Ask HN: Why should I not use a recruiter when moving?

4 points by karbon 11 years ago | 4 comments

If you move to a new area, you will generally need to work with a real estate agent. One of the benefits as a renter / purchaser is that you get the help of someone who knows availability in the area, who knows the local laws, and they can help you personally to find a home that is a good fit for you.

A tech recruiter be seen to be providing a similar service. I will be moving shortly and will most likely need to find a software engineering job in the new area. In this area I don't know anyone. It would be easier if someone could guide me through the process of saying, based on my personal preferences, what companies may be a good fit for me. They may have more information about local salaries as well and can be of guidance when negotiating salary as well.

My sense is that the general prevailing idea is that you should never work with a tech recruiter.. despite my above points why should I not use a recruiter?

pixeloution 11 years ago |

Why not use a recruiter? That's a great question. Lets take a fictional recruiter named Joe.

To begin with, Joe isn't working for you; you're Joe's product. That answer would be enough to turn me away.

Where are Joe's Interests aligned? With yours? No, Joe wants to place you in a job, at any salary. Joe's company gets 30% of your first year's income from the employer, and Joe himself gets a much smaller slice. Joe's slice of $120k is similar enough to his slice of 130k that he beneifts most from placing you at any salary he can get you to accept, and then moving on to the next position.

Ah. So Joe's interests must be aligned with the hiring company, right? Only to the extent that Joe needs them to hire you (or someone like you) and he needs you to last at least X months so he doesn't get a claw back. His interests are more closely aligned with the company than yours, but ultimately its about filling seats for Joe. He wants to convince the company that each candidate is THE candidate.

Does this sound like a guy you want to help you find employment?

And finally, in the form of purely anecdotal personal experience, I've had recruiters flat out lie about aspects of the position. At the time I was too naive to verify facts with the employer.

whichdan 11 years ago | |

On the flip side, if the recruiter is a personal recommendation from someone you trust, and you don't feel comfortable negotiating salary or writing cover letters, they can be a quick way to get the ball rolling with several different companies. It's not like you can't research the companies that the recruiter is working with before applying.

That said, pixeloution's advice is spot on and applies to 90% of the recruiters you'll find via Google/LinkedIn/etc.

Bahamut 11 years ago | |

I have only had good experience with a few recruiters - the first one I worked with to get my first job, and one who only sent quality resumes to my company after working with them for years.

I have noticed a pattern from the hiring side though - recruiters often first send a lot of crappy resumes. It takes giving a serious talk about the quality of resumes being sent our way before they start sending more serious resumes. It dawned on me that a recruiter's role is to play matchmaker, not necessarily to send the best resumes to your company. This means that only the companies that complain & threaten to cut off the relationship are the ones that see the best resumes.

MichaelCrawford 11 years ago |

There are certain, specific recruiters I recommend highly, however I recommend those individuals - as people - and not the companies they work for.

Suppose you get a job as a temporary contract programmer. The client - their client - is somehow unhappy with you, and wants your recruiter to fire you.

Would you expect the recruiter to come to your defense?

No, because they won't want to lose a valuable client. You'll get a security guard and a cardboard box, the recruiter will get their commission by placing some other candidate.

I'm building The Global Computer Employer Index at:

http://www.warplife.com/jobs/computer/

I only have a few cities listed so far, and in each city, not so many companies. However if you tell me where you're moving to - email mdcrawford@gmail.com if you prefer - I'll post whatever I have for your new home, and will make a concerted effort to find more companies there.

Real Soon Now I'm going to automate the process of discovering technical employers. I've been building the site manually while I puzzle over how to do that.

My site does not work well at all for smartphones. Use a desktop box. A mobile friendly website is a high priority but is going to take me a little while.