Recruiters from Beyond

I was wondering if any other monks were experiencing the strange phenomenon lately that I have. I have been working as a contractor for the last five years in IT. Although I am not specifically looking for a new gig right now I still get calls from recruiters from time to time when they have something that matches my skill set.

What has really changed in the last couple of years is the laundry list of skills that they lay on you for these positions. I got a call the other day from a large IT staffing firm and was told a client was looking for a Unix system admin that has a security backround, is familiar with Oracle performance tuning, SAN administration AND C or C++!!

Now maybe I am the crazy one here but are not those like 3 or 4 career skills that could stand on their own? I mean I realize that there have been tons of layoffs and there has been a big downturn but since when is a Unix system admin suppose to go in and start tweaking databases?? This was not just the only call that I have recieved with a crazy stew skill set. I felt like Richard Gere on the phone with Indrid Cold in the hotel room many a day lately. Another thing that seems to happen now is that some of the technical recruiters know so little about what you are telling them that by the time they get back to the client they make a mess of what you told them and the client thinks YOU are clueless. There are also times when they will have the job order on a piece of paper and it will say something like "Perl procedures".

I got this call a while back and the woman was like "do you know perl procedures" and I was like "do you mean Perl programming? and she says "well no, it says here Perl procedures". When I tried to tell her it was probably Perl programming she told me well I must not know Perl procedures and rushed to get off the phone. Very annoying! Anyways it's been a while since I got a good rant in so there it is -

cheers

JSchmitz

Comment on Recruiters from Beyond

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Re: Recruiters from Beyond by talexb (Chancellor) on May 17, 2002 at 19:18 UTC
I have to agree. I once worked on digital equipment corporation's VAX systems. We had a VAX/VMS 11/780 which we were very proud of. It was hooked up to two others down in Mansfield MA over DECNET. One headhunter asked me if I was familiar with DELNET, and I suggested that I had used DECNET -- was it possible he'd written it down wrong. "Yeah, whatever" was likely his response. And, not to change the subject, clients are guilty too. I had one prospect Tuesday afternoon tell me, "All the web sites right now are s*", with the implication, Build Me Something That's Not S. Sure, all you had to do was ask. In their defense, there is a welter of technical stuff that recruiters have to stay on top of. I'm working with Perl (of course) in standalone and CGI scripts, as well as mod_perl, MySQL through DBI, HTML, CSS, JavaScript and GnuPlot. I am picking up XML and looking at XML-RPC and XSLT after having put Java (EJB, Servlets, Applets, JDBC, J2EE) to one side because of performance issues. The recruiters barely know what these acronyms stand for, let alone how they relate to one another or what the latest news is on each thing. Well, my bias against HR people is probably showing .. 90% of the time I think they're a complete waste of time. It's the other 10% of the time when they do the grunt work of inerviewing candidates or firing someone that they earn their bread. Gee, I wonder if that question touched a nerve? --t. alex* "Nyahhh (munch, munch) What's up, Doc?" --Bugs Bunny Update 11 July 2002: Corrected a grammar mistake. 'firing' replaces the incorrect 'fire'.	[reply]
Re: Recruiters from Beyond by jlongino (Parson) on May 17, 2002 at 19:47 UTC
Now maybe I am the crazy one here but are not those like 3 or 4 career skills that could stand on their own? I mean I realize that there have been tons of layoffs and there has been a big downturn but since when is a Unix system admin suppose to go in and start tweaking databases?? I stumbled across an article Why IT Pros Can't Get Jobs by Jeff Moad that gives some insight to this phenomena. To summarize his explanation, although the IT sector has laidoff 500K+ IT employees, approximately 550K+ jobs will go unfilled over the next 12 months because potential hires with the right skill sets can't be found. Jeff says that this is a smoke screen and that industry is keeping the positions open and in order to squeeze every last ounce of productivity from current employees. --Jim `a fellow bleeding turnip`	[reply] [d/l]
Looking for Computer McGuyver by gnubbs (Beadle) on May 17, 2002 at 19:54 UTC
To be somewhat fair to the recruiters, sometimes companies really are looking for some sort of digital McGuyver. The type of guy who knows just enough about everything to be able to save the company reactor from meltdown with a bit of BubbleGum::Wrapper in cooling_system.pl. I work for a company of 130 who just won't hire enough IT staff. So, I am expected to be able to plan our SAN needs, keep our firewalls and other security systems up and running, make sure that mail gets through, and even debug an occasional piece of free software that stops working. And all of that is in my spare time when I am not being forced to write our Intranet in ASP/VBScript. If the requirements seem unrealistic, it may just be that the job demands are unrealistic. Needless to say I have two more weeks here, and then I am out looking for something with alot fewer acronyms that start with MS involved.	[reply]
Re: Recruiters from Beyond by Corion (Patriarch) on May 17, 2002 at 18:27 UTC
This is what I think one finds everywhere (or rather, at least in IT) - if you have enough middle men involved. A link on tillys former home node pointed me to a story which I find very convincing. I draw from it the rule that it's always necessary to talk to the people you will be working with and try to extract the actual skillset from them instead of what they told the other people. `perl -MHTTP::Daemon -MHTTP::Response -MLWP::Simple -e ' ; # The $d = new HTTP::Daemon and fork and getprint $d->url and exit;#spider ($c = $d->accept())->get_request(); $c->send_response( new #in the HTTP::Response(200,$_,$_,qq(Just another Perl hacker\n))); ' # web` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Recruiters from Beyond by Marza (Vicar) on May 17, 2002 at 21:31 UTC
Ever hear the phrase "Those that can't act become writers and those that can't write become movie critics?" Well many recruiters are the movie critics of the IT world. I once tried to use a couple recruiters and they tried to convince me I was an excellent candidate for a help desk telephone support job and nothing more. I found myself a Network Engineers position soon after that.... Keep in mind they are not there to help you. They are going to help the companies that hired them to find them people. Some of the more dishonest types will even misrepresent your abilities as they are after the commission. As to the list of required skills. Don't worry about it. As one manager told me, he lists many things and casts the net to see what he will get. You may lack a certain area but if the manager is good and can see you can grow into it quickly; he will take you on.	[reply]
Recruiters Bad, Very Bad - Re: Recruiters from Beyond by metadoktor (Hermit) on May 17, 2002 at 22:39 UTC
I would have to say that in many cases the requirements on those recruitment lists seem insane. A digital MacGyver indeed! Having dealt with all too many recruiters, I can say that my experience is that they know next to nothing about technology and will often 'get it wrong' from client to potential prospect. Also I find their high pressure tactics distasteful. They actually try to get you to quit your job for some fly in the pan possibility that may end in a dot bomb. I believe that they make a commission on each hire so their incentive is to get you to switch jobs as often as possible. They don't care about you. They just care about their sales figures. metadoktor "The doktor is in."	[reply]
Re: Recruiters from Beyond by runrig (Abbot) on May 19, 2002 at 18:34 UTC
I have database (programming) experience, so I get recruiters all the time telling me they have a DBA position open; also, I have (Informix) 4gl experience, so I get calls asking if I have 4gl experience, and when I ask "what kind of 4gl", they have to ask the client and its usually Progress 4gl, and they (the recruiter and/or the client) think its the same thing...nothing unusual though, there's this kind of thing and more on the Real Rates BBS. Some there think its a plot to ask for so much that they can't hire anyone except someone cheaply on an H1B visa, but I won't comment :-)	[reply]
Re: Recruiters from Beyond by Sifmole (Chaplain) on May 20, 2002 at 12:17 UTC
Wow, I guess I must live in the Twilight Zone of recruiters. I have two recruiters that "get" what I do, "get" what the hiring company needs, and "get" when the two match. When I hear from them the skill set is right and the company is usually right. Heck, I go to lunch with these guys every six months or so just to say hi and hear how the market is out there. They are great resources and always have good information about what sectors are looking for what skills, what the newly arrived skill sets are, etc.	[reply]
Re: Re: Recruiters from Beyond by JSchmitz (Canon) on Mar 27, 2003 at 20:08 UTC
Yes I have a small number of good recruiters that I work with also that totally take good care of me. I posted the above at a time when I was getting bombarded with calls from people that were totally clueless. A good recruiter IS a valuable resource no doubt. Find some you trust and stick with them. cheers, Jeffery	[reply]