"When you first talk to a recruiter, describe what you liked and didn’t like about past jobs. Then ask them for career advice: what sort of job do you think I’d enjoy?"
Very much an idealist's view of the standard average Recruiter - The last time i spoke to a recruiter was well over 4 years ago and she would have been totally confused and have no clue what to say if i had asked her such a question.
This is in London, mind you, Boston might very well be different ( though i have my doubts ).
I have known ones who get confused about career questions like the one the author posed and a few who actually know where I'm coming from. I work with the latter.
All recruiters need to think about the customer, which is the employers who pay commission for connecting them with talent. Those who survive in the industry excel at making that connection with the employer. They learn the fine art of kissing up to executives and hiring managers while performing the bureaucratic gymnastics required by HR. That's important, but those who really understand the needs of talent can add more value by bringing better hires to employers and foster deeper relationships. Sadly, many recruiters are too short-sighted to see that.
I recently worked with a recruiter near Boston. I told her I liked one start-up position she sent me but I wanted to work on the Linux development not the Windows. She setup the interview then 1 hour before she called to tell me to focus on my Windows experience and not my Linux in the interview. That is when I realized she didn't care about what I wanted, all she wanted was for me to get the job so she could get her fee.
That's the point: it's a test to distinguish the good recruiters from the average. As you say, if they're confused & have no clue, they're average. I updated the post to be a little clearer, thanks for pointing that out.
I've worked with several recruiters in Boston and I can say without a doubt that they would have been confused and maybe gave me some lip service about helping me out. Eventually it'd end with them probably laughing at me behind closed doors and then sending me whatever jobs came across their desk that they thought I might sort of be qualified for.
During my last job search (this past summer), I was contacted by several recruiters. I had phone interviews with several, and an in-person interview with one. I found them to be unhelpful and a waste of time at best, and demeaning and condescending at worst. They treated me like fodder, and were obsessed with keyword and "years of experience with X" matching.
In my entire programming career so far, I have always been hired by principals who valued my intelligence and problem-solving ability over my experience with particular languages or frameworks (e.g. I always get hired to do something I've never exactly done before -- though not intentionally).
I plan to never work with a recruiter again, since their approach is completely orthogonal to mine. I suppose the author's point about higher-level/management positions might be worth considering, so I might reconsider my position on recruiters if/when I cross that career bridge.
I've found 2 recruiters who seem to be good; one enabled an interview while the other never did obtain me an interview. On the bad side; I've had recruiters try to intimidate me to acquire information, contact me at work despite my limiting information to prevent this and best of all 'we need your resume in a specific format before we can help you.' Not to mention my favorite, this job promises this and when you interview you find out that it doesn't.
A good recruiter will have contacts that can help you but it probably helps you more to develop the marketing skills yourself. Know how to format your resume to obtain the interview along with writing a good cover letter. Develop your professional contacts.
Several friends, a.k.a. professional colleagues, and I have concluded that very rarely will recruiters add value to the job search process for the candidate but they do help HR folks who have no idea how to find people.
Some points in this article could use elaboration:
- If you have already contacted a company (even just blind-sent your resume to their HR department and gotten no response), the recruiter generally will not be able to get a commission on your behalf, and will not use their contacts to get you in there
- Recruiters' pay is usually contingent on you staying at the job for 3-6 months. This encourages recruiters to get you jobs doing work you have already proven yourself able to do. Whereas many tech job searchers are looking for a new stretch job with greater responsibilities. This is a fundamental incompatibility in goals you'll have to deal with.
Very much an idealist's view of the standard average Recruiter - The last time i spoke to a recruiter was well over 4 years ago and she would have been totally confused and have no clue what to say if i had asked her such a question.
This is in London, mind you, Boston might very well be different ( though i have my doubts ).