telecom business. I've never worked for a cellular carrier so as an example there's whole swathes of telecom stuff I only have a passing familiarity with. But I suppose that software engineering in general, there probably are a lot more coders out there. At least judging by what I see in Seattle. The isp community in and mid to large sized city is probably still small enough that most people know each other.
- waiseristy 5y ago
  Could also be an aberration caused by the generally poor hiring practices used by these software companies. I have no idea what the talent pool actually looks like for these two industries. I have noticed there appears to be a huge divide between the FAANG'ers and the FAANG'nots from my perspective. The smaller companies in the area, all generally know each other. Similar to your experience
- d0gsg0w00f 5y ago
  The networking world is...weird. Very different from the coder world. I think it comes down to the fundamental truth that the network cannot fail while code can fail fast. Therefore, networking hasn't undergone the multiple seismic shifts that software has and tends to be populated with a more conservative cast of characters.

decafninja 5y ago

How picky are you able to be with these jobs you get via contacts? One ex-colleague I know is able to get a new job within a matter of days by poking around his network. These are SWE jobs at NYC hedge funds of varying caliber. The caveat is that he can't be picky. He might have to work with unsexy tech, or in a boring project shuffling around XML feed files, etc. Hedge funds being hedge funds, they still pay at least above average. That said, he's the only SWE I know of who can land jobs through his network without being tortured by the leetcode gauntlet. Everyone else, myself included, might at best skip a phone screen but still ultimately be subjected to leetcode.