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Like many things in this world, recruiting is a karma type thing. I own a
recruiting company and I can't say we're always 100% perfect in how we do
things. But we try to be on the level with people and I keep a pretty close eye
on the recruiters with mantras like "the candidate is just as important as the
client."
Nevertheless, there are just as many incompetent technical writers as there are
incompetent recruiters. I've had recruiters try to terrorize candidates and
force them into interviews they didn't want. In the long run, these recruiters
never make it either because A) I can their ass or B) they can't make their
quotas.
Yet the flip side of this is also true. We get candidates all the time who are
loaded for a war. They treat us like crap and have a lot of attitude. We just
toss them. Why help people who don't want to be helped? Being a prick to a
recruiter is only going to get you ignored, fast. Be a cool cat and play the
game fairly. You'll get tasty treats and it won't cost you a dime.
I'll admit, some recruiting firms suck. But, good recruiters really can be an
asset. As long as you let them do their jobs and help you out - you can get a
really lucrative job. But, like all service organizations,some are good and
some are not. You may have to cycle through 4 or 5 recruiters before you find a
good one. But if you do, you can get some super-creamy deals from them.
("Super-creamy deals" is a quasi-registered trademark of Anitian Consulting,
Inc.)
I guess my point in this rambling, meaningless, topic-wandering post is - do
unto others as you would want done to you. If you are a prick to recruiters,
you'll probably have bad experiences. If you work with them and let them do
their jobs, you'll most likely have good experiences. If they don't listen to
you, boot them. But, likewise, if you don't listen to them, they'll boot you.
Whatever you do, don't listen to a word that the National Writer's Union says
about recruiters. Their Party Elites seem to have it in for all recruiters and
their propaganda is pure nonsense. They want to force some bizarro communistic
equality thing on all of us.
Yeah, there's a successful business model - communism. Call the Venture
Capitalists, we want share somebody else's money! Sheesh.
How on earth did I end up talking about communism on this post? Whatever.
Damn it is hot in Portland today. I think my brains are frying.
