Asking for feedback. I’ve been doing software consulting work for the better part of 45 years. Back in the day, there were “recruiters” who would get to know their client, get to know you, and occasionally come up with a match of a client need, and your skills. It was cool.
Fast forward to now.
I believe that the majority of these interactions are just money grabs, where the “recruiter” is scraping a job listing board, using a program to match requirements with your resume, and then inject themselves between the client and you not having communicated with the either party. It’s a money grab. The “recruiters” call or email you and tell you that “their client” has a requirement that matches your skills to see if there is any interest. If you say yes, then they contact the client and say “one of their consultants” matches their requirements and would they be interested in speaking with you. Sometimes this works, lucky them.
With my CV: doctor, C-level manager, SAP consultant, self-employed, owner of a publishing house, numerous professional stays abroad, programmer, book author, etc. I have the advantage and disadvantage that I completely confuse all the algorithms of the tools of these “gangsters”.
The only funny thing is that I get completely meaningless inquiries and realize that, for example, none of these contacts has ever looked at the chronological sequence of my CV (which would be easy via linkedin, for example). So my “weird” CV gives me a lot of insights how these people are working today.
So they seem to just look at matching keyword in their research. “We have a perfect match!!!” - Similar effective as probably Tinder etc.
Of course, I rarely talk to those people any longer. But what strikes me is that, frighteningly, they often no longer know their customers either. Since I’m well networked, I occasionally know their clients better than they do themselves. It’s frightening.
It really just seems to be a matter of throwing a “short list” at the client’s table. And this behaviours can these days even been seen with executive head hunters. Of course there are still exceptions and good people, but the industry changed a LOT and to the worse.
I once worked with a recruiter. They provide a service and charge for it.
One specialized in software developers. Usually they look for people to hire (and take a provision of a month salary from the employer).
They looked for someone to take a project and asked me. It wasn’t a huge thing and we got to something like a 15% provision for the first year.
Yes, the recruiter searched for someone to take the job and probably asked 50 people before me, which takes time.
In general a company must be quite desperate to ask for the service of such a recruiter.
When I was laid off I submitted 1000’s of resumes to groups like these, and EVERY SINGLE response was “canned” and showed that they didn’t read my resume’ any farther than the email address.
I saw an interview with an exec at LinkedIn or something like that that literally said that your resume is filtered by software before it ever gets in front of a person
Somehow not surprising
How they filter these I dont know but it sure seems its just keyword searches
it is. Common approach in Germany meanwhile. Including specialists selling you how to write your CV in a way to fool these apps. Remember SEO? Outdated. CVSEO ist the new black.
I am getting every week requests that I am apparently a logistic expert … Well yes, I worked for one of the big logistic companies in IT, and yes I know what a parcel looks like, and I have used mailboxes in my life
The guy chuckled which is when he said most of the time its filtered by software long before it ever gets seen by a person so there’s no point making it pretty or distinctive
And of top of that, things like “company code of conduct” etc. nowadays often lead to the fact that the “machine” has to read your CV.
Of course there are still options today, but knowing the neigbour of a boss and having had a first chat with her/him might still give you that extra opportunity, but things are changing. The boss might only be able that your CV is getting scanned for sure (not like those falling from the desk)
I remember working with recruiters, just as you described. They spoke to their client in person. Got to know the client’s business. They spoke to you as well, often in person. Often the recruiter’s company had a hard requirement for you to come to their office for an in person interview before they’d even work with you.
Agreeing with you, I consider the 15% money well spent if they’ve done their job as we just described. Buuut, 15% for using software for requirements / resume matching? That’s a money grab, in my opinion.
Those still do exist, but I believe they become less visible as so many “freaks” are trying their luck. Plus with “social media in business” aka linkedin and the like, we are all getting more “cold calls” by dodgy people. The good software solutions will of course screen your web identities too. That’s it for me with a job at Xojo
All kidding aside, it’s going to be sad to see Xojo go down in flames. Back when it was REALbasic and focused on Mac and Windows apps it was pretty cool, and even I had a sip of the koolaid! Their fist step off the cliff was when Apple decided to ditch Motorola, and go with Intel. I was very disappointed in the support effort for this. But I digress.
As somebody working over 25 years in IT as self-enterprenuer I can only 2nd Norman: Don’t!
I am directly working with some small and mid-sized companies with 100-500 employees and honered to be in a position choose freely my projects and customers. I consider recruiters and such agencies and in general HR as the scum of every company, preventing digitalisation and development.
Well, I’m not sure about the going down in flames part since they may last another 20 years (or not). But I do believe that once they added Web 1 & 2, iOS, Raspberry Pi, and Android everything started to get very fragmented and they neglected their core strengths. But WTF do we know, eh?
Yep, none of our business, Perhaps they are selling a lot of licenses or do expensive consultancy and have a good laugh watching INN every day. That seems unlikely, but it can be. In any case, we can conclude that the product has not developed in the way many of us would have liked 10 years ago. So it might be just our fault.
