I’ve got tech recruiters from agencies all over Los Angeles calling me everyday - almost twice a day pitching me jobs and my number is not even listed anywhere. Tech recruiters have always used somewhat “grey” techniques in trying to find candidates such as asking people to refer their friends or colleagues to receive a referral fee, or cold calling companies asking for random people until they find a tech person who they can pitch a candidate, or pitch a new job. Now these agencies are trolling LinkedIn cold-calling companies and lying that they are connected to you through LinkedIn. What really annoys me is their fake way of trying to establish a friendship with you asking “what are your plans this weekend?” I’M NOT YOU’RE FRIEND! Why the hell should I tell you? And do all tech recruiters use the same script? I’ve been asked the “what are your plans this weekend” question multiple times by multiple recruiters at multiple agencies. AND NOW the new technique they are using is “I’m not calling to pitch you a job, but to ask you for a reference”. TWO recruiters from TWO different agencies almost used those exact words. Is there some shady tech recruiter conference that these people all go to?
I should open up my own tech staffing agency - but run it like the Hollywood studio system back in the old days. Hollywood studios used to sign actors with whom they saw potential and would groom them to be movie stars. I would sign top programmers who could not only code but were attractive and had really good presentation skills and then represent them through their entire career through the myriad of jobs that tech people go through - or help them start their own company. Top Hollywood agents and managers do this now and just collect a 10%-15% agency/management fee or establish a back-end deal with the actor.
On another note - why do tech people need to use recruiters anyway? In this day and age of LinkedIn and other social networks it should be easy enough for anyone to find a job through their friends and end up with a higher salary since they aren’t going through a recruitment agency. The true hustlers will never need to use an agency. They will find business opportunities for themselves or even better, create their own opportunities.
Don’t get it twisted. In many ways I’m not mad at this situation. There’s obviously no recession in the internet/tech sector.
Dave,
Good point, I actually think your old school hollywood idea is a pretty good one, but with the current economic theory most of our corporations are applying to managing and hiring this hit and miss cold call idea will continue to expand its self into other sectors of the work force. I was in the fork lift tech world for a while after getting out of the service and pretty much engineering theory of design of machinery has eleminated the troubleshooting skilled tech and replaced him with a warm body that doesnt cost much to feed and can easily swap components out as opposed to a semi skilled tech that they can groom along to become a master crafstmen in his or her particular field. its frustrating to see that the skills i have aqquired over the years have become almost obsolete due to engineering design and computer programing that takes the place of a well trained tech as opposed to assisting him in troubleshooting the equipment. I seriously wish that at buisness schools and in economics programs they would take a strong look at Nash’s theory of compettitive gaming and re configure it to look at the whole picture of how all can come out ahead at the end of the day… but as long as their are assholes in washington the dumbing down of america will continue.
I hope my rant made some sence and I appriciated reading yours
There are two sites that recruiters have found me and call me:
http://www.linkedin.com
http://www.realmatch.com
Its nice to be wanted.