As an IT recruitment veteran (I think I probably qualify for that now after 14 years) it
has been interesting to watch this blog unfold. I do feel I have to bring some
perspective for the more considered and respected individuals of the
recruitment profession.

 

Whilst many of the points mentioned below highlight the (indefensible)
negative practices of the recruitment world, many of them due in part to the
short-term approach, fee-chasing mind set of the consultants and often the
questionable business model of the recruitment industry. It is true, a too
higher percentage of my industry do lose sight of the fact they are dealing
with human beings, and I do concur with many of the points highlighted by Phil.

 

The main point I wanted to make is that a good recruiter
has every right to liaise and share ideas in these circles. Having recruited
for many early-stage technology companies down the years: Seen many succeed,
many fail, what holds true is the calibre of the people you hire can make the
difference if you succeed or not. And those of us who take an active interest
in these groups who get to know those who can productise, commercialise, and
deliver quality software are most definitely worth their place at the table.

 

I know for a fact a good recruiter can add real value to
the business he/she/they represent, and through experience of seeing many companies
evolve over time, we can even pre-empt possible issues or make a timely introduction
to take the business on to another level. Yes there are some good ones out there.

 

I look forward to meeting up with you at a meet up soon face=Wingdings>J face=Verdana>

 

Mike Burgoine

Director

www.abilityresourcing.co.uk

 

 

 

Wise words from an industry old-timer, not to be ignored.

2009/3/19 Bill Brown <[address removed]>:

> Yes, I have been dealing with recruiters for 4 years now, at first

> I was very subservient and polite until now I hang up as soon as

> I detect those lying tones. I was HORRIFIED to meet one on meetup.

> But, they are on their way......

> aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrgggggghhh.

> 

> 

> 

> 2009/3/19 Paul McGrath <[address removed]>

>> 

>> Wholeheartedly agree.

>> Having been a contractor since 1996 - I've shared all of the experiences

>> described by Phil here. Spotting job duplicates on jobserve et al or

>> fictitious jobs aimed at CV fishing comes with the territory.

>> Good recruiters realise that contractors are not fungible commodities.

>> Good recruiters also realise that they have to actively manage/satisfy

>> both contractors and clients.

>> Unfortunately as Phil attests - good recruiters are difficult to find.

>> Its primarily why and many of my contractor colleagues no longer use job

>> advertisement sites.

>> 

>> On Thu, Mar 19, 2009 at 11:27 AM, phil jones <[address removed]> wrote:

>>> 

>>> I'd say that in current circumstances, we don't want to be hostile to

>>> anyone who knows about good jobs :-)

>>> 

>>> But I think there's a great opportunity for a recruiter who raises

>>> their game above the others. Way too many of them work on a "throw

>>> enough mud against the wall" principle. Too many recruiters I've seem

>>> post jobs to get you to register your CV and then you never hear

>>> anything about the job you applied for but start getting spammed with

>>> a lot of badly matching adverts that read like they've been scraped

>>> off someone else's site.

>>> 

>>> Or spammed with other "keep in contact" fluff. I swear that one agency

>>> spammed me last week with something about "how to write a great cover

>>> letter" that was tied in with a story-telling festival or something.

>>> Clever ... but in a trite way. Making me think that these people had

>>> no real information to give me.

>>> 

>>> Here's what I'd like from a better recruiter.

>>> 

>>> 1) Tracking of my CV application. When I send a CV to you for a job,

>>> I'd like to see what stage it's reached in the process. Did you read

>>> my CV yet? Did you reject is as not a good fit? Did you reject it

>>> because you didn't think it's good enough? Did you pass it on to the

>>> employer and get a rejection back? Or nothing?

>>> 

>>> I won't be offended or have my feeling hurt; give me real feedback

>>> about my application. Tell me why I failed. THEN you can start giving

>>> me advice on doing a better one, or applying for better fitting jobs.

>>> 

>>> 2) Tracking the Job. It's inexcusable to keep advertising a job that's

>>> already gone. Or that you've scraped off another site. I want an

>>> agency that only shows jobs that that it's been hired to recruit for

>>> and has good knowledge of. And I want the agency to tell me, as an

>>> applicant, what's going on with that position. How many other people

>>> applied? If I get rejected, how many other people are left in the

>>> running? (Am I in the top 3 or was I filtered out when 50 others were

>>> put forward?) And I want an email the moment you know that the job

>>> went to someone else, so I'm not still wondering about it and can be

>>> on to the next thing.

>>> 

>>> 3) Give me as much real information about the company as possible.

>>> Treat me with respect, not paranoia. If you help me find a job with a

>>> great company, I'm not going to go directly to them and screw you out

>>> of your middle-man fee. Don't hide all the real information as though

>>> I might.

>>> 

>>> 4) Loads of other ways you can add value. When you post the salary

>>> that's offered, show me statistics of other, similar positions you

>>> know about. Is this a good salary for this kind of job? Other sites

>>> track the average salary for different positions, why can't you?

>>> 

>>> 5) Better filtering. I'm not a .NET guy. There's nothing about .NET on

>>> my CV. Sure, as a C, C++, Java, LAMP-stack guy I *could* learn .NET

>>> pretty easily if I needed to. But I didn't mention it. So why are you

>>> sending me dozens of .NET jobs as "good matches"?

>>> 

>>> 6) Why not find out more about me? You got a CV. Perhaps you could

>>> have more online questionnaires. Take a leaf out of the social

>>> networks like Facebook who are always asking me to classify myself in

>>> different ways. Sure, I'm not going to tell you about "Things I do

>>> when the boss isn't looking" but there are some mutually beneficial

>>> questions you can ask, to help me know more about myself and you (and

>>> potential employers) to know more about me.

>>> 

>>> Recruiting has a bad rep. with a lot of people, because it's just not

>>> done all that well. Like I say, that's a great opportunity for someone

>>> to do it much better.

>>> 

>>> phil