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I guess the problem I have is that people seem entirely unable to do anything but "well all recruiters suck" nowadays, when that is very, very clearly not the c

I guess the problem I have is that people seem entirely unable to do anything but "well all recruiters suck" nowadays, when that is very, very clearly not the case. Of course a lot of recruiters suck and are annoying, but when you translate that into "all recruiters suck, fuck them, I'm not talking to them", frankly you're hurting yourself. In the last 3 weeks I've had a couple different CTOs ask me to meet so I can teach them a bit more about hiring. I'm not harassing these people into taking a meeting. They are emailing me because they know that I can teach them skills that would help them and their company grow. If people want to shut out a source of value like this, than that is their own choice, but it's certainly not one I agree with.

eliasmacpherson 14y ago
If I were in a position to land an interview for any job I was interested in, how would I be hurting myself by ignoring recruiters? Indeed, if I'm not even interested in a new position, how would what you say be true? Access to a recruiter's hidden list of jobs I don't know I want yet? Is a recruiter going to convince me, know my mind better? I find that doubtful. Anytime I went looking for a job I've tried to work out who the company were and route around the recruiter. CTO's ignoring recruiters is one thing, developers I've met do not see recruiters as a source of value, rather an occasionally necessary evil.
gyardley 14y ago
Of course a lot of recruiters suck and are annoying, but when you translate that into "all recruiters suck, fuck them, I'm not talking to them", frankly you're hurting yourself. If and only if the benefit you receive from the good recruiters outweighs the hassle of talking to and vetting all the bad recruiters in order to find the good ones. This isn't always the case. I get that you're frustrated by the demonization of your industry, but I suspect you don't really appreciate just how much of a useless time-suck a bad recruiter can be, and just how small the ratio of good to bad recruiters is.

eliasmacpherson 14y ago

If I were in a position to land an interview for any job I was interested in, how would I be hurting myself by ignoring recruiters? Indeed, if I'm not even interested in a new position, how would what you say be true? Access to a recruiter's hidden list of jobs I don't know I want yet? Is a recruiter going to convince me, know my mind better? I find that doubtful. Anytime I went looking for a job I've tried to work out who the company were and route around the recruiter. CTO's ignoring recruiters is one thing, developers I've met do not see recruiters as a source of value, rather an occasionally necessary evil.

gyardley 14y ago

Of course a lot of recruiters suck and are annoying, but when you translate that into "all recruiters suck, fuck them, I'm not talking to them", frankly you're hurting yourself. If and only if the benefit you receive from the good recruiters outweighs the hassle of talking to and vetting all the bad recruiters in order to find the good ones. This isn't always the case. I get that you're frustrated by the demonization of your industry, but I suspect you don't really appreciate just how much of a useless time-suck a bad recruiter can be, and just how small the ratio of good to bad recruiters is.