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Comment by Shengster | Hacker News Reader

Good developers are hardly ever on the market. The majority of them are happy at their current jobs, and they know they could go anywhere else they wanted because their skills are highly valued.

I'm sure it gets annoying when they frequently receive emails about "Technically Forward High Frequency Trading Firms" from recruiters who happened to find them through playing buzzword bingo.

These recruiters tout that this new "opportunity" will give more money, benefits, responsibility, good looks, and sexual prowess, but never do the due diligence to make sure that their client is actually a good fit.

It's the shotgun approach that most recruiters use that turns good developers off.

Maybe once these recruiters treat developers with more respect, so will they.

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So great point, the best developers are never out of work. How would you recommend a recruiter network with said developers? How do we build mutually beneficial relationships? I tend not to cold call people, just because I think there are better ways to meet people but not all recruiters have that type of network.

I suppose I am interested in a solution oriented debate. I hear how you don't like be contacted, how can we do it better?

Oh, and a technically forward HFT means that we are using decently cutting edge stuff, HPC, low latency code, etc. As for offering you better looks and sexual prowess I think I have to opt out on that one. If you find that job, let me know I will send it to a few ex boyfriends. :)

"So great point, the best developers are never out of work. How would you recommend a recruiter network with said developers? How do we build mutually beneficial relationships? I tend not to cold call people, just because I think there are better ways to meet people but not all recruiters have that type of network."

As a recruiter myself, understanding the what it is like to be a developer and connecting on the "what makes them tick" level is important. Going to meetups and getting immersed in the startup scene is great, but going the extra mile will have long lasting impact. I am a non technical guy, but over the years, I have tried my best to learn code myself. HTML, CSS, Ruby. Just leveraging the vast amount of learning tools on the internet makes this possible. Although I might never be an employable programmer, I have had a lot of great chats with developers on my own experiences and that breaks the ice and creates trust immediately.

Take no offense, but I think his point (and the point of the article) was that in this situation recruiters are not needed. The market of top notch developers and the companies they would want to work for is small enough to work efficiently on its own with no need for a middleman.

Imagine if someone called you everyday to help you find a local gas station and then charged the gas station 20% of all gas you bought from them in 1 year. You already know about all the gas stations within a 1 mile radius from your house and you're not interested in any gas stations outside of that.

Like the article said once you start looking at larger companies and more entry level developers the market gets much larger and could use the help of recruiters to increase efficiency.

Even if I'm not actively looking for a job, I'm always looking for a good beer. And I'm sure that's true of many good developers. I've always thought it was weird that recruiters never tried organizing drinkups or sponsoring barcamps.

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