Recruiter woes
It’s pretty sad how incredibly pushy recruiters are these days. Not that I can really speak to how they were several years ago. Since posting the listing for a job opening here at Moon River Software about three weeks ago, I’ve gotten a number of calls from various recruiters. It has picked up in the past couple of weeks. I believe that last week alone I received about a dozen calls.
It wouldn’t be nearly as irritating if I hadn’t put this line at the bottom of my job posting:
“Principals only please. Unsolicited resumes from third party agencies will not be accepted. No calls please.”
Doesn’t that mean anything to anyone? Do these people not read? Apparently not. I’ve gotten all sorts of recruiters calling and telling me all about the latest and greatest .NET or Java programmer that would be perfect for my position.
Huh? Did you even read the job description? Yes, I mentioned Java. Yes, I mentioned .NET. Both are under the ‘Nice to have’ category. I want a developer, not a programmer. Just yesterday, I told a recruiter that I was thoroughly booked with interviews through the end of the week and was expecting to make a decision at that time. He proceeded to tell me about all the great people he had, and how he just wanted a chance to prove himself and what he could do.
Me: “Are you a developer?”
Him: “No.”
Me: “Have you ever written software or developed code before?”
Him: “No, but I’ve got some great people who have and are looking for jobs.”
Now how in the hell do you expect to be able to tell me who is and isn’t a good developer? He proceeded to tell me that they had a team of people who do pre-interviews in his office. None of which have any computer science training or development experience of course. But hey, he could have five resumes from his five best candidates in my email waiting by the end of the day.
What part of “I’m booked with interviews through the end of the week and am expecting to make a decision at that time” wasn’t clear? Does that somehow magically free up time for one more interview? Let alone five more?
These people need some serious perspective adjustments. If anyone out there has a baseball bat and would like to help in that effort, let me know. As gratifying as that might be, I believe I have a better solution.
The next time a recruiter calls, I’m going to ask him to send me a credit card before I talk to him. Then I’ll charge my consulting rates for even speaking with him. Perhaps it will encourage him to get to the point quicker. And if they don’t get to the point quickly, at least I will have made a few bucks.
Agreed, some job agencies are pushy. I usually receive at least 2-3 calls from different firms on getting the right candidate for me from one job posting.
Why are they doing that? I think that’s the only way they could actively find their customers.
And yes, they do not what’s the difference between a programmer and a developer. Not only them I guess – even people in the industry do not know the difference.
Nine years on, nothing has changed. As a contractor, I encounter these pushy, clueless dickheads all the time. Despite having “NO RECRUITERS” prominently displayed on my LinkedIn profile, they call and email constantly. Are they too dumb to know that call blocking and email blacklisting is a thing?
And if you ever do make the mistake of humouring one of them, heaven help you. They just see that as weakness. Despite over-promising and under-delivering constantly, they attempt to contact you again and again after you break contact and tell them not to approach you again. It’s hard to see how such behaviour is considered productive even by someone as stupid as a recruiter.