Dear Recruiters, Stop It.

Look, I get it — based on the titles I’ve held over the years and the companies I’ve worked for, my LinkedIn profile practically screams, “Hey! This guy needs to hire sysadmins/network engineers/cloud architects/software engineers/product managers!”. I can see why you would think that, and in general, you’re right.

On any given day over the last 15 years or so, I’ve probably been looking for passionate and creative individuals to fill one or more of those roles. What you don’t know is that over that period of time the number of full-time employees I’ve hired from an outside recruiter (as opposed to internal recruiting, promotion, personal referrals, and targeted pursuit) is less than three.

Now consider, that over that same period of time I’ve easily hired more than 50 people — many of whom are still part of the organizations I hired them into and have grown their careers in exciting and inspiring ways.

So, to save us all some time, I thought it might do the world some good for me to outline the reasons why I don’t typically use recruiters and why I do my best to ignore their emails:

1. Stop thinking transactionally. You’re not selling me a gallon of milk, you’re helping me to find a human being who’s going to play a critical role in my organization’s ecosystem. Not only are they going to last longer than the milk but the impact (good or bad) will be much farther reaching. Don’t look for the first win and move on. Understand that it will probably take a lot of ‘at-bats’ before we find a true fit. I’m not being needlessly difficult, I just care more about finding a culture and values fit than filling a chair. I build relationships with people. Show me that you care not about finding the quick fit, but rather finding the right fit and long after we’ve both moved onto whatever is next for each of us — I’ll still be calling you when I need help filling an opening.
2. Partners share risk. Risk is a factor in any hire. You do your best to mitigate it, but no matter how many interviews you conduct, no matter how diverse the team is who’s conducting them, and how thoroughly you check references there’s always a chance the person who ultimately shows up on day one won’t be the person you interviewed. It happens. When it does happen, my cost is obvious: money, time, velocity; you name it, I eat it all. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. The cost to the recruiter on the other hand, is minimal. Their commission is secure. Here’s a secret: Show me that you’re more than a vendor; show me that you’re my partner. Partners win and lose together. Partners share risk. A partner would put their commission on the line if a candidate doesn’t work out. Yea, I know — that’s usually where the conversation ends.
3. Do your homework. The technology job market is no longer solely about the acronyms after your name or the platforms you’ve hacked on. If all I needed was a collection of technical skills, LinkedIn, StackOverflow, and GitHub would be all I’d need to build a team. I need more than raw technical prowess, I need someone who can be a productive part of and contribute to our team and our culture. I need someone who cares about customer experience and customer success just as much as they do about infrastructure as code. Before you think you’ve found her, do your homework. Read about my organization and the mission we have undertaken. Understand who our customers are and what market problems we’re solving for them. I’ll take someone who’s a little green, eager as heck to learn, and a cultural promoter over a seasoned, brilliant, jerk.

This isn’t to say that recruiters are bad people or that the practice of recruiting is somehow evil or outdated. Generally speaking, it’s a good sign when a company has more openings than it can sustainably fill on its own. It means companies are growing and competing for top talent. That’s how an economy grows. However, like an increasing number of leaders, I subscribe to the Netflix philosophy, “do not tolerate brilliant jerks, the cost to teamwork is too high”. The coin of the realm is no longer technical expertise alone. Until recruiters learn how to become my partner and help me solve problems; and until they figure out how to map both hard and soft skills effectively, my advice will remain; STOP IT.