Comment by codegeek | Hacker News Reader

Comment by codegeek | Hacker News Reader

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There are 3 types of recruiters:

1. Internal company recruiters. They couldn't care less about contacting you directly unless things have changed in today's market (My last interaction with in house recruiter was circa 2010).

2. Scummy recruiting farms where they hire a bunch of people on commissions and they spam anyone and everyone

3. Recruiters who actually have relationships with a customer, prospect good candidates like a salesperson, keep their pipeline full and understand the hiring needs. They work diligently to find good candidates who fit the job description. They do exist but are rare unfortunately.

I have no problem with #3 above and I have worked with some great ones in the past and right now as a hiring manager, working with one who is trying to find a senior level candidate for a while now (lot of work there).

I got my current job through an internal company recruiter. He's the best I've ever seen in this business -- the introduction was extremely well targeted, the process was very low-pressure, and he's measured on the long-term success of the people he brings in.

He spent time explaining the role, the skills, and the goals, and offered feedback throughout the process.

That’s a great categorization.

I’ve accepted a job through a very good internal recruiter once in 2015.

I can distinguish between a 2 and a 3 in a 5 minute phone call.

I don’t understand all the hate about recruiters. I cut off the bad ones and the folks left are great. The overhead is quite low.

My exact experience. I've had one actual great recruiter that was in the #3 category, one okay recruiter from #2 who a #1 recruiter farmed out to, and then dozens and dozens of sleazeballs from #2.

For the most part, I just say ignore recruiters entirely, unless the job is for a great company and there are no red flags, instead opting to network and send emails directly to people in charge of hiring.

#3 = headhunters

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