5 ms·

Not been laid off myself, but I'm still being absolutely hounded by recruiters. There are still a ton of tech jobs out there, at least in the UK.

ak_111 4y ago
Interesting I am not noticing this in the UK, what part of tech do you work in?
- substation13 4y ago
  Tune the keywords on your LinkedIn a bit and you should see loads of recruiter inbound.
- kypro 4y ago
  I'm from the UK. I got laid off in the first week of Jan and accepted a new contract role yesterday. The market was extremely quiet last week, but it seemed to pick up quite a bit this week. I'd guess it depends on experience and stuff, but there does seem to be stuff out there... What I did notice was less tech companies seemed to be recruiting. Almost all of the roles I was approached for were in industries like finance, retail, healthcare, etc.
  - jstx1 4y ago
    > The market was extremely quiet last week, but it seemed to pick up quite a bit this week. Are you just counting your inbound messages? Because there's no way you can personally tell what's happening on the market on a week-to-week basis.
    - kypro 4y ago
      New listings on job boards, inbound calls from recruiters, the number of people responding to my emails, recruiters themselves telling me that things are picking up since the Christmas break. I included the word "seemed" for a reason. It wasn't intended as an objective statement, but a response to someone asking for anecdotal experiences. I'm sure others may have a different experience depending on where they live, their experience, their CV, the type of companies they're applying for, etc.
- bearmode 4y ago
  Web dev.
londons_explore 4y ago
Recruiters often hound even when there aren't many jobs available. After all, they aren't paid to sit around and do nothing when there are lulls in hiring...
yodsanklai 4y ago
I'm in the UK, but quite rarely contacted by recruiters, once a month perhaps. I think I have a decent resume (many years in a FAANG), but maybe I'm too senior/specialized?
- jstx1 4y ago
  It might be because there are fewer companies that hire at your current level of compensation - a few international big tech companies and some trading firms - and all of those are clearly slowing / freezing hiring or laying people off. Most cold messages from recruiters right now will be for positions that pay less than half of what you're making.
- cjrp 4y ago
  If you haven't changed jobs many times in the past (and dealt with recruiters), you're probably not on their radar. Most of the messages I get are from recruiters I talked to in the past, and they added me to their DB (with or without my permission).
avip 4y ago
The correlation between how much you're being "hounded by recruiters" and how many open positions are out there, is either 0 or negative.
- conjectures 4y ago
  Do explain.
  - postexitus 4y ago
    Headhunters are incentivized to chase you constantly, regardless of how many positions they are hiring for. The positions may soon exist, may have already been filled, getting advertised by multiple agencies - doesn't matter. These people are going to reach out, get you booked in and even if that specific position does not work out, they will be hopeful to get you into something else. Observe the same with Estate Agents - they will continue advertising already let/sold houses, just with motivation of getting you into their contact list hoping that it will be useful very soon.
  - lexapro 4y ago
    The fewer jobs are available, the more desperate recruiters become to earn their commissions.
    - diceduckmonk 4y ago
      Then that wouldn’t be zero correlation.
      - akramer 4y ago
        Yes, that would be negative correlation.
  - lozenge 4y ago
    When there are too many recruiters in the industry for the amount of positions that need to be filled, the remaining recruiters need to work their butts off. For some of them, this looks like emailing more people.
neodypsis 4y ago
How can you tell if a recruiter that hounds you is legit or not?
- FigurativeVoid 4y ago
  In the US, you can usually tell by where they work. Firms with bad reputations are pretty easy to identify with some searches.
lbriner 4y ago
It's still quite a defective system because Recruiters are so ruthless since so much money is made in commission. What this causes is the creation of fiefdoms and Recruiters trying to convince organisations or individuals to be exclusive with them, like it gives us any benefit. The truth is that the noise that Recruiters generate means that most of the time, we only deal with a handful at a time, which means it can be pot luck whether your recruiter places you in our role. Highly recommend that people do their own searching and apply direct, where possible, to the roles they want to do. I place a lot of kudos in a direct application compared to the Recruiter pitch about their latest "high quality candidate".
- JonChesterfield 4y ago
  Your mileage may vary with this one. Companies sometimes get so much inbound email to careers@ourco that they stop opening any of it (while leaving that as the contact us link on their website). A recruiter is then someone whose email might be read by someone at the company.
onion2k 4y ago
I've noticed a small uptick in the number of messages, but I attributed that to being in my current role for about 18 months so I'm coming up to the point where other people start to look for a new job.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
varjag 4y ago
This reminds me of Slashdot posts early in dotcom bust. "Everyone says there's a downturn but I'm not feeling it!"
dom96 4y ago
Really? Where are you located in the UK? In London I have noticed a definite reduction in recruiter reach outs in comparison to 2022 (and even then it was mainly finance companies)
- bearmode 4y ago
  Manchester.
  - dom96 4y ago
    huh, nice to hear the Manchester tech scene is quite active.
xkbarkar 4y ago
I am still hounded by recruiters but the quality of the positions they are hiring for are definitely much worse than, say, a year ago. Loads of temporary contracts on terrible salaries in obscure places with mandatory on-site attendance. Most local companies have started to demand employees back in office full time also. Which tells me that management in tech where I live ( nordics ) is generally bad and they just want to see bodies in the office, under the guise of teamwork of course, more than anything. The international companies that have offices in multiple countries do not bother with mandatory in-office nonsense nearly as much. My guess is they are the ones picking up all available talent at the moment.

ak_111 4y ago

Interesting I am not noticing this in the UK, what part of tech do you work in?

substation13 4y ago
Tune the keywords on your LinkedIn a bit and you should see loads of recruiter inbound.
kypro 4y ago
I'm from the UK. I got laid off in the first week of Jan and accepted a new contract role yesterday. The market was extremely quiet last week, but it seemed to pick up quite a bit this week. I'd guess it depends on experience and stuff, but there does seem to be stuff out there... What I did notice was less tech companies seemed to be recruiting. Almost all of the roles I was approached for were in industries like finance, retail, healthcare, etc.
- jstx1 4y ago
  > The market was extremely quiet last week, but it seemed to pick up quite a bit this week. Are you just counting your inbound messages? Because there's no way you can personally tell what's happening on the market on a week-to-week basis.
  - kypro 4y ago
    New listings on job boards, inbound calls from recruiters, the number of people responding to my emails, recruiters themselves telling me that things are picking up since the Christmas break. I included the word "seemed" for a reason. It wasn't intended as an objective statement, but a response to someone asking for anecdotal experiences. I'm sure others may have a different experience depending on where they live, their experience, their CV, the type of companies they're applying for, etc.
bearmode 4y ago
Web dev.

londons_explore 4y ago

Recruiters often hound even when there aren't many jobs available. After all, they aren't paid to sit around and do nothing when there are lulls in hiring...

yodsanklai 4y ago

I'm in the UK, but quite rarely contacted by recruiters, once a month perhaps. I think I have a decent resume (many years in a FAANG), but maybe I'm too senior/specialized?

jstx1 4y ago
It might be because there are fewer companies that hire at your current level of compensation - a few international big tech companies and some trading firms - and all of those are clearly slowing / freezing hiring or laying people off. Most cold messages from recruiters right now will be for positions that pay less than half of what you're making.
cjrp 4y ago
If you haven't changed jobs many times in the past (and dealt with recruiters), you're probably not on their radar. Most of the messages I get are from recruiters I talked to in the past, and they added me to their DB (with or without my permission).

avip 4y ago

The correlation between how much you're being "hounded by recruiters" and how many open positions are out there, is either 0 or negative.

conjectures 4y ago
Do explain.
- postexitus 4y ago
  Headhunters are incentivized to chase you constantly, regardless of how many positions they are hiring for. The positions may soon exist, may have already been filled, getting advertised by multiple agencies - doesn't matter. These people are going to reach out, get you booked in and even if that specific position does not work out, they will be hopeful to get you into something else. Observe the same with Estate Agents - they will continue advertising already let/sold houses, just with motivation of getting you into their contact list hoping that it will be useful very soon.
- lexapro 4y ago
  The fewer jobs are available, the more desperate recruiters become to earn their commissions.
  - diceduckmonk 4y ago
    Then that wouldn’t be zero correlation.
    - akramer 4y ago
      Yes, that would be negative correlation.
- lozenge 4y ago
  When there are too many recruiters in the industry for the amount of positions that need to be filled, the remaining recruiters need to work their butts off. For some of them, this looks like emailing more people.

neodypsis 4y ago

How can you tell if a recruiter that hounds you is legit or not?

FigurativeVoid 4y ago
In the US, you can usually tell by where they work. Firms with bad reputations are pretty easy to identify with some searches.

lbriner 4y ago

It's still quite a defective system because Recruiters are so ruthless since so much money is made in commission. What this causes is the creation of fiefdoms and Recruiters trying to convince organisations or individuals to be exclusive with them, like it gives us any benefit. The truth is that the noise that Recruiters generate means that most of the time, we only deal with a handful at a time, which means it can be pot luck whether your recruiter places you in our role. Highly recommend that people do their own searching and apply direct, where possible, to the roles they want to do. I place a lot of kudos in a direct application compared to the Recruiter pitch about their latest "high quality candidate".

JonChesterfield 4y ago
Your mileage may vary with this one. Companies sometimes get so much inbound email to careers@ourco that they stop opening any of it (while leaving that as the contact us link on their website). A recruiter is then someone whose email might be read by someone at the company.

onion2k 4y ago

I've noticed a small uptick in the number of messages, but I attributed that to being in my current role for about 18 months so I'm coming up to the point where other people start to look for a new job.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

varjag 4y ago

This reminds me of Slashdot posts early in dotcom bust. "Everyone says there's a downturn but I'm not feeling it!"

dom96 4y ago

Really? Where are you located in the UK? In London I have noticed a definite reduction in recruiter reach outs in comparison to 2022 (and even then it was mainly finance companies)

bearmode 4y ago
Manchester.
- dom96 4y ago
  huh, nice to hear the Manchester tech scene is quite active.

xkbarkar 4y ago

I am still hounded by recruiters but the quality of the positions they are hiring for are definitely much worse than, say, a year ago. Loads of temporary contracts on terrible salaries in obscure places with mandatory on-site attendance. Most local companies have started to demand employees back in office full time also. Which tells me that management in tech where I live ( nordics ) is generally bad and they just want to see bodies in the office, under the guise of teamwork of course, more than anything. The international companies that have offices in multiple countries do not bother with mandatory in-office nonsense nearly as much. My guess is they are the ones picking up all available talent at the moment.