Unimpressed with Headhunters

Categories: Career, From the Files of DCOT...

Posted on Friday, February 15, 2008 by Tim Fehlman

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Dark Madness It is quite popular these days to hire a headhunter when looking for work. And, on the surface, I thought it was a great idea. Why should I pound the pavement looking for jobs when these people do this full time and are willing to find me work without charging me? They get paid by the companies who are looking for employees and they get a percentage of my first year’s salary. This means that they would get me the largest possible salary and it doesn’t cost me a dime!

Or does it?

When speaking with the two headhunters that I was working with, I made it very clear that I was looking for a management position. It was also very clearly stated in my cover letter and in my resume that, while I was also very technical, I was definitely looking for a career in IT management.

At this point, the blinders went on. Both headhunters wanted me to rewrite my resume to emphasis my technical side. One headhunter even called me up later in the day and told me that she had a great leadership position for me. The position ended up being a tech lead, something that I did almost a decade ago!

Based off my, albeit limited, experience with headhunters, I have made some observations which may or may not apply to other headhunters:

Headhunters are not actually working for you. Rather, they are working for the employers and themselves. You are really nothing more than a trading commodity akin to cattle.
Headhunters are not motivated to find me the best job. Rather, they are motivated to fill as many open positions as possible. This keeps their bosses happy by keeping the actual clients (the employers) happy.
Headhunters are not motivated to get me the highest possible salary. If a headhunter can spend half an hour to get me a $40,000 per year job, do you really think that they are going to work to get me an extra $10,000 if it takes an extra five hours? Especially when they can place ten more $40,000 people in that time frame. This is typically referred to as the law of diminishing returns.
Headhunts will try to make you fit the job, not find the job that fits you. I was told that I would never get the type of job I wanted with my resume (even though I already had the type of job I wanted already) but that she had the perfect job for me. I was also told that my salary expectations were too high and that I would have to be more realistic, even though I was already making more that I was asking for and in a tougher market.
If you don’t fall in line, they will drop you. Once I made it clear what I was looking for and that I was not willing to settle for a job similar to what I had done ten years ago, I never heard back from my two headhunters again. I am assuming that the effort wasn’t worth it.

Now, as I stated, this is based off a relatively short time with two headhunters and I could be completely off base. Maybe I just got the two bad headhunters in the entire world. Let us know about your headhunter experiences, good or bad.

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19 Responses to “Unimpressed with Headhunters”

Randy Nichols Says:
February 15th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
I found your site on google blog search and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. Just added your RSS feed to my feed reader. Look forward to reading more from you.

- Randy Nichols.
Curtis Says:
February 15th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
I hear you on this one. I worked with a head hunter after I left the military and interviewed with a few companies. I was placed with a managed services company that later turned out to be a disaster so I left there, called the recruiter and they tried to get me to interview with the same company, change my resume, and ask for less money. I, for obvious reasons declined, and then they tried to get me to do the same with another company that I had interviewed with 6 months earlier. Almost like they forgot or didn’t care who I was or what I wanted in a career. No more head hunters.
upriverpaddler Says:
February 16th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
It’s like you said. You don’t pay them. The companies pay them. And then you are surprised to discover “who they are working for”?
Anthony Lawrence Says:
February 16th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Nobody cares about you as much as you do. Well, maybe your mother, but I’m not even sure about that. I’ve been through the same thing with lawyers, accountants.. in fact, it sometimes seems to me that the only professionals I’ve ever been satisfied with were auto mechanics and carpenters: I have had good mechanics and good carpenters but I’ve never had a good lawyer or accountant.

My wife used to work for a head hunter. I’d pick her up at the end of the day and sometimes have to wait. Sometimes I had a chance to overhear this guy talking to a potential client - it was all I could do not to burst out laughing because he really didn’t have half a clue about technology, but he sure could throw out the buzzwords..
Patty Jamas Says:
February 16th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
You are 100% correct. I have dealt with recruiters for over 20 years.

Of perhaps 200 people I have spoken too, there might be about 10 that were willing to listen to what I wanted as opposed to trying to make me fit in to what the had in their inventory of open req’s.

A few companies, (not to be racist) take the approach of hiring anyone who can make phone calls and have no IT expertise. And some have employed a great deal of Indians (tech support not casino) who have trouble with the language and are simply phone dialers.

Very sad..

The worst offender is Robert Half. I strongly suggest people do not deal with them unless they have a concrete job to talk to you about. They tend to fish for information so they can call on other companies you worked for, friends, etc.. It is almost cult-like. In fact 2 Robert Half people asked me to call them any time I found a job listing or knew of a person in a company that I wanted to work for/with, etc… Their intent was to get the job req themselves for Robert Half or to just use you kind of like “LinkedIn” to piggyback off of you to find leads for other job openings.
Also if you ever notice Robert Half’s posting, sometimes they are very generic in an effort to collect resumes and at other times, they offer you salaries/hourly rates (as a contractor) way below what the market is.

The 99.5% percent of terrible IT recruiters ruin it for the reaming 1/2%

Patty
Joe Says:
February 17th, 2008 at 2:09 am
I’m with you 100%; headhunters are an absolute waste of time. I should say that I’ve never dealt with the independent guys, just the large-name firms, but I would expect no differences. My last (more recent and last time ever) experience, I met with 3 different companies, each of which required their own paperwork and in the case of 1 I had to take a competency test. I only even heard back from 1 of the places….. and that was 2 months AFTER I went and met with them. The other 2 wouldn’t even return my phone calls (even after the one was raving about how well I scored on their tests)!

On the contrary, I found a job I really enjoy on Craigslist, for which I interviewed for and was hired about 2 days later. And they offered me more money than the headhunter firms were to boot.

I’d advise anyone looking for a job to do the footwork themselves. I’d also advise any company looking to hire people to take the time to screen prospective employees and cut out the placement people entirely. All they do is skim money off the top of everyone’s salaries. I don’t think much higher of the job placement websites either as they seem to be crawling with headhunters and placement offices……
Steven Leach Says:
February 19th, 2008 at 11:43 am
In my 30 years of technical computing I have found several “head hunters” that were OK, and lots that were just fitting my square pegs into any round hole they could find. However the alternative is not very palatable. I have used CareerBuilders, Dice, and other sources. They all work to some extent, they all have good points and bad points. The best jobs have come from head hunters who found my resume’ on Dice or CarerrBuilder and then contacted me directly. These people were actually matching me against an employers criteria, then the head hunter would contact me, to see if I was available, and move on from their.
John Marra Says:
February 23rd, 2008 at 11:40 am
I have been in the IT business for 14 years and have the same complaint. Most are nothing more than slave traders. They are poor at their trade. I think recruiting firms hire people right out of school and they have quotas as to how many people they must contact or they are out. I have been contacted by countless Indians that can’t speak English and have poor writing skills.

I agree, Robert Half is joke. I’ve had dealings with them which were not pleasant. I had one recruiter from there get all bent out of shape because I couldn’t drop everything I was doing that same day (visiting a paying client)and go on an interview in 4 hours. They require you to take tests which I won’t do anymore.

I think most of them are harvesting contact info and resumes for future positions. Most of them don’t read your resume based on the jobs they are contacting you about.
leftystrat Says:
February 26th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Speaking as a former unemployed person and as a person who has had to hire a bit, I think you learned your lesson in a relatively painless way. Trust me, it could’ve been much worse.

The headhunters I met were people who couldn’t get a job selling used cars. Or in politics. (they’re not ALL that way, of course)

They don’t listen. They don’t have your best interests at heart. They will waste your time at any hour of the night or day, but don’t try to actually CONTACT them.

As someone who hires, they’re a nagging pain. Some are downright unethical. I’ve dealt with a few that were good, but you don’t call them for low level techs.

Like they told me when I was looking: it’s all about networking.
Unfortunately they were talking socially and I was talking CAT-5e.

See if you can find one with a good reputation, if you decide to try again. Meanwhile, make it happen another way.

Best of luck!
-lefty
Frank Says:
February 27th, 2008 at 8:13 am
This the first time I have ever posted a reply to a blog but your article on ” headhunters” demands a response.

I have been an executive recruiter in Canada for the past 20 years. In that time I have seen a lot of bad recruiters and some very fine ones. Although I have been doing this for a long time I don’t claim to be an expert on the behavior of all recruiters, however; there are a couple of things I do know.

First, candidates don’t “hire” recruiters. That statement, in and of itself, shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the business relationship between candidate and recruiter. Any conclusions that are drawn from that assumption are just wrong.

Second, the only one who is responsible for your past, present, and future employment is you. Third parties can obviously be of assistance but the onus is on the candidate and no one else.

Lastly, while recruiters can be of assistance during a job search the only tried and true method for finding a job is personal networking.

So my advice is, spend less time on your computer and more time on the phone. That is the path to finding your next job.
Tim Fehlman Says:
February 27th, 2008 at 9:34 am
@Frank,

I agree completely with your statement that candidates do not hire recruiters. This is fundamental to my premise that recruiters are not looking out for the candidate but the employer and that the candidates are really nothing more than a commodity to be traded.

I also agree that each individual is ultimately responsible for their own employment. From what I have experienced and what I have been reading from others on the blog, the responsible thing to do, in general, is not waste time with recruiters.

I used personal networking to find my new position without any assistance from a recruiter.

As for your “spend less time on your computer and more time on the phone” comment, this is a huge assumption on your part and is probably why many recruiters find themselves recommending people for the wrong positions. They go on their assumptions rather than truly getting to know the individual they are trying to place.

Tim
Frank Says:
February 27th, 2008 at 11:33 am
Tim,

I wasn’t trying to offend you, rather I was trying to make a point.

The path to success in job search is personal networking. Recruiters are not a waste of time; however, it does take some effort to find one (or some) that you feel comfortable with. Oddly enough that is also accomplished through networking.

Recruiters are one tool in your job search tool box, relying on them to find you a job is a bad strategy just as relying on the newspaper is a bad strategy. It is important to use every resource at your disposal and not dismiss any one because you have had a bad experience.

For the record I spend a great deal of time getting to know potential candidates - unfortunately I don’t do IT searches.
Peter Stretz Says:
February 29th, 2008 at 11:07 am
The only time IT headhunters call me is to offer positions in a city in which I do not live. When I ask about positions close to where I live and have purchased a home that the current market will not make it easy to offload, they are quick to hang up and never call back. Perhaps I am in the wrong city, but I like where I live. I have worked for a few good headhunters, setting up websites and doing computer repair, but they don’t play in the market I work. You may want to revise your statement to “Unimpressed with ‘IT’ Headhunters” In that instance I agree, they’re just shoving the cattle through the gates.

The really painful part is that I hear HR reps from large companies saying it’s hard to find good IT staff in this country. I’m wondering, is it that the staff doesn’t exist, or did they all just get shoved through the wrong gates by bad recruiters?
steve simon Says:
March 15th, 2008 at 10:43 am
I am an employer , tried to recruit a new business developement person, got a call out of the blue from a head hunter. He sounded fairly intellegent so I said why not. It was a frustrating experience, he used monster.com to find people. He brought “C” people vs “A” people to the table. He pressure me into hiring this person. I felt I was dealing with a used car salesman. If I did not hire this person he indiretly gave me the impression he would try to recuit my employees. It was a franchise of Management Recruiters International.
Terrible Experience.
Steve Simon
les parkinson Says:
April 2nd, 2008 at 8:39 pm
I’ve been a headhunter for years…known some pretty good ones and a bunch of bad ones. Many of you seem to not understand a basic fact of the business: Headhunters aren’t trying to find people who need a job. Employers can find those folks all by themselves. Headhunters exist to attract people who aren’t looking for a new job, aren’t answering ads and scouring the job boards. The ones they’re trying to find are employed, reasonably happy and possess a fair degree of competence in their profession. Their job is to introduce them to the company with a need and assist them if they want to get married. That’s how the headhunter gets paid. The one that writes the check is called a client or customer.
Headhunters find these individuals through every networking possibility that comes their way. This may include you, as a source of contacts. You are not a client or customer. If that offends you, keep putting out some attitude. This will ensure that they, the good and bad ones, leave you alone. On the other hand, if you sense that you’re dealing with someone who might be around for longer than 5 minutes, you might make an effort to develop a relationship that will serve you both. Your payoff will hit big time when your career has gotten to the point where your advancement will only come through the contacts and relationships you’ve developed. I’ve talked with lots of mid-career techies who never grasp why they don’t secure the juicy interviews. Here’s the truth…cynical and negative people with some huge sense of entitlement seldom get a shot at important management positions.
It’s your choice. Doesn’t matter to me because if you don’t agree with what I’ve written, we won’t be talking anyway. If you do, you didn’t really need to read it. We already know each other, or we will.
Patty Amas Says:
April 17th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Here is what I send recruiters who shotgun emails to me without reading my resume. And the majority of bad headhunters who contact me far outweigh the good. The worst offenders are in the IT industry. Sure I have met some good ones….

REPLY TO AN EMAIL SENT TO ME ASKING FOR A C# DEVELOPER WITH 12 YEARS EXPERIENCE IN IT RELATED INVESTMENT BANKING, BACK OFFICE FINANCIAL FUNCTIONS:

Dear Amir,

This position sounds great and I am currently available and possibly willing to relocate. Salary is not really an issue as long as it is $40-$60/hour or equivalent annually.

I possess 0 years experience in the skills you mentioned. So there should be no doubt as to my strengths in what you or your client requires. I have been in IT for 20 years.

I am glad you are not like other recruiters and waste peoples time. I usually deal with recruiters who actually read my resume and know what positions I am suited for.

It is apparent you are not one of those.

How do I apply for this position that you feel I’m qualified for in contrast to what my resume states?

What are our next steps?

Patty

____________

Sometimes I will receive a reply to the above asking for a phone interview and to elaborate on my experience……
Patty Amas Says:
April 17th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
I have to disagree somewhat with what LES says. Headhunters are looking for anyone (employed or not) that could be a fit for a clients position.

Lets apply what he says to a car dealership or any business. Do you think a car dealership only wants people to buy a car if they already have a car? Or are they willing to sell a car to anyone who desires a car?

True at certain level positions it is who you know. And it is best or easier to find a job if you have a goo d network

But it also is based on reputation, what others say about you, etc…

But per Les “…if you don’t agree with what I’ve written, we won’t be talking anyway………..”

Thats a pretty strong and pompous statement Les!

Patty
les parkinson Says:
April 20th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
Hi Patty,
Obviously you’ve learned to separate headhunters into competents and idiots(great humorous response in dealing with the latter!). I do the same thing with IT professionals. I don’t see it as pompous…over the years I’ve learned that folks who don’t see the big picture with regard to networking are the ones who are usually screened out early in the selection process for mid-management and higher level positions. Most of them remain unaware that the interview process often includes evaluations for the next level position beyond the immediate target one. That is why you see so many “qualified” candidates stagnate at whatever level they’ve reached (or make lateral moves elsewhere).
I’m sure you know of exceptions to this, and so do I. But my livelihood revolves around investing time where I’ll most likely get solid results.
May I point out that your reasoning regarding a car dealership is flawed because you’re example is about a business and a customer. A headhunter is a vendor to a business. We’re all independent vendors operating on some combination of retainer or commission.
Think of us as marriage brokers. Except that we only deal with those who are already married. The singles are already contacting each other thru the dating services etc. Our job is to find those who are married, doing well, but who might be open to getting divorced if a better match might be found.
I know that sounds a little crass but if you remove the social context and simply look at employement as a business relationship, it might make sense.
I can go on about this, and if you ask, I will! In the meantime, I hope all is well in your career and life!
Les
Me Says:
June 5th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
I don’t see why people should runaway from Indians. The problem might be in the skills sought, not in the ethnicity, unless that’s exactly what the problem is, which takes me to the subject on how racist some recruiters are. The minute they perceive an accent or ethnicity they reject the candidates saying they don’t match the skills set. If it’s about skills set, then we would see more diversity at the bottom as well as at the top of management. The truth is we DON’T. We only see more of the same bunch, who despise how immigrants come into this country yet they CAN’T live without them. To filter who gets the job they also use recruiters as this saves them from liability. And why shouldn’t they, as we saw here, the employers sign the checks, and they only see us as cattle.