Recruiters are playing a numbers game and don't have the bandwidth to be filtering candidates. The "only send me candidates with a portfolio" criteria is completely objective. Imagine a recruiter trying to decide if a programmer is any good? (e.g.: "I'm sorry, but the client [for this job writing java software] is looking for a candidate with Oracle 9i experience"...when my previous job had been using Oracle 8i. It wasn't a DBA position and SQL had not changed much, and both companies were using ORMs anyway!)
For a startup, I think your early employees are so critical that you have to do the recruiting job yourself. I know it is seductive to think that you can outsource it, but you really can't.
These days you've got an entire social network -- LinkedIn -- designed to have people help refer other people for jobs.
Further, it was very early in my career that I just completely gave up on working with recruiters, and long before social networks even existed. I think that other good programmers probably are the same way-- why send your resume to people who will retype it with typos just to remove your name, lie to you, and send it randomly to hiring managers without talking to you first?
Perfectly good blog post and amusing story. But I think that the startup culture would do well to evolve away from using recruiters and rely more on networking.
But I think that the startup culture would do well to evolve away from using recruiters and rely more on networking.
The problem with that is that it makes it even more incestuous and hard to enter from outside. Yes, yes, if you can't find an employee to introduce you, you're not trying hard enough, etc, just like pitching a VC.
But seriously, given how hard a time we're having getting new blood now, making it harder to get in is negative progress. It's a lose.
You make a good point. I wasn't intending to promote incestuousness, and to limit potential hires to ones who got referred.... if I ever get an email out of the blue from someone looking for a job, I'll help them, and I'll be keen to see if they might be a good fit. Someone with some gumption like that is automatically more interesting to me than someone who comes from a recruiter.
Also, kids in high school, new college grads, self taught hackers.... show me someone with a strong drive and I'm half sold.
So, no, I didn't mean to imply any sort of incestuousness... I'd like the opposite. I'm interested in a lot of people that reciters would filter out. "No college degree? Trashcan!" For me, its "No college degree because he spent the four years building a crappy startup that totally failed stupidly? Hire 'em!"
PS- please don't take this as me trying to recruit. I'm not. We're not ready for that, yet.
LinkedIn is good as far as it goes, but I wouldn't call it a complete or ideal solution to the hiring problem. Worth using - but also worth competing with.
For a startup, I think your early employees are so critical that you have to do the recruiting job yourself. I know it is seductive to think that you can outsource it, but you really can't.
These days you've got an entire social network -- LinkedIn -- designed to have people help refer other people for jobs.
Further, it was very early in my career that I just completely gave up on working with recruiters, and long before social networks even existed. I think that other good programmers probably are the same way-- why send your resume to people who will retype it with typos just to remove your name, lie to you, and send it randomly to hiring managers without talking to you first?
Perfectly good blog post and amusing story. But I think that the startup culture would do well to evolve away from using recruiters and rely more on networking.