Stupid Recruiters - Episode 2
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- Just got this email from someone unknown: Hi, Curious if your interested in chatting with me or if you know any rock star developers who would be interested to learn more about a consulting role? Cheers! Kon Kruglyak - "Am I interested in chatting with you???" - "Rock Star"??
- Had a pre-interview screening with a "recruiter" last week. When I got on the phone with her She sounded about 12 and first said "Oh my God I'm so excited!!!" in a little girls voice. I thought "You're sooo exited???" - about WHAT? doing your job?? She then proceeds to question me about C# & SQL. The questions she asked were bizarre to say the least. I thought, I've never heard some of this before" so I asked her to send me the questions so I could research. She says, "Well I made up this list based on conversations I've had with developers" - I said "So you have no clue what your asking, and I could probably lose the chance at a job because YOU made up some questions?". She said "Well I think the questions are right" - I hung up. 3) Another little gem.... this woman recruiter puts this line in EVERY job posting: "You need some serious technical chops for this position" Sometimes I laugh, sometimes I cry.
If it's not broken, fix it until it is
I got so sick of that shit I went to a direct job.
A guide to posting questions on CodeProject
Click this: Asking questions is a skill. Seriously, do it.
Dave Kreskowiak -
Eddy Vluggen wrote:
And no, they don't like it if you point it out
Even if they're advertising for a proof-reader? :rolleyes:
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer
DUH! That's why they need the proof reader! :laugh:
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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I got so sick of that shit I went to a direct job.
A guide to posting questions on CodeProject
Click this: Asking questions is a skill. Seriously, do it.
Dave KreskowiakAgreed, but these are all for direct jobs, not contract. Many companies are going the route of using recruiters to weed out the bad apples. The only way in is through them. The problem is the recruiters often time don't know wtf their talking about, and it's like talking to a 3 year old. So you can lose out on a potential job because of an idiot recruiter. I once had one ask me "How many years of WPF do you have?". I said about 5. He then said, "And how many years of XAML do you have?" I proceeded to explain that XAML is part of WPF. He said, "No they're different things". I broke it down for him and even after explain it, he said "Um, ok, let's move on". What an ultra-maroon!
If it's not broken, fix it until it is
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Agreed, but these are all for direct jobs, not contract. Many companies are going the route of using recruiters to weed out the bad apples. The only way in is through them. The problem is the recruiters often time don't know wtf their talking about, and it's like talking to a 3 year old. So you can lose out on a potential job because of an idiot recruiter. I once had one ask me "How many years of WPF do you have?". I said about 5. He then said, "And how many years of XAML do you have?" I proceeded to explain that XAML is part of WPF. He said, "No they're different things". I broke it down for him and even after explain it, he said "Um, ok, let's move on". What an ultra-maroon!
If it's not broken, fix it until it is
Coder For Hire wrote:
I proceeded to explain that XAML is part of WPF.
It's not quite as stupid as it sounds. XAML is also used in Windows Workflow Foundation, Silverlight, and Windows Store apps; it's not limited to WPF applications. It's also possible to write WPF applications without using XAML. It's not pretty, easy, or recommended, but it can be done. :)
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer
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Coder For Hire wrote:
I proceeded to explain that XAML is part of WPF.
It's not quite as stupid as it sounds. XAML is also used in Windows Workflow Foundation, Silverlight, and Windows Store apps; it's not limited to WPF applications. It's also possible to write WPF applications without using XAML. It's not pretty, easy, or recommended, but it can be done. :)
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer
Sure, but if you know WPF, the know XAML.
If it's not broken, fix it until it is
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Coder For Hire wrote:
anwesome
:doh: It seems to be a relatively common mistake - Google has nearly 11,000 results for "anwesome".
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer
How and why??? The n is nowhere near either the a or the w; that makes it learned behaviour! I dunno. Kids these days...
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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- Just got this email from someone unknown: Hi, Curious if your interested in chatting with me or if you know any rock star developers who would be interested to learn more about a consulting role? Cheers! Kon Kruglyak - "Am I interested in chatting with you???" - "Rock Star"??
- Had a pre-interview screening with a "recruiter" last week. When I got on the phone with her She sounded about 12 and first said "Oh my God I'm so excited!!!" in a little girls voice. I thought "You're sooo exited???" - about WHAT? doing your job?? She then proceeds to question me about C# & SQL. The questions she asked were bizarre to say the least. I thought, I've never heard some of this before" so I asked her to send me the questions so I could research. She says, "Well I made up this list based on conversations I've had with developers" - I said "So you have no clue what your asking, and I could probably lose the chance at a job because YOU made up some questions?". She said "Well I think the questions are right" - I hung up. 3) Another little gem.... this woman recruiter puts this line in EVERY job posting: "You need some serious technical chops for this position" Sometimes I laugh, sometimes I cry.
If it's not broken, fix it until it is
There's no governing body for that kind of work, so any idiot with a telephone can just pick it up and start talking to companies and candidates. Even the most useless of them will manage to get some roles filled -- and the rates they charge allow them to live very comfortably with not very many placements. Yes, they're idiots, otherwise they would be doing something real, but it's a field where the bull-headed idiot is most likely to succeed. Intelligent people would try to do the job well, and so lose out on a lot of the money-for-nothing aspect of it.
Coder For Hire wrote:
"You need some serious technical chops for this position"
If you don't tell me how many letters, I'm not even going to try.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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- Just got this email from someone unknown: Hi, Curious if your interested in chatting with me or if you know any rock star developers who would be interested to learn more about a consulting role? Cheers! Kon Kruglyak - "Am I interested in chatting with you???" - "Rock Star"??
- Had a pre-interview screening with a "recruiter" last week. When I got on the phone with her She sounded about 12 and first said "Oh my God I'm so excited!!!" in a little girls voice. I thought "You're sooo exited???" - about WHAT? doing your job?? She then proceeds to question me about C# & SQL. The questions she asked were bizarre to say the least. I thought, I've never heard some of this before" so I asked her to send me the questions so I could research. She says, "Well I made up this list based on conversations I've had with developers" - I said "So you have no clue what your asking, and I could probably lose the chance at a job because YOU made up some questions?". She said "Well I think the questions are right" - I hung up. 3) Another little gem.... this woman recruiter puts this line in EVERY job posting: "You need some serious technical chops for this position" Sometimes I laugh, sometimes I cry.
If it's not broken, fix it until it is
Recruiters = dregs' of society. Right after care salesman.
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- Just got this email from someone unknown: Hi, Curious if your interested in chatting with me or if you know any rock star developers who would be interested to learn more about a consulting role? Cheers! Kon Kruglyak - "Am I interested in chatting with you???" - "Rock Star"??
- Had a pre-interview screening with a "recruiter" last week. When I got on the phone with her She sounded about 12 and first said "Oh my God I'm so excited!!!" in a little girls voice. I thought "You're sooo exited???" - about WHAT? doing your job?? She then proceeds to question me about C# & SQL. The questions she asked were bizarre to say the least. I thought, I've never heard some of this before" so I asked her to send me the questions so I could research. She says, "Well I made up this list based on conversations I've had with developers" - I said "So you have no clue what your asking, and I could probably lose the chance at a job because YOU made up some questions?". She said "Well I think the questions are right" - I hung up. 3) Another little gem.... this woman recruiter puts this line in EVERY job posting: "You need some serious technical chops for this position" Sometimes I laugh, sometimes I cry.
If it's not broken, fix it until it is
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- Just got this email from someone unknown: Hi, Curious if your interested in chatting with me or if you know any rock star developers who would be interested to learn more about a consulting role? Cheers! Kon Kruglyak - "Am I interested in chatting with you???" - "Rock Star"??
- Had a pre-interview screening with a "recruiter" last week. When I got on the phone with her She sounded about 12 and first said "Oh my God I'm so excited!!!" in a little girls voice. I thought "You're sooo exited???" - about WHAT? doing your job?? She then proceeds to question me about C# & SQL. The questions she asked were bizarre to say the least. I thought, I've never heard some of this before" so I asked her to send me the questions so I could research. She says, "Well I made up this list based on conversations I've had with developers" - I said "So you have no clue what your asking, and I could probably lose the chance at a job because YOU made up some questions?". She said "Well I think the questions are right" - I hung up. 3) Another little gem.... this woman recruiter puts this line in EVERY job posting: "You need some serious technical chops for this position" Sometimes I laugh, sometimes I cry.
If it's not broken, fix it until it is
Coder For Hire wrote:
if your interested
Tell the recruiter, "If you're grammar was better, I might reconsider."
No object is so beautiful that, under certain conditions, it will not look ugly. - Oscar Wilde
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- Just got this email from someone unknown: Hi, Curious if your interested in chatting with me or if you know any rock star developers who would be interested to learn more about a consulting role? Cheers! Kon Kruglyak - "Am I interested in chatting with you???" - "Rock Star"??
- Had a pre-interview screening with a "recruiter" last week. When I got on the phone with her She sounded about 12 and first said "Oh my God I'm so excited!!!" in a little girls voice. I thought "You're sooo exited???" - about WHAT? doing your job?? She then proceeds to question me about C# & SQL. The questions she asked were bizarre to say the least. I thought, I've never heard some of this before" so I asked her to send me the questions so I could research. She says, "Well I made up this list based on conversations I've had with developers" - I said "So you have no clue what your asking, and I could probably lose the chance at a job because YOU made up some questions?". She said "Well I think the questions are right" - I hung up. 3) Another little gem.... this woman recruiter puts this line in EVERY job posting: "You need some serious technical chops for this position" Sometimes I laugh, sometimes I cry.
If it's not broken, fix it until it is
I think recruiters should be interviewed even more stringently than potential employees. How can you trust your process to people who can't recognise quality or even know what they're talking about? Think of all the job seekers who dealt with your 3-year old with the bizarre questions and just put the phone down. Most of my jobs came through friend referrals or direct applications, generally because recruiters just don't know the difference between the different technologies and languages :confused: Not hard to Google it, Recruiters, just like we do :laugh:
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- Just got this email from someone unknown: Hi, Curious if your interested in chatting with me or if you know any rock star developers who would be interested to learn more about a consulting role? Cheers! Kon Kruglyak - "Am I interested in chatting with you???" - "Rock Star"??
- Had a pre-interview screening with a "recruiter" last week. When I got on the phone with her She sounded about 12 and first said "Oh my God I'm so excited!!!" in a little girls voice. I thought "You're sooo exited???" - about WHAT? doing your job?? She then proceeds to question me about C# & SQL. The questions she asked were bizarre to say the least. I thought, I've never heard some of this before" so I asked her to send me the questions so I could research. She says, "Well I made up this list based on conversations I've had with developers" - I said "So you have no clue what your asking, and I could probably lose the chance at a job because YOU made up some questions?". She said "Well I think the questions are right" - I hung up. 3) Another little gem.... this woman recruiter puts this line in EVERY job posting: "You need some serious technical chops for this position" Sometimes I laugh, sometimes I cry.
If it's not broken, fix it until it is
One "technical interviewer" asked me (in horribly broken English) several questions like, What is the maximum number of fields you can have in an MS Access table? I told him I had no idea, although I could look it up, but anyone who would purposely build a database table with even 50 to 100 fields would be unlikely to know what they're doing. Apparently you're only a truly skilled programmer if you have memorized all the technical specs for an application. And this turned out to be for a short-term on-site contract position at about $30 per hour for a client 10 states away. :rolleyes:
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One "technical interviewer" asked me (in horribly broken English) several questions like, What is the maximum number of fields you can have in an MS Access table? I told him I had no idea, although I could look it up, but anyone who would purposely build a database table with even 50 to 100 fields would be unlikely to know what they're doing. Apparently you're only a truly skilled programmer if you have memorized all the technical specs for an application. And this turned out to be for a short-term on-site contract position at about $30 per hour for a client 10 states away. :rolleyes:
Most of the recruiters I've been talking to are Indian, or sound like it. One of these guys' English was so bad, I couldn't understand a word he said. I figured he REALLY was in India recruiting in the US. I asked him if I could speak to someone that spoke English. After the call I looked him up. He actually is working for a head hunter firm in Pennsylvania. That got me thinking... a recruiter is someone's first interaction with a company and a protential position. Why in the world would the recruiting firm hire someone with very little English skills??
If it's not broken, fix it until it is
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Most of the recruiters I've been talking to are Indian, or sound like it. One of these guys' English was so bad, I couldn't understand a word he said. I figured he REALLY was in India recruiting in the US. I asked him if I could speak to someone that spoke English. After the call I looked him up. He actually is working for a head hunter firm in Pennsylvania. That got me thinking... a recruiter is someone's first interaction with a company and a protential position. Why in the world would the recruiting firm hire someone with very little English skills??
If it's not broken, fix it until it is
I've been getting that for years. It seems like a around the early 2000s someone had the brilliant idea to set up some kind of boiler room/call centers where they use dumb software to comb internet job sites looking for resumes and plucking key words, which they then vaguely match to similarly obtained requirements postings. The people who run these probably pay nothing or close to it per hour or per call, but if they manage to contact someone and it results in a job, they get some huge bonus (perhaps a dollar or more?). And these telephone drones are desperate. ANY match between your resume and the job posting will get you a call, often dozens...even from the same "recruiting company". Mostly they barely speak English, they have no technical knowledge and they have never seen a globe or a US map. And the words from your resume that they think match may have nothing to do with the job. If you're a C++ developer but you live on Ruby Rd or Java Dr, guess what kind of jobs you're going to be offered the most? They're almost guaranteed not to have actually read your resume, so even if you put in something like HIGHLY EXPERIENCED VETERAN DEVELOPER LOOKING FOR PERMANENT OR 1-YEAR MINIMUM CONTRACT POSITIONS IN NEW ENGLAND OR NEW YORK, you'll get calls for entry-level 2-month projects in Oklahoma or Oregon. I let most calls I don't recognize on my cell phone go to voice mail, and 90% of the time it's an Indian "recruiter". I call them back in direct proportion to how much they sound like they understand English and know what they're talking about. So I only call back about 1 in 20. I have actually terminated phone calls because I simply couldn't understand the person or even the "supervisor" they got on the line. Worst thing: For some reason some of these "telerecruiters" think that if the more they call you, the better the chance you will call back. Several times I've received 20+ voice messages within 2 or 3 hours from the same recruiter if I didn't pick up or return their call! What could be ruder? When I started doing contract work, 99% of the time from the initial contact to the actual start of the job was handled by local, US-born Americans. Now it seems like 90% of the time the initial contact is made by someone foreign-sounding calling me. X|
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I've been getting that for years. It seems like a around the early 2000s someone had the brilliant idea to set up some kind of boiler room/call centers where they use dumb software to comb internet job sites looking for resumes and plucking key words, which they then vaguely match to similarly obtained requirements postings. The people who run these probably pay nothing or close to it per hour or per call, but if they manage to contact someone and it results in a job, they get some huge bonus (perhaps a dollar or more?). And these telephone drones are desperate. ANY match between your resume and the job posting will get you a call, often dozens...even from the same "recruiting company". Mostly they barely speak English, they have no technical knowledge and they have never seen a globe or a US map. And the words from your resume that they think match may have nothing to do with the job. If you're a C++ developer but you live on Ruby Rd or Java Dr, guess what kind of jobs you're going to be offered the most? They're almost guaranteed not to have actually read your resume, so even if you put in something like HIGHLY EXPERIENCED VETERAN DEVELOPER LOOKING FOR PERMANENT OR 1-YEAR MINIMUM CONTRACT POSITIONS IN NEW ENGLAND OR NEW YORK, you'll get calls for entry-level 2-month projects in Oklahoma or Oregon. I let most calls I don't recognize on my cell phone go to voice mail, and 90% of the time it's an Indian "recruiter". I call them back in direct proportion to how much they sound like they understand English and know what they're talking about. So I only call back about 1 in 20. I have actually terminated phone calls because I simply couldn't understand the person or even the "supervisor" they got on the line. Worst thing: For some reason some of these "telerecruiters" think that if the more they call you, the better the chance you will call back. Several times I've received 20+ voice messages within 2 or 3 hours from the same recruiter if I didn't pick up or return their call! What could be ruder? When I started doing contract work, 99% of the time from the initial contact to the actual start of the job was handled by local, US-born Americans. Now it seems like 90% of the time the initial contact is made by someone foreign-sounding calling me. X|
LOL, 100% totally true. The problem today is that is seems like many companies are going through these recruiters, so often times when you see a job posting, you have no idea what company it's for until AFTER you speak to Pragrash, or Sundeep, or Prat, or whoever the F@%#&*@ is calling, and you sit through 20 minutes of "WTH did you just say?"
If it's not broken, fix it until it is
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- Just got this email from someone unknown: Hi, Curious if your interested in chatting with me or if you know any rock star developers who would be interested to learn more about a consulting role? Cheers! Kon Kruglyak - "Am I interested in chatting with you???" - "Rock Star"??
- Had a pre-interview screening with a "recruiter" last week. When I got on the phone with her She sounded about 12 and first said "Oh my God I'm so excited!!!" in a little girls voice. I thought "You're sooo exited???" - about WHAT? doing your job?? She then proceeds to question me about C# & SQL. The questions she asked were bizarre to say the least. I thought, I've never heard some of this before" so I asked her to send me the questions so I could research. She says, "Well I made up this list based on conversations I've had with developers" - I said "So you have no clue what your asking, and I could probably lose the chance at a job because YOU made up some questions?". She said "Well I think the questions are right" - I hung up. 3) Another little gem.... this woman recruiter puts this line in EVERY job posting: "You need some serious technical chops for this position" Sometimes I laugh, sometimes I cry.
If it's not broken, fix it until it is
This is why I dread making myself visible on any job search site. The massive number of phishing emails from basement dwellers looking for a referral check.
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- Just got this email from someone unknown: Hi, Curious if your interested in chatting with me or if you know any rock star developers who would be interested to learn more about a consulting role? Cheers! Kon Kruglyak - "Am I interested in chatting with you???" - "Rock Star"??
- Had a pre-interview screening with a "recruiter" last week. When I got on the phone with her She sounded about 12 and first said "Oh my God I'm so excited!!!" in a little girls voice. I thought "You're sooo exited???" - about WHAT? doing your job?? She then proceeds to question me about C# & SQL. The questions she asked were bizarre to say the least. I thought, I've never heard some of this before" so I asked her to send me the questions so I could research. She says, "Well I made up this list based on conversations I've had with developers" - I said "So you have no clue what your asking, and I could probably lose the chance at a job because YOU made up some questions?". She said "Well I think the questions are right" - I hung up. 3) Another little gem.... this woman recruiter puts this line in EVERY job posting: "You need some serious technical chops for this position" Sometimes I laugh, sometimes I cry.
If it's not broken, fix it until it is
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One "technical interviewer" asked me (in horribly broken English) several questions like, What is the maximum number of fields you can have in an MS Access table? I told him I had no idea, although I could look it up, but anyone who would purposely build a database table with even 50 to 100 fields would be unlikely to know what they're doing. Apparently you're only a truly skilled programmer if you have memorized all the technical specs for an application. And this turned out to be for a short-term on-site contract position at about $30 per hour for a client 10 states away. :rolleyes:
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- Just got this email from someone unknown: Hi, Curious if your interested in chatting with me or if you know any rock star developers who would be interested to learn more about a consulting role? Cheers! Kon Kruglyak - "Am I interested in chatting with you???" - "Rock Star"??
- Had a pre-interview screening with a "recruiter" last week. When I got on the phone with her She sounded about 12 and first said "Oh my God I'm so excited!!!" in a little girls voice. I thought "You're sooo exited???" - about WHAT? doing your job?? She then proceeds to question me about C# & SQL. The questions she asked were bizarre to say the least. I thought, I've never heard some of this before" so I asked her to send me the questions so I could research. She says, "Well I made up this list based on conversations I've had with developers" - I said "So you have no clue what your asking, and I could probably lose the chance at a job because YOU made up some questions?". She said "Well I think the questions are right" - I hung up. 3) Another little gem.... this woman recruiter puts this line in EVERY job posting: "You need some serious technical chops for this position" Sometimes I laugh, sometimes I cry.
If it's not broken, fix it until it is
Speaking of recruiters: When it rains, it pours. (http://howardleeharkness.com/2013/05/when-it-rains-it-pours/) That's happened often enough, I've come to expect it. I recently landed a local contract, and now I'm getting 3-5 calls per day and about 10 emails, up from 3-5 calls and 10 emails per *week* before I landed the contract. This time around, however, I'm seeing ads for contracts that are at least borderline fraudulent. For example: http://howardleeharkness.com/2015/03/strange-contract-posting/ I saw lots of these "H1-b qualifiers" back in the 80's & 90's, after which the people responsible for them started getting a little better at disguising them. But this one is in-your-face obvious. Volt is now on my short list of contract agencies to ignore.
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- Just got this email from someone unknown: Hi, Curious if your interested in chatting with me or if you know any rock star developers who would be interested to learn more about a consulting role? Cheers! Kon Kruglyak - "Am I interested in chatting with you???" - "Rock Star"??
- Had a pre-interview screening with a "recruiter" last week. When I got on the phone with her She sounded about 12 and first said "Oh my God I'm so excited!!!" in a little girls voice. I thought "You're sooo exited???" - about WHAT? doing your job?? She then proceeds to question me about C# & SQL. The questions she asked were bizarre to say the least. I thought, I've never heard some of this before" so I asked her to send me the questions so I could research. She says, "Well I made up this list based on conversations I've had with developers" - I said "So you have no clue what your asking, and I could probably lose the chance at a job because YOU made up some questions?". She said "Well I think the questions are right" - I hung up. 3) Another little gem.... this woman recruiter puts this line in EVERY job posting: "You need some serious technical chops for this position" Sometimes I laugh, sometimes I cry.
If it's not broken, fix it until it is
Is more common than people think. It's getting worse due to outsourcing and the increase of Non I.T. Project Managers, whom does not perform good interviews, or does not check headhunters. I'm a developer that consider to study either Psychology or Human Resources, (also Psychology related), and went for Computer Science. I still read about it, on my spare time. You may see Factories been audited, Software Been audit, Accouting been audited, but, not Human Resources. Human Resources people is still considered as the "nice ladies", or "nice dude" who interview people. TLDR; Human Resources is broken.
