Once upon a Recruiter

During my career in Software Engineering, I have been interviewed by recruiters and have been a recruiter for technical positions myself. I always wanted to share my thoughts about these experiences. Before you read, please don't take it with a grain of salt. It's my opinion and my experience.

I hate talking with recruiters, not the talking part, but the selling part. As you know most businesses try to sell their products or services, so when you are talking with a recruiter it's no difference - you are selling yourself. I prefer that my works speak for themself instead of me, but when your work and things are under NDA it is hard to talk about specific things in depth and not generally... Well, it is possible, but hey! I hope you understood what I had in mind.

During these times I had the pleasure to meet nice and warm recruiters. This is what I liked the most.

• They contacted me with a personalized message.
• They read my LinkedIn profile or CV and understood what was written there.
• They had answers to most of my questions, even technical!
• They were polite, and time-wise.
• They were open-minded all the time. 
• They expressed their expectations, I expressed mine, and we just had a productive discussion about it.
• In my opinion, this is the most important of all - they remained Human!

• No personal message. Lots of messages feel like templates with names changed.  Sometimes not all placeholders are changed, so it is weird to read a message and read a different name in it. In my opinion, this is the cause of the automation, and desire to reach more candidates per day.
• They did not read your profile. If they find a keyword or keywords they are looking for they just generate a template message and send it.
• They can only answer questions from the presentation they give you about the company. When you ask about the team, about the role, about daily life, they reply that either they will write you back with these answers (that's a lie, they never do), or that these questions you can ask later in the process, because there will be a person who can answer them. The only question in my head I have is Why?
• Some meetings felt like they could be emails or LinkedIn messages, as they were filled with lots of useless information. In such meetings, I tend to lose focus and get bored quickly.
• Sometimes it feels that they don't know the role or they don't understand what traits future colleague needs to have to fulfill the role they are hiring.
• Too long job descriptions, and too many buzzwords, half of them they don't even know. When you ask them if all of the buzzwords written in the job description is used in this role, they just nod their head. The truth is that most companies write job descriptions as if they were looking for a rocket pilot, but once you are in the role all they ask you is to ride a bike.
• Young recruiters do not get proper training and they lack experience and all of this translates into poor meeting quality. I always try to stay positive, but when I see that something goes the way it should not I try politely to finish the meeting, thanking the recruiter for the time they spent.
• No feedback. When you get rejected, most of them don't bother to write you reasons why you were not selected. For me, feedback is important as it gives growth.

• Sometimes it feels that recruiters are arrogant.
• The ego plays a big part in a meeting. When you express your expectations, instead of discussing or accepting my expectations, they just go crazy by telling me that these expectations are out of this world. At that moment, the whole meeting loses its meaning and I just politely end it.
• They are closed-minded, if they don't get the answer they want, to the question they gave you, or if the answer is different from one written in their notebook, or different from the one in their head, they start to harass you for not providing an answer will have a gap in a further hiring process steps. This clearly shows the recruiter's incompetence. Even though you did not know the answer, or you simply gave your point of view or thought about the question, if the recruiter fails to understand It or if it is not what the recruiter expects, then you are doomed.
• Sometimes there was a sense of belittling throughout the conversation. If you don't know the answer you just give your own thought, and this bad, oh boy how bad it is. They don't understand it, as the answer was not what they expected, or the answer was not by the book, or the answer was not the same as it was written in her notebook. In the end, they start to harass you and if you cannot provide the answer they will not let you go to the further process, or this will have a negative impact on further conversations.
• Too much confidence in speaking another language. I had one experience where I had an interview with a foreign company. For the recruiter, English was not the mother tongue language. The recruiter talked with an accent and very fast,  I did not understand a word of what he was saying. And when I just asked him to repeat what he just said or explain what he had in mind by that question, I saw in his eyes that he did not like that and who was I to question him? From that moment the whole meeting became a big awkward moment that I wish to end as soon as possible.
• They write you multiple times with the same template message. When you write them back, they don't write you back. My highest score for getting the same message is: 3
• They did not remain Human.

What I usually do, before I even go to the meeting I write out all my expectations and questions. Writing these questions gives Recruiters an impression of what to expect from me and also gives them time to prepare answers for me.

Before meeting you should send this as a message

• your salary expectations. If salary expectations are too high, don't be upset, make this a turnover, and ask how a company can help you to get to the point where you can have such a salary, what responsibilities you should take, experience you must gain. This is the most important thing before diving into a new adventure, so you need to be sure you make the most out of it as the next salary review or pay rise will be after a year. So you need to have the highest possible salary so that the year would be productive and happy money-wise.
• other benefits you are expecting, like car parking, health insurance, foosball table, free donuts, <you name it>

These expectations will give an impression if they want to even start a conversation with you.  Personally, in most cases, they just don't reply to me anymore. I don't know why. Maybe they see me as arrogant. Maybe they feel that the company, the role cannot offer me what I expect. It's a lack of feedback that puts me in a such situation and maybe they are right, maybe I am from another planet.

If you get lucky and your expectations are from planet Earth and they want to talk with you  then you need to prepare before the call, think about how you are going to:

• introduce yourself
• talk about your experience and future goals
• highlight your strengths and talk about your weaknesses
• expectations for your new employer, co-workers
• skills or experiences that can strengthen the role
• personal life, how much information you want to give
• answer what are you proud of and if you had a chance what would you do differently?
• your growth plan to <you-name-it> role

Even though I had more negative experiences than positive, and with an increased rejection rate because of the layoffs in the industry I try to stay positive. I know what I am capable of, I know what I want to achieve, and I know that there are tens of thousands of smarter people than me. I know that sitting in the cubical is not for me. I just feel and know that I am supposed to do greater things. I know. And these experiences feel like the guardian angel for me not to commit another nonsense step that I will regret later.

If you feel the same, remember that "Value Does Not Decrease Based on Someone's Inability to See Your Worth." Keep trying, keep experimenting, keep working towards your life goals, and eventually, you will be where you want to be. Just stay positive, and patient and just believe that the good will come to you!