Dealing With Recruiters
Posted by Davy Brion on August 18th, 2008
One of the things i dislike the most about being a developer is dealing with recruiters. Even if you’re not listed on any of the job-sites, these people still call you, often in the middle of the workday. I generally feel uncomfortable when you have to deal with a call like that while you’re at work because i don’t want people to think i’m looking for another job (which i’m not). So i keep the sound of my phone off, and i only answer calls from numbers that i have in my contacts or recognize. If i don’t know the number, i divert the call to voicemail (and i don’t really listen to those messages either).
So today i noticed that a certain number tried to call me 4 times. Of course, i don’t pick up. Tonight after work though, i was expecting a call from someone else and i accidentally answered a call from the same number that had tried to call me today. Turns out it was some recruiter.
Him: “Hi I’m So AndSo from DevelopersMeatMarket and i was wondering if you were looking for a new career opportunity”
Me: “Nope, not interested”
Him: “I actually tried calling you a few times today, don’t you even wanna hear me out?”
Me: “Not really… I actually try to avoid recruiters, to be honest”
Him: “Well, you do realize that recruiters are an important part of this business, right? After all, we’re the people who get developers great jobs. Answering those calls is very important for your career.”
owkey… if there’s one thing i dislike more than dealing with recruiters, it’s dealing with recruiters with an attitude.
Me: “Oh really? So tell me, what do you say to your customer when he starts complaining to you that i’m spending too much time dealing with recruiters for my next job?”
At that point he sounds uncomfortable, as if he had no idea how to respond to that.
Me: “Or should i start ignoring other recruiters once i start working for your company?”
Him: “Well, umm… ”
Again, silence.
Me: “Right, i think we can wrap up this conversation… good luck finding somebody”
And then i hung up. When will they learn?
August 18th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
A few months ago I got a call on the company line!
Him: Hey can you speak out loud or should I call back later?
Me: Neigh
After pointing out that I was more than satisfied at Item and that I didn’t wanna be in a car two hours a day for a few hundreds more, he asked me if one of my fellow colleagues could maybe be interested in a new career move…
I was this close to yelling through the office “hey is anyone not happy here and looking for a new job?”. I might do that next time :o)
August 18th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
hah!
That would’ve been great though
August 19th, 2008 at 12:09 am
Ahh recruiters. They are a necessary evil though, from a hiring perspective. I hate, I mean *hate* working with recruiters, and make lots of efforts via craigs list and job boards to avoid having to and yet every single person on the team who has made it through the initial ring of fire in our shop was from a recruiter. They are aggresive, often dishonest but always on an ethical borderline especially when it comes to dealing with salaries, and at the end of the day glorified car salesman, but we’d be less succesful without them nevertheless. I think that is just how capitalist society works.
August 19th, 2008 at 7:18 am
i guess it depends a lot on the region you’re in though… over here (Belgium), most of these recruiters just try to dump you with a client for as long as possible. Not really my ideal way of being succesful
August 19th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
I’ve had a few calling me on the company line in the past few months too. I instructed our company secretary to blow them off. However, until they get you on the line they have got the nerve to come up with the strangest stories: they’re taking a survey, they say they are students… one even introduced himself as a close personal friend of mine!? Honestly, the job market would be alot healthier without them. If I ever want a new job, I’ll look for it myself.
The only way I can think of they know of me is through linkedin. Lately I noticed linkedin is getting a bit saturated with the likes of them… If it keeps on going like that I’ll seriously consider removing my linkedin account.