9 ms·

Tech recruitment: how not to do it

224 points by jfarmer 15y ago

tricolon 15y ago
I do hope that whoever knows him personally points out just how unprofessional those emails were.
- untog 15y ago
  "whoever knows him personally" = "their boss" "points out just how unprofessional those emails were" = "fires them" ?
  - tricolon 15y ago
    I'm more hoping a good friend would tell him, "Beau, stop it. You're being a dick." Firing him will not stop his behavior.
    - cynicalkane 15y ago
      People like that tend not to surround themselves with friends like that.
jrbran 15y ago
The Xbox-Live approach does not strike me as the prudent course of action for trying to recruit others for your cause. Even when actually on Xbox Live. I've questioned how some recruiters that I've dealt with had jobs, but never had one remotely reached this kind of level of fire-him-now-ness.
jackowayed 15y ago
Sketchy in a lot of ways. His LinkedIn profile has stars around the name http://www.linkedin.com/in/opensourcestaffing http://www.linkedin.com/in/opensourcestaffing He also has every state in the nation listed twice (postal code + full state name). SEO bait I guess. It seems surprising to me that some of the fairly big companies listed on their website (eBay, Disney Internet Group, Rapleaf, Shopzilla) would engage with someone so visibly awful. http://open-source-staffing.com/clients.html http://open-source-staffing.com/clients.html
- netaustin 15y ago
  Fairly big companies often have surprisingly minimal filters for "visibly awful." Passing due diligence is easy when the process does not include common sense, and individual managers are likely to have misaligned incentives.
- donohoe 15y ago
  I also love how , as a recruiter, he is also apart of every Developer association out there.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
adelevie 15y ago
The moral here has way less to do with tech recruiting than it does with just being a civil human being.
roneil 15y ago
I'm glad Gould got called out on this; he probably just lost himself a lot of future business by being so cocky.
- potatolicious 15y ago
  Called out on Hacker News and similarly hacker-y circles... that's not exactly the "$50K in NYC" demographic.
  - roneil 15y ago
    well if anyone googles his name, this will probably come up, right? I hope most people would be smart enough to do that before buying his services.
autarch 15y ago
Beau has been around a long time. I remember him posting jobs to the jobs.perl.org site and perl jobs list years ago (back in 2001). We had to ban him for similarly bad behavior. I'm amazed he's still around.
- dasil003 15y ago
  That's impressive because he sounds like he's 14. "Fags ... suck dick". Real fucking creative Beau.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
- rglullis 15y ago
  hum, just last week he was trying to create a page on job4dev to post "listings" with no information whatsoever about any of the actual companies that were hiring. Usually our moderation system is enough to stop recruiters to add vacuous pages to the wiki. But he went ahead and start spamming the comment pages anyway. Sometimes I wonder if it would be possible to add to job4dev a service that would turn recruiters into a value-add into the recruiting space. But that kind of thing just goes to show that they just want to work as middlemen and really need to be cut out.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
    - deleted 15y ago
      [deleted]
  - diolpah 15y ago
    Did you ever consider the possibility that "Beau" is not actually a recruiter, but rather a mid-level troll with a creative cover story?
    - 15y ago
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
Steer 15y ago
My guess is that someone has already taken matters into his/her own hands, check out his blog (redirected to from Beau's domain mentioned in the post): http://opensourcestaffing.wordpress.com/ http://opensourcestaffing.wordpress.com/ The latest post is (probably) not of his own doing I would say.
- narcvs 15y ago
  I'm afraid to say I expect it's actually his own doing. Considering his behavior it doesn't seem out of place for him. The post: http://opensourcestaffing.wordpress.com/2011/09/13/504/ http://opensourcestaffing.wordpress.com/2011/09/13/504/ This guy is such a troll - where's anonymous when we need them?
- clownz0r 15y ago
  His blog is now marked as private and requires a login
  - okal 15y ago
    Here's the Google webcache http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:TQGS39zMlekJ:opensourcestaffing.wordpress.com/+http://opensourcestaffing.wordpress.com/&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&client=ubuntu http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:TQGS39z...
  - donohoe 15y ago
    Not is back, post deleted
ronbeltran 15y ago
This is also our problem in our local python users group http://groups.google.com/group/pinoy-python-users/browse_thread/thread/beabfa95f98e6624 http://groups.google.com/group/pinoy-python-users/browse_thr... , situation is like this:we have a conversations to help someone with their errors and the next thread reply/post is all about job posts! So I built them a simple job portal.
Peroni 15y ago
Sometimes I wonder if I'm wasting my time. Idiots like this will never be entirely eradicated from the industry. Maybe my next blog post should be a direct attack on recruiters, calling them out on there bullshit attitudes and illegal tactics.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
rmc 15y ago
There's a great way to beat them. Apply for the job. If you don't get it, sue them saying they didn't hire you because of your sexuality. Use this email from the recuiter to show that they are clearly not an equal opertunities employer. Hopefully the recruiter will now no longer be employed (by anyone). Or alternatively go into the job interview, and make lots of homophobic/sexist/racist jokes there (e.g. "Good to see you keep the fags out and the skirts in the typing pool! My kind of company!"). If they act a bit suprised/embarrassed, point out the recruiters email, and tell them that recruiter will attract that kind of applicant.
- subwindow 15y ago
  Actually in the US it is not illegal to discriminate based on sexual orientation. There may be laws in New York state prohibiting it, I don't know. But in most of the US it is totally legal to post a job listing saying "Programmers wanted. No fags allowed." It is pretty despicable.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
  - presidentender 15y ago
    There is, and ought to be, a difference between 'wrong' and 'illegal.'
    - sneak 15y ago
      This, this, a thousand times this! The only thing the government can do to effect change in the actions of the people in the world is by the threat of jail if you do (e.g. steal) or do not do (e.g. pay taxes) something. That's all they can do. For every problem the government "fixes", someone is losing a freedom or liberty that they once had. For almost all of the problems in the world caused by the behaviors of humans, more laws are almost never the solution.
  - 0x12 15y ago
    http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2991756 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2991756
anons2011 15y ago
Nice, website now 404ing and blog is private. http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:JqLMFQ-Gwn4J:open-source-staffing.com/clients.html+http://open-source-staffing.com/clients.html&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:JqLMFQ-... :)
- narcvs 15y ago
  Huh. I'm curious why. The splash page still loads, but none of his links (contact, about, jobs...) work. All 404
jakemcgraw 15y ago
This guy is all over the NYC tech recruiting scene. I have some 20 emails from him over various tech mailing lists. Funny thing is, even though I see 4 or 5 emails a day from recruiters, his name is so unique I actually remembered him! I don't think people should be crucified for single outbursts, but it's safe to say that this guy is on a tear and needs taking down.
- OSS 15y ago
  You know, if any of these mailing lists had some sort of rules (and some do) that say "No job postings allowed", I wouldn't post, but they don't, so when I have an HTML5 job in NYC or San Fran, etc., I post the job to the list and ya know what, not everyone complains. I get many a worthy candidate from my postings. My clients need developers and designers and IA's, etc., and I find them for them almost exclusively via mailing lists, but shhh, don't tell my competition or everyone will be doing it.
davidu 15y ago
Just because sexual orientation is not a "protected class" on a federal level, employment laws in nearly every state are very clear that in addition to the protected classes, you can not discriminate arbitrarily. But it doesn't matter, in New York (SONDA) and just about every blue state has very clear anti-discrimination laws when it comes to sexual orientation. And of course, regardless of the laws, nobody would allow this person to represent them or work for them. This guy needs to be terminated immediately, his behavior is totally disgusting and reprehensible.
gchucky 15y ago
Yeah, not all that surprising. He frequently adds posts to the NYPHP email list as well, and they just come off as.. less than legit. Even still, this is rather poor form.
bkaid 15y ago
https://twitter.com/ossjobs https://twitter.com/ossjobs what a jerk

224 points by jfarmer 15y ago

tricolon 15y ago

I do hope that whoever knows him personally points out just how unprofessional those emails were.

untog 15y ago
"whoever knows him personally" = "their boss" "points out just how unprofessional those emails were" = "fires them" ?
- tricolon 15y ago
  I'm more hoping a good friend would tell him, "Beau, stop it. You're being a dick." Firing him will not stop his behavior.
  - cynicalkane 15y ago
    People like that tend not to surround themselves with friends like that.

jrbran 15y ago

The Xbox-Live approach does not strike me as the prudent course of action for trying to recruit others for your cause. Even when actually on Xbox Live. I've questioned how some recruiters that I've dealt with had jobs, but never had one remotely reached this kind of level of fire-him-now-ness.

jackowayed 15y ago

Sketchy in a lot of ways. His LinkedIn profile has stars around the name http://www.linkedin.com/in/opensourcestaffing http://www.linkedin.com/in/opensourcestaffing He also has every state in the nation listed twice (postal code + full state name). SEO bait I guess. It seems surprising to me that some of the fairly big companies listed on their website (eBay, Disney Internet Group, Rapleaf, Shopzilla) would engage with someone so visibly awful. http://open-source-staffing.com/clients.html http://open-source-staffing.com/clients.html

netaustin 15y ago
Fairly big companies often have surprisingly minimal filters for "visibly awful." Passing due diligence is easy when the process does not include common sense, and individual managers are likely to have misaligned incentives.
donohoe 15y ago
I also love how , as a recruiter, he is also apart of every Developer association out there.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

adelevie 15y ago

The moral here has way less to do with tech recruiting than it does with just being a civil human being.

roneil 15y ago

I'm glad Gould got called out on this; he probably just lost himself a lot of future business by being so cocky.

potatolicious 15y ago
Called out on Hacker News and similarly hacker-y circles... that's not exactly the "$50K in NYC" demographic.
- roneil 15y ago
  well if anyone googles his name, this will probably come up, right? I hope most people would be smart enough to do that before buying his services.

autarch 15y ago

Beau has been around a long time. I remember him posting jobs to the jobs.perl.org site and perl jobs list years ago (back in 2001). We had to ban him for similarly bad behavior. I'm amazed he's still around.

dasil003 15y ago
That's impressive because he sounds like he's 14. "Fags ... suck dick". Real fucking creative Beau.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
rglullis 15y ago
hum, just last week he was trying to create a page on job4dev to post "listings" with no information whatsoever about any of the actual companies that were hiring. Usually our moderation system is enough to stop recruiters to add vacuous pages to the wiki. But he went ahead and start spamming the comment pages anyway. Sometimes I wonder if it would be possible to add to job4dev a service that would turn recruiters into a value-add into the recruiting space. But that kind of thing just goes to show that they just want to work as middlemen and really need to be cut out.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
- diolpah 15y ago
  Did you ever consider the possibility that "Beau" is not actually a recruiter, but rather a mid-level troll with a creative cover story?
  - 15y ago

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

Steer 15y ago

My guess is that someone has already taken matters into his/her own hands, check out his blog (redirected to from Beau's domain mentioned in the post): http://opensourcestaffing.wordpress.com/ http://opensourcestaffing.wordpress.com/ The latest post is (probably) not of his own doing I would say.

narcvs 15y ago
I'm afraid to say I expect it's actually his own doing. Considering his behavior it doesn't seem out of place for him. The post: http://opensourcestaffing.wordpress.com/2011/09/13/504/ http://opensourcestaffing.wordpress.com/2011/09/13/504/ This guy is such a troll - where's anonymous when we need them?
clownz0r 15y ago
His blog is now marked as private and requires a login
- okal 15y ago
  Here's the Google webcache http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:TQGS39zMlekJ:opensourcestaffing.wordpress.com/+http://opensourcestaffing.wordpress.com/&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&client=ubuntu http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:TQGS39z...
- donohoe 15y ago
  Not is back, post deleted

ronbeltran 15y ago

This is also our problem in our local python users group http://groups.google.com/group/pinoy-python-users/browse_thread/thread/beabfa95f98e6624 http://groups.google.com/group/pinoy-python-users/browse_thr... , situation is like this:we have a conversations to help someone with their errors and the next thread reply/post is all about job posts! So I built them a simple job portal.

Peroni 15y ago

Sometimes I wonder if I'm wasting my time. Idiots like this will never be entirely eradicated from the industry. Maybe my next blog post should be a direct attack on recruiters, calling them out on there bullshit attitudes and illegal tactics.

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]

rmc 15y ago

There's a great way to beat them. Apply for the job. If you don't get it, sue them saying they didn't hire you because of your sexuality. Use this email from the recuiter to show that they are clearly not an equal opertunities employer. Hopefully the recruiter will now no longer be employed (by anyone). Or alternatively go into the job interview, and make lots of homophobic/sexist/racist jokes there (e.g. "Good to see you keep the fags out and the skirts in the typing pool! My kind of company!"). If they act a bit suprised/embarrassed, point out the recruiters email, and tell them that recruiter will attract that kind of applicant.

subwindow 15y ago
Actually in the US it is not illegal to discriminate based on sexual orientation. There may be laws in New York state prohibiting it, I don't know. But in most of the US it is totally legal to post a job listing saying "Programmers wanted. No fags allowed." It is pretty despicable.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- presidentender 15y ago
  There is, and ought to be, a difference between 'wrong' and 'illegal.'
  - sneak 15y ago
    This, this, a thousand times this! The only thing the government can do to effect change in the actions of the people in the world is by the threat of jail if you do (e.g. steal) or do not do (e.g. pay taxes) something. That's all they can do. For every problem the government "fixes", someone is losing a freedom or liberty that they once had. For almost all of the problems in the world caused by the behaviors of humans, more laws are almost never the solution.
- 0x12 15y ago
  http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2991756 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2991756

anons2011 15y ago

Nice, website now 404ing and blog is private. http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:JqLMFQ-Gwn4J:open-source-staffing.com/clients.html+http://open-source-staffing.com/clients.html&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:JqLMFQ-... :)

narcvs 15y ago
Huh. I'm curious why. The splash page still loads, but none of his links (contact, about, jobs...) work. All 404

jakemcgraw 15y ago

This guy is all over the NYC tech recruiting scene. I have some 20 emails from him over various tech mailing lists. Funny thing is, even though I see 4 or 5 emails a day from recruiters, his name is so unique I actually remembered him! I don't think people should be crucified for single outbursts, but it's safe to say that this guy is on a tear and needs taking down.

OSS 15y ago
You know, if any of these mailing lists had some sort of rules (and some do) that say "No job postings allowed", I wouldn't post, but they don't, so when I have an HTML5 job in NYC or San Fran, etc., I post the job to the list and ya know what, not everyone complains. I get many a worthy candidate from my postings. My clients need developers and designers and IA's, etc., and I find them for them almost exclusively via mailing lists, but shhh, don't tell my competition or everyone will be doing it.

davidu 15y ago

Just because sexual orientation is not a "protected class" on a federal level, employment laws in nearly every state are very clear that in addition to the protected classes, you can not discriminate arbitrarily. But it doesn't matter, in New York (SONDA) and just about every blue state has very clear anti-discrimination laws when it comes to sexual orientation. And of course, regardless of the laws, nobody would allow this person to represent them or work for them. This guy needs to be terminated immediately, his behavior is totally disgusting and reprehensible.

gchucky 15y ago

Yeah, not all that surprising. He frequently adds posts to the NYPHP email list as well, and they just come off as.. less than legit. Even still, this is rather poor form.

bkaid 15y ago

https://twitter.com/ossjobs https://twitter.com/ossjobs what a jerk