Comment by bogomipz | Hacker News Reader

Comment by bogomipz | Hacker News Reader

I have a question - do HR actually have any input into hiring these days? My experience mostly startups for many years is that HR people are concerned with paper work, health care, 401K, payroll etc. My experience has been that the "recruiter" is now the gatekeeper. They decide who's resume is seen by a team looking to hire.

And I think this is rather unfortunate as recruiters seem to be short term employees. I also find that the level of professionalism by recruiters to be extremely lacking - they often take weeks to get back to people, many seem unable to compose business emails. They send emails that begin with "Hey" and don't bother spellchecking. Many don't seem to have any technical knowledge or actually understand what's on a candidates CV. I have had them fail to call at a scheduled time, many don't send out calendar invites. Dealing with recruiters overall is a pretty miserable experience.

HR on the other hand is something that you can get a degree in. HR people seem to be longer term employees at companies, they seem to do things in a consistent and predictable manner, and seem to be quite professional in their communication.

I realize this is anecdotal and there are of course wonderful recruiters who have a good technical grasp and are very professional but the majority of my dealings with recruiters over many years now has informed me that these are the exceptions.

It seems there is no minimal set of qualifications to become a recruiter and shouldn't this one of the most important roles at a company that needs to grow to succeed? They are also kind of ambassador for the company in the sense that they are the first point of contact for a candidate.

Am I minority in this opinion? Or is there not actually a recruiter problem?

HR do the dirty work of Curating Culture.

They try to satisfy the business need with a low-risk hire with an excellent value proposition while satisfying the requisite legal and other important 'stuff' like healthcare, onboarding, exit interviews, snacks.

That aside, I've seen resumes printed in Comic Sans make it through HR to the technical pre-screen.

Here is a fundamental way HR can affect hiring:

Do you have a low credit score (maybe through no fault of your own, e.g. medical bills)? Do you have a "checkered" past -- maybe many years distant, now, with a solid track record in between?

Do you not test as "mainstream" on psychological evaluations?

These are all things that can stop you from getting to the next step in the hiring process, at an established company implementing the ever vaunted "best practices". (Which, when widely followed, can really only ever be the "standard" (some might say, mediocre) practices.)

HR doesn't evaluate your true professionalism. They just make sure you don't deviate too far from standard.

One reason actual teams and hiring managers sometimes have to put significant effort into fighting their own HR. Or deciding whether doing so is worth the risk to their own jobs and standing.

P.S. Yes, I'm pretty cynical about HR -- the result of long experience.

This month, I've watch HR at another large, established institution (this one focused on healthcare) take the easy way out of letting a supervisor and her favored push out a better employee, instead of investigating what's really going on (which, given the nature of the job and all the client interfacing and record-keeping, wouldn't be that hard to do).

HR there appears to actually have started picking up on what's happening (truly abusive behavior by this supervisor and her cronies, lying, and borderline neglect of their own jobs -- foisting their duties onto the underdog employees). Nonetheless, it's easier to accept a forced resignation than to try to address the team problem. Which will fester until something really goes wrong.

Or, if HR there is good at its job, within the scope of what they're willing to do, until they can build enough of a case/impetus against this supervisor to force her out, on their terms and timeline.

Even if they do that, they've let at least two of their best employees get screwed over, in the meantime. Go, HR! /s

As always, as an employee, HR IS NOT YOUR FRIEND. They take care of themselves, and the institution. You only win if it's the easy win, for them. Or with lawyers.

I consider an HR interview to be a huge red flag when talking to a new company. In fact, I generally don't follow up if HR plays a significant presence in the initial interview process.

To me, it's a strong signal that the company doesn't understand software development and is trying to shoehorn it in like every other department. That's generally something that seeps into all facets of the workplace, and you find yourself wasting time arguing over locked-down machines, workspace standardization, common spaces, dress codes, etc.

Interview "advice" like this is a good example of why HR shouldn't be in the early process. I mean, seriously, hobbies?

PS. I agree there's a huge recruiter problem, but I don't think HR is the solution.

> do HR actually have any input into hiring these days ... my experience has been that the "recruiter" is now the gatekeeper.

What department are recruiters part of if not human resources?

> What department are recruiters part of if not human resources?

I assume they're referring to third-party recruiters

In the tech world at least recruiters are distinct from an an HR generalist.

In an org chart though yes recruiters are likely to be part of the HR department but they are not the same HR that you go to when you have a problem with a paycheck or health insurance.

I wasn't referring to third party recruiters but I have a suspicion and maybe someone could confirm this that many recruiters are actually contract workers - 3 months, 6 months etc and not regular employees of the company despite having a company email address. The reason I suspect this is that at most of the tech companies I have worked at recruiters seem to come and go at an alarming frequency.

I have experienced similar issues with recruiters. Going so far as to decline interviews with those companies.

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