5 Things I Learned About Tech Recruiters

[caption id="attachment_145041" align="aligncenter" width="5809"] Tech recruiters can be annoying.[/caption] Studies show turnover is fairly routine at tech companies, suggesting that recruiters are always working. Over the past year, I’ve taken note of the emails and interactions I’ve had with recruiters. I’m not open to a new position, but I wanted to see if there was a way to crack the recruiting code. Here are my five main takeaways.

Multiple Recruiters, One Job

Ford wasn’t named in their emails, but when a dozen-plus recruiters reached out with that “special opportunity” to work for a “known player in the automotive industry” – which happens to be located in Dearborn, Michigan – I made my assumptions. That sort of mass-mailing is routine. Open jobs at attractive companies typically draw the attention of recruiters hoping to make a commission or improve their numbers. It’s the job. I get it. I’m not even mad about it. In my experience, most of the recruiters who swoop in to fill these jobs are from the same agency. Each of them even puts you through the exact same rigamarole after the initial contact (typically, it’s filling out paperwork so they can forward you onto the next person in the process, sometimes at the hiring company). [caption id="attachment_139183" align="aligncenter" width="1000"] H1-B under Trump is under fire[/caption]

Politics Matters

After Trump took office, I began seeing a trend of “W2 ONLY!” in my inbox. That soon morphed into “no H-1B” and “U.S. citizenship required!” As we’ve pointed out, Trump hasn't made huge reforms to H-1B. His campaign promises about killing the visa program seem to have been forgotten, at least for the moment. But recruiters and hiring companies see what might be around the corner, and are taking precautions. In the current H-1B system, applicants with advanced degrees enter a “master’s cap” pool of 20,000 visas; those who are rejected then enter the 65,000-visa “general pool,” which features applicants without advanced degrees. Under the administration's current proposal, the revamped system will allow all applicants, including those with advanced degrees, to enter the “general pool,” and any who don’t land a visa during that first round can then end up in the “master’s cap” pool. Whatever the ultimate outcome, recruiters and hiring managers are always paying attention to what's happening on the broader political scene. That can have a trickle-down impact on companies and job candidates alike.

Recruiters Don’t Research

I don’t want to relocate. I also don’t code beyond Swift and Objective-C. Still, I get offers for jobs in Dearborn, Michigan. Another company wants to hire me as an Android developer. A different company is looking for a mid-career web developer... in Indianapolis. Had these recruiters bothered to look at my profile, they would have seen that none of the above opportunities were right for me. But that’s not how many operate: quite a few simply cast the widest net possible in an attempt to snag a few good candidates. The tech recruitment process is long and brutal, and there’s a lot of rejection, so more candidates logically means a better chance at filling the job.

You Can Run Away

I recently changed my email, and made sure to update my profile on Dice. Recruiters are still emailing my old address, though. This indicates they cull data periodically rather than perform bespoke searches as jobs pop up. (That being said, the transition is happening: new recruitment emails are coming to my new address, but it’s a slow process.) The takeaway: you may want to keep a separate email specifically for recruitment purposes. This allows you to keep it tucked away from your main workflow, monitoring as needed. You could also write dedicated email rules, but the recruitment landscape can shift abruptly (i.e., you may not ever catch ‘em all and contain the recruitment emails to a single folder).

You’re A Recruiter, Too!

I’m not an Android or web developer, but if I know a friend who is, I can get a bonus! Internal recruiting offers incentives to those who drag their friends into this mess. The promise of a few hundred bucks (or more) undoubtedly keeps the name-drops coming at a rapid clip. Some external recruiting firms also rely on referrals. Such methods can build out an HR specialist's CRM database, and keep a healthy cadre of potential candidates on-hand. From the recruiter's perspective, forking over a portion of the commission is a short-term move that may yield long-term returns.

Let It Be

Whether we like it or not, recruitment is a big part of tech. If anything, it shows that the industry is healthy and in constant need of talent. It also shows that many recruiters are cognizant of their environment. In most of the upfront interactions I’ve had, recruiters were fairly blunt in their needs and assessments of me; at no point did I get the impression they were simply wasting my time. Caveats exist. We suggest you visit your Dice profile to make sure your information is correct, especially pertaining to your experience level and availability. As with any other networking or job profile, keeping your info current will save you a lot of headaches, even if recruiters take a bit of time to catch up!