Have you ever dealt with a recruiter?

[Mr Smiley]

I just graduated with a bachelors degree in cs. I am currently looking for an entry level software engineering job in my area or with the option to reallocate. I put my resume pretty much everywhere and have recently been getting an enormous amount of calls and emails from recruiters. Yesterday, I talked with one and he scheduled me for a phone interview with a director of product development with a small local company. The description the recruiter gave me sounded like I would be doing development in Java or PHP which I would be happy to do but 3 hours before the phone interview, he gave me the full description of the position which stated the company was looking for someone to do small time bug fixing and testing with the option of becoming a developer in 1-2 years! I would be absolutely bored with this job and it is not a position I would have applied for otherwise... The phone interview with the director was absolutely horrible and we both knew I was a bad fit for the position.

Have any of you had experience with recruiters? Are they known to misrepresent positions like this?

 

[Gibson486]

There are good ones and bad ones....

you just have to know how to pick them.

And yes, lots do misrepresent. For me, it's the opposite, they keep giving me positions that want 8 years experience. I only 2 years from internships that is applicable, but the other 3 is dong consulting.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Have any of you had experience with recruiters? Are they known to misrepresent positions like this?

Bwahahahahaha!
Recruiters are the scum of the earth. They make used car salesman look like paragons.

 

[halik]

I've had couple interviews set up via a recruiter and also a couple attempts to set interviews for extraneous jobs.

Here's a sure fire way to tell good from bad recruiter - if the company they set you up with isn't reimbursing travel costs, it's gonna be a waste of your time.

 

[Gibson486]

Not really, lots of companies no longer reimburse travel.

If you are talking about reimbursing mileage, then wow because I have never seen or a heard a company reimburse local candidates.

 

[yllus]

My rule of thumb: Recruiters who call you = bad recruiters. Recruiters that you're referred to who don't do cold calls = good recruiters.

Keep in mind that recruiters work A) for their commission and B) for the company. I'd say they work for you in C) but to be honest, they don't work for you at all. They will not go to bat for you to squeeze an extra $2k/year of salary out of the company, so don't ask them to. And bad recruiters most certainly will misrepresent a position in order to get A).

 

[shortylickens]

Yes, and I been lucky. They were all smart enough to know that their career is based on how well they fill positions, not how many. If you get a bad rep as a headhunter or recruiter you will be in the unemployment line yourself someday.

 

[SandEagle]

i've dealt with a few good ones and one bad one. the work assignment on the client site added more responsibilities that were out of scope from my original contract. recruiter did not want to give me an increase even though they increased my billing hours. i told them to screw off and i quit

 

[Mr Smiley]

Thanks guys! From now on, I will ask for the complete job description or I will walk. It was nice that he could get my foot in the door... too bad it was to an entrance to a place I didn't want to be in.

 

[BladeVenom]

nevermind

 

[InflatableBuddha]

I've worked with several recruiters in Sydney as I didn't have many connections when I got here. I've found that the recruiters with agencies specific to my industry have been much more helpful than the general agencies, who will try to slot you into any shit position they have available.

As long as you call them up every few days to keep in touch, some of them are good at getting you interviews for suitable positions.

I tend to view recruiters as another avenue for job-hunting, and not the most ideal one - which is professional networking.

 

[Gibson486]

Thanks guys! From now on, I will ask for the complete job description or I will walk. It was nice that he could get my foot in the door... too bad it was to an entrance to a place I didn't want to be in.

part of the learning process my friend.

 

[Gibson486]

I've worked with several recruiters in Sydney as I didn't have many connections when I got here. I've found that the recruiters with agencies specific to my industry have been much more helpful than the general agencies, who will try to slot you into any shit position they have available.

As long as you call them up every few days to keep in touch, some of them are good at getting you interviews for suitable positions.

I tend to view recruiters as another avenue for job-hunting, and not the most ideal one - which is professional networking.

the thing about networking is that people view it as "oh, I met this person, he is on my linkedin...I am good...I now have over 100 connections". Then they complain about how their network does squat for them. I don't know, but technology makes people believe things should be so easy. In reality, things are easier, but you still have to put tons of work into networking. You have to give before you get something in return. People fail to understand this.

 

[InflatableBuddha]

the thing about networking is that people view it as "oh, I met this person, he is on my linkedin...I am good...I now have over 100 connections". Then they complain about how their network does squat for them. I don't know, but technology makes people believe things should be so easy. In reality, things are easier, but you still have to put tons of work into networking. You have to give before you get something in return. People fail to understand this.

Definitely...and I was referring to in-person networking. I'm aware of the shortcomings of Linkedin.

For instance, a few months ago, one of my friends mentioned in conversation that he was looking to hire another electrician to work for his father's business. Then, when I was hanging out with another friend, he mentioned that he was looking for work as an electrician.

I put them in touch with each other, and it turns out my friend was a good fit for the job.