{"id":2014,"date":"2015-02-09T17:20:01","date_gmt":"2015-02-09T23:20:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mooreds.com\/wordpress\/?p=2014"},"modified":"2015-02-10T09:36:30","modified_gmt":"2015-02-10T15:36:30","slug":"how-to-engage-with-recruiters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mooreds.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2014","title":{"rendered":"How to engage with recruiters"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure style=\"width: 150px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" title=\"Microsoft recruiters by JimsFlicker\" src=\"http:\/\/www.mooreds.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/8513126461_e41357ebed_q_recruiter.jpg\" alt=\"recruiter photo\" width=\"150\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><small>Photo by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/28156061@N04\/8513126461\" target=\"_blank\">JimsFlicker<\/a> <a title=\"Attribution License\" href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.mooreds.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-inject\/images\/cc.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>If you are a software engineer or developer right now, you are in demand.\u00a0 There&#8217;s a dearth of software developers, and so you are probably getting calls from recruiters.\u00a0 This is location dependent&#8211;my understanding is that the SF market is white hot, and the market for software developers in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dice.com\/jobs?q=&amp;l=Yuma+County%2C+CO\">Yuma CO<\/a> is softer.<\/p>\n<p>When I first was approached by a recruiter, I was flattered.\u00a0 Here was a stranger trying to find me a job.\u00a0 Quickly I realized that recruiters were not working for me (they get paid to place a candidate, so they are working for the company) and that most recruiters didn&#8217;t have a technical background at all.\u00a0 This made me feel less charitable toward recruiters, and I have found that common amongst developers, especially now that they have so many job options.<\/p>\n<p>Older and wiser, now I have a more balanced approach.\u00a0 Here&#8217;s my tips for dealing with tech recruiters:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Communicate what I want.\u00a0 This means knowing what I want in a new job or contract, which can include availability (both hours and start date), minimum rate, location, work condition (remote), technology, sector.\u00a0 Tell the recruiter all this up front.\u00a0 I often state: &#8220;hey, at this point in time, I&#8217;m rather picky, and I don&#8217;t want to waste your time.\u00a0 Here is what would interest me: &#8230;&#8221;.\u00a0 This lets them self select out quickly, before the &#8220;get to know you&#8221; phone call.\u00a0 I should probably put this on my <a href=\"\/wordpress\/hire-me\">Hire Me<\/a> page, now that I think about it.\u00a0 Just need to make sure I keep this up to date.<\/li>\n<li>Realize I am in in their database forever.\u00a0 I gave my resume to someone in 2004 who I lived with who worked at a recruiting firm.\u00a0 I still get calls from that same firm.<\/li>\n<li>Make sure I am treated like a professional, and don&#8217;t put up with non professional acts.\u00a0 Do they respond when I ask them to, answer my questions, and treat me with respect.\u00a0 I actually had to hang up on a recruiter recently who, after I had told her I was busy and couldn&#8217;t talk right then, in an email and earlier on the call, continued to ask &#8220;just a few questions&#8221; about my skill set.\u00a0 It wasn&#8217;t fun, but she was not being respectful of my time.<\/li>\n<li>The other side of the coin is that I need to treat them with equal respect. That means being honest with them about needs and skills and responding to emails in a timely, respectful fashion.\u00a0 It also means if I hear of someone with a needed skillset, doing an intro (wearing my <a href=\"\/wordpress\/archives\/1728\">informal recruiter hat<\/a>).<\/li>\n<li>Make the exchange of information a two way street.\u00a0 Whenever I get contacted by a recruiter, they always want &#8220;5-10 minutes to talk to see how I can help you in your career&#8221;.\u00a0 When I get them on the phone, I make sure to ask them questions about the market, other skills they&#8217;ve seen in demand, what specific technologies they&#8217;ve seen needs for, what kind of companies are hiring.<\/li>\n<li>Thank them for supporting various meetups, if they do.\u00a0 The local Java Users&#8217; Group has pizza and soda provided every month by a recruiting firm.\u00a0 This actually makes me more likely to respond to recruiters from that firm, because, while it&#8217;s not caviar, it&#8217;s nice to have dinner paid for.<\/li>\n<li>Realize the difference between being sought for who I am (that&#8217;s being headhunted, and is reserved for senior folks and niches) and being sought for my skills.\u00a0 I&#8217;ve never been in the position of having a stranger seeking me for who I am (I imagine internet famous folks like <a href=\"http:\/\/raibledesigns.com\/\">Matt Raible<\/a> probably have), but I have had former co-workers do so.\u00a0 Incidentally, the former is by far a better way to join an organization.<\/li>\n<li>I keep my linked in profile up to date.\u00a0 This makes it very easy to send recruiters a resume, should they ask for one.<\/li>\n<li>I realize the tables may turn.\u00a0 Right now, and for the near future, development is in great demand.\u00a0 But I&#8217;ve been through one &#8216;software recession&#8217; and I expect there will be more.\u00a0 Beyond the basic dignity I ascribe to every human being, recruiters can get me a job.\u00a0 So, except in the cases where recruiters aren&#8217;t respectful, I treat them with respect.<\/li>\n<li>I don&#8217;t take random recruiter calls or requests on LinkedIn.\u00a0 LinkedIn emails are different&#8211;if a recruiter has paid for a premium account, it&#8217;s easy enough to respond with a quick &#8216;not interested&#8217; if the position isn&#8217;t for me.\u00a0 But if a recruiter is trying to connect on LinkedIn without having met me at all, they are not serious.\u00a0 If a recruiter is serious about getting in touch with me, I can be found in about a thousand different ways online.\u00a0 I think recruiters who send LinkedIn requests are lazy and not worth responding to.<\/li>\n<li>As above, I respond to recruiter emails, even if is just &#8216;no thanks&#8217;.\u00a0 Again, basic human dignity.<\/li>\n<li>Finally, I&#8217;m trying to cultivate a few good recruiters.\u00a0 Whether these are referrals from a friend, or recruiters that I&#8217;ve met at an event, there are a few that stand out.\u00a0 One recruiter (Dave from <a href=\"http:\/\/technicalintegrity.com\/\">Technical Integrity<\/a>) actually introduced me to a few of his friends so I could ask some exploratory questions about a different sector.\u00a0 You better believe that I&#8217;ll recommend him and think of him when I have friends who are looking for work.\u00a0 That company focuses on startups and full time employees, so I haven&#8217;t had the experience of working for them, but when my needs change, I will certainly see if they are looking.\u00a0 The idea is to have the relationship last longer than a single contract.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Reviewing my list, I boil it down to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>recruiters are human beings, treat them like it<\/li>\n<li>they don&#8217;t work for you<\/li>\n<li>set your expectations and boundaries<\/li>\n<li>software development is hot now, but won&#8217;t be forever<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Any tips you have on engaging with recruiters?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you are a software engineer or developer right now, you are in demand.\u00a0 There&#8217;s a dearth of software developers, and so you are probably getting calls from recruiters.\u00a0 This [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jobs","category-programming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mooreds.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mooreds.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mooreds.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mooreds.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mooreds.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2014"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.mooreds.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2028,"href":"https:\/\/www.mooreds.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2014\/revisions\/2028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mooreds.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mooreds.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mooreds.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}