TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Well, the whole technical recruiter thing is SO over these days. I
removed myself from all the job boards long ago, and I still get calls
from recruiters. Every once in a while I'll take the bait, but it
almost invariably leads to an annoying dead end.
The employers are playing the recruiters, hard. Too often all the
recruiter is doing is entering your info into the employer's web form,
no sales skill involved.
Lisa Wright wrote:
> I think this is bad advice for a couple of reasons (and this is just
> a general note for interested persons, since Michelle is not going to
> go down this road herself).
>
> If a company gives a posting to multiple recruiters, they don't want
> to see the same resume from more than one recruiting company.
Exactly. That's why you should only agree to allow one of the
recruiters - the one you select - to submit your resume to the
employer. You are conflating my advice with the improper practice of
double-submission.
> company will refuse to consider you because they consider you to be
> rate shopping.
The company (employer) won't know you are rate shopping unless you tell
them. What is wrong with rate shopping? What do you think the employers
are doing, if not rate shopping? Why should employers be able to
rate-shop, but not employees? Rate shopping = free market. Maybe you
are willing to meekly take the first rate you are quoted, but some of
us are not.
> And, if the recruiter finds out that you found out
> about the job through them but then got it via other means, including
> directly, there could be consequences.
The recruiters publish their job listings on publicly available web
sites. This is the info they have chosen to reveal to the public, like
a phone book listing, SEC filing, or annual report. These listings form
a public database that is a gold mine of business information. It is
perfectly legitimate to read these listings, cross-reference them, and
extract whatever information you are able to. Just because a job has
been posted on some website somewhere does not preclude you from using
your resources to land the job.
If a recruiter provides additional info in a private conversation, the
ethics are a little more unclear. Obviously if you receive privileged
information you may be obliged not to act on it.
In my market, I usually know who the client is just based on the job
description. I have no problem telling them, "You know, your client
posted this job with 4 different recruiters this morning..." Usually
they are surprised to learn this, and are quick to offer their best
rate.
Other times, a pattern forms where a job is simultaneously posted by
five or six recruiters. But if you look back at the older postings,
you'll see the same job was also posted by a single recruiter some
weeks ago. As if the employer rejected all the candidates from their
first-tier recruiter, then handed it out to their second-tier
recruiters. This tells you a lot about the job, its urgency (or lack
therof), and about the employer's attitudes toward the job.
If a recruiter calls me (I never call them!), I usually am
non-committal; I tell them I'll call them back in a few hours. Before
the end of the day, usually a few other recruiters have called offering
the same job. It's nice to have choices - I don't consider that
rate-shopping.
Mike O.
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
The all-new My Yahoo! - Get yours free! http://my.yahoo.com
ROBOHELP X5 - SEE THE ALL NEW ROBOHELP X5 IN ACTION!
RoboHelp X5 is a giant leap forward in Help authoring technology, featuring all new Word 2003 support, Content Management, Multi-Author support, PDF and XML support and much more! View an online demo: http://www.macromedia.com/go/techwrldemo
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Send administrative questions to lisa -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
