Recruiters don't always understand the challenges of job seekers. You're better off building your professional network so you're not solely dependent on them. That said, they can still offer valuable opportunities. Here are some ways to approach the job seeker-recruiter relationship in a healthier way.
While I have obvious bias against this as a recruiter, I can appreciate your point of view. Thanks for going out on a limb and writing what you felt instead of holding back.
Thanks, Jen! And obviously, this post is biased towards job seekers, which I fully acknowledge.
I, likewise, find your newsletter incredibly refreshing and I've learned much more about a recruiter's perspective from your work. What I find refreshing is that you actually work with job seekers in ways I've yet to experience, which kind of boggles my mind.
Just last week, a recruiter emailed me about a job for frontend development + experience with a BI reporting tool. He asked me to send my resume over and we can chat. At this point, I just wanted to learn more about the job, so I replied with my resume. And in a good-hearted attempt to save everyone time (and maybe I was misguided), I basically said, "just to be upfront about it, while I have experience with the reporting tool, it's been a while since I did frontend development, but I'm more than willing to ramp up and I'm still interesting in hearing more."
I never heard back.
These are the kinds of situations where there's definitely a part of me that wishes job seekers could have better relationships with recruiters. But, as the saying goes, "it takes two to tango."
And I acknowledge that I could offer the recruiter a bit more. They could use referrals - I get it. But the reason I reach out to recruiters is because my network is small to begin with. The irony is if I could easily offer them referrals, then my network is probably strong enough that I wouldn't need recruiters at all.
Clearly, there are recruiters and job seekers who operate (and think) within their own silos. And part of breaking those silos is to share our experiences in public (like this), so that (hopefully) we can get these two parties to dance together. That's part of what I was trying to do here.
Learning from you was an important part of that, and I just want to thank you for that!
While I have obvious bias against this as a recruiter, I can appreciate your point of view. Thanks for going out on a limb and writing what you felt instead of holding back.
Thanks, Jen! And obviously, this post is biased towards job seekers, which I fully acknowledge.
I, likewise, find your newsletter incredibly refreshing and I've learned much more about a recruiter's perspective from your work. What I find refreshing is that you actually work with job seekers in ways I've yet to experience, which kind of boggles my mind.
Just last week, a recruiter emailed me about a job for frontend development + experience with a BI reporting tool. He asked me to send my resume over and we can chat. At this point, I just wanted to learn more about the job, so I replied with my resume. And in a good-hearted attempt to save everyone time (and maybe I was misguided), I basically said, "just to be upfront about it, while I have experience with the reporting tool, it's been a while since I did frontend development, but I'm more than willing to ramp up and I'm still interesting in hearing more."
I never heard back.
These are the kinds of situations where there's definitely a part of me that wishes job seekers could have better relationships with recruiters. But, as the saying goes, "it takes two to tango."
And I acknowledge that I could offer the recruiter a bit more. They could use referrals - I get it. But the reason I reach out to recruiters is because my network is small to begin with. The irony is if I could easily offer them referrals, then my network is probably strong enough that I wouldn't need recruiters at all.
Clearly, there are recruiters and job seekers who operate (and think) within their own silos. And part of breaking those silos is to share our experiences in public (like this), so that (hopefully) we can get these two parties to dance together. That's part of what I was trying to do here.
Learning from you was an important part of that, and I just want to thank you for that!
Love to read your newsletter too Alvin.
You always find interesting nuggets for us to consider.