As a technical recruiter I am not shocked by this post but I am a little frustrated with the large brush that is painted on the industry as a whole. I mean, I have worked with some BAD Developers, everything they write breaks the minute it is in production, you can never pry them away from the foosball table or lunch room, they smell and can’t speak in complete sentences BUT I still recruit for technical talent because not everyone is alike. Just like every industry there are rock stars and other guys just trying to put food on the table.
I have been honored to survive this tough economical climate in the confines of a corporate recruiting gig for a technically forward high frequency trading firm in my hometown of Houston. Over the last few years I know more recruiters who have lost their jobs than I can count, some have lost their homes and their families. Does this sound familiar to anyone, maybe say the days of 2001 for the tech set?
If the stories I have heard our true (I got into the biz in '04) developers making 150/hr one day are banging on recruiters doors begging for interviews the next.
So ya, I get it, some recruiters have zero technical skills, know little to nothing about the job/client but at their core they are human beings. And just maybe, the client doesn't have a lot to sell at the moment, maybe they are still working out the kinks to their "value proposition" but they know they are onto something.
So ignore the calls, politely say you aren't interested but remember, the tides can turn…quickly. The recruiter who doesn't know squat about server level architectural may be next door neighbors to someone who has enough funding to throw you a bone.
Good developers are hardly ever on the market. The majority of them are happy at their current jobs, and they know they could go anywhere else they wanted because their skills are highly valued.
I'm sure it gets annoying when they frequently receive emails about "Technically Forward High Frequency Trading Firms" from recruiters who happened to find them through playing buzzword bingo.
These recruiters tout that this new "opportunity" will give more money, benefits, responsibility, good looks, and sexual prowess, but never do the due diligence to make sure that their client is actually a good fit.
It's the shotgun approach that most recruiters use that turns good developers off.
Maybe once these recruiters treat developers with more respect, so will they.
So great point, the best developers are never out of work. How would you recommend a recruiter network with said developers? How do we build mutually beneficial relationships? I tend not to cold call people, just because I think there are better ways to meet people but not all recruiters have that type of network.
I suppose I am interested in a solution oriented debate. I hear how you don't like be contacted, how can we do it better?
Oh, and a technically forward HFT means that we are using decently cutting edge stuff, HPC, low latency code, etc. As for offering you better looks and sexual prowess I think I have to opt out on that one. If you find that job, let me know I will send it to a few ex boyfriends. :)
"So great point, the best developers are never out of work. How would you recommend a recruiter network with said developers? How do we build mutually beneficial relationships? I tend not to cold call people, just because I think there are better ways to meet people but not all recruiters have that type of network."
As a recruiter myself, understanding the what it is like to be a developer and connecting on the "what makes them tick" level is important. Going to meetups and getting immersed in the startup scene is great, but going the extra mile will have long lasting impact. I am a non technical guy, but over the years, I have tried my best to learn code myself. HTML, CSS, Ruby. Just leveraging the vast amount of learning tools on the internet makes this possible. Although I might never be an employable programmer, I have had a lot of great chats with developers on my own experiences and that breaks the ice and creates trust immediately.
Take no offense, but I think his point (and the point of the article) was that in this situation recruiters are not needed. The market of top notch developers and the companies they would want to work for is small enough to work efficiently on its own with no need for a middleman.
Imagine if someone called you everyday to help you find a local gas station and then charged the gas station 20% of all gas you bought from them in 1 year. You already know about all the gas stations within a 1 mile radius from your house and you're not interested in any gas stations outside of that.
Like the article said once you start looking at larger companies and more entry level developers the market gets much larger and could use the help of recruiters to increase efficiency.
Even if I'm not actively looking for a job, I'm always looking for a good beer. And I'm sure that's true of many good developers. I've always thought it was weird that recruiters never tried organizing drinkups or sponsoring barcamps.
To attempt the argument that there are bad developers in comparison to the amount of bad recruiters is weak. Less than 50% of developers are actually incompetent whereas more than 90% of recruiters are useless.
I'm a Tech Recruiter in London and I work hard to keep myself in that 10% bracket and I blog regularly about the horrible state of the recruitment industry. Most of the arguments on this page are valid and the large brush we've been painted with is deserved.
I suspect you'll get downvoted for this, because the tone of your comment insinuates developers need recruiters. While this may be the case for the lowest percentile, the fact remains that companies need recruiters to locate and hire that top percentile of talent.
The tone of my post implies that the candidate/recruiter relationship is a reciprocal one, in good times we need you in bad times you may need us. The intent of my post is to share the recruiters side and hopefully have a balanced debate. I get that there are BAD recruiters out there, I totally hear that but not all of us are clueless, which is, in my option, the tone of the original blog <recruiters are by and large a waste of your time>
I have been honored to survive this tough economical climate in the confines of a corporate recruiting gig for a technically forward high frequency trading firm in my hometown of Houston. Over the last few years I know more recruiters who have lost their jobs than I can count, some have lost their homes and their families. Does this sound familiar to anyone, maybe say the days of 2001 for the tech set?
If the stories I have heard our true (I got into the biz in '04) developers making 150/hr one day are banging on recruiters doors begging for interviews the next.
So ya, I get it, some recruiters have zero technical skills, know little to nothing about the job/client but at their core they are human beings. And just maybe, the client doesn't have a lot to sell at the moment, maybe they are still working out the kinks to their "value proposition" but they know they are onto something.
So ignore the calls, politely say you aren't interested but remember, the tides can turn…quickly. The recruiter who doesn't know squat about server level architectural may be next door neighbors to someone who has enough funding to throw you a bone.