5 ms·
99% are scum, 1% are good. I've received a couple of jobs through headhunters. I have a rule that works surprisingly well. When a headhunter contacts me, I s
by fsk 11y ago
99% are scum, 1% are good. I've received a couple of jobs through headhunters.
I have a rule that works surprisingly well. When a headhunter contacts me, I search my gmail for past interactions. If I sent them my resume several times without getting an interview, no response. The more annoying ones get an auto-archive filter.
If it's someone I haven't heard from before, and the posting is relevant to my experience, I'll respond.
I treat all headhunters as if they're competent and honest until they give me evidence to the contrary. Fortunately, the spammy ones make it clear pretty fast.
One common red flag: The headhunter wants to meet you in person before sending your resume to the client. I don't waste time on those anymore. All the good interviews I've gotten through headhunters were from ones that didn't insist on meeting me in person first.
- walshemj 11y agoInteresting why do ou feel that way? A real head-hunter not a fancy name for a standard recruitment agency employee will want to see who they are sending.
- fsk 11y agoThat has been my experience. I've gotten better interviews from headhunters who don't insist on meeting me first. A lot of the ones who insisted on meeting me are shady body shops, where they're just looking to build a large candidate pool in case something comes up later. They also tend to be fishing for leads, asking who my hiring manager was at former jobs so they can hit them up to sell other candidates. For the headhunters who insisted on meeting me, they either never sent me on an interview or sent me on a lot of low-quality interviews. It's just like a pre-interview screening test anti-correlates with good interviews/jobs, to the extent that I usually just pass now.
- walshemj 11y agoThose arn't head-hunters just lower tier recruitment agencies. Real head hunters will want to meet candidates - as will serious agencies.
- fsk 11y agoHow do I tell the difference between a real headhunter and a lower tier recruitment agency?
- walshemj 11y agoIs it a real company like Michel Paige - and reputation in the industry.
- fsk 11y agoYou mean like Robert Half Technology? They're a big name, and they've repeatedly wasted my time to the extent that I now refuse to talk with them.
- walshemj 11y agooh and reputation I have sacked one major uk agency and refuse to talk to them as well.
- chrisbennet 11y agoAlso known as "Robert Half My Rate". :-)