RE: Recruiters

[Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com>]

After reading the humourous - and horrific! - stories about
recruiters, I wonder if I'm innocent who's been petting tigers
under the impression that they were oversized house cats.

I deal regularly with about four or five recruiters, and I've
landed about a third of my jobs through them. Unless I've missed
something, all of them appear to be conscientious and forthright
people. One or two have even become something approaching
friends.

Since I hate to think of myself as naive, I prefer to think that
the difference is that I've (dare I use an out-of-fashion
buzzword?) networked with them. I've struck up a long term
relation with them, based on mutual help, and both sides are
aware that it is long-term. By contrast, I notice that most of
the stories are about opportunists who don't know their clients
and who make no effort to.

To summarize in a cliche, I'd like to think that what you get out
of a relation with a recruiter is what you put in. If you find a
recruiter you can trust, cultivate the relation and everyone will
benefit. Otherwise, it will be hit and miss whether a recruiter
helps you or is simply a source of funny stories.

-- 
Bruce Byfield, Outlaw Communications
Contributing Editor, Maximum Linux
bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com | Tel: 604.421.7189

"And when I moved upon them down a byway,
Bathed and annointed, sweet with oil of rose,
They blanched, for they had left me on the highway
Covered with blood and with a broken nose."
- Roy Daniells, "Psalm 23"