So what do these tech recruiters actually do?

Kasia Michalak
Aug 8, 2017 · 5 min read

Yes, I know. Most developers don’t consider recruiters as their best friends. Honestly? I’m not surprised. The Internet is filled with comments and posts about how unprofessionally a recruiter behaved. How they sent a copy-paste message, how they forgot to change a name, how they never called back. Please, can anyone show me a post where someone wrote: “Hey Guys,
I wanted to tell you how a great experience I had with a recruiter XYZ.”?
I owe you a large beer or coffee (or both if you prefer;).

I agree that in some cases these recruiters behaved unprofessionally, but doesn’t that happen in every profession? The truth is that if recruiters
(or people in general) do their job well, we take it for granted, but if someone slips up — ohhh… then some of us might just turn into a second Paulo Coelho (with all due respect) only to let negative emotions out. That’s sad. If we find the time to criticize people we should also find time to praise them. And before anyone says something, please think where you are on this scale.

But well, this text is not about that. Let’s stick to the point. Let me tell you how I work so that maybe you’ll get the bigger picture of my job.

  1. I help companies build teams

by being an external recruiter and by working with various startups and software houses. My job is to find them good candidates that match best their profile and culture. My job is also to help them create a proper recruitment process, make them remember about feedback and help them work on a great onboarding process.

2. I send messages

based on what’s written on your profile. If I look for a Full-stack JavaScript Engineer (with front-end and at least one of the scripting languages) and I see PHP in your skills but no description of your current role I might want to think that you actually might be interested. So please, don’t be angry if my message isn’t ideally personalized ;) But usually, I get responses like these (so I guess it isn’t so bad;)

3. I double check

not only your LinkedIn profile but also your Twitter or Github. I want to make sure 100 times that I will write to you with an interesting offer.
It happened many times that a StackOverflow account wasn’t updated
and I checked on Twitter that someone left PHP for Ruby.

Therefore, it would be awesome if you could…

  1. Let me know.

I’m a tech recruiter, you’re a developer. Sometimes I do a direct search
and I write messages ;) If you’re interested, great — let’s talk. If not — it would amazing if you could let me know — I won’t be spamming you anymore ;) On LinkedIn, there’s an automated answer “Thanks, I’m not interested”. It takes just a second to click on it. Moreover, if you don’t want to receive messages from recruiters, you can write it in your summary and I’m more than sure that it should help reduce the number of unwanted inmails.

But maybe it might be the case that you’re actually looking for something new. Even if it’s not a role I’m approaching you with, remember I work for various clients and maybe we can find something else for you (even if not now, then maybe in a couple of months), like in this case:

which resulted in this:

2. Spare me 5 minutes.

Remember, please, a call with me is just a call, a chit chat, after which you’re not obliged to decide about anything. I want to know you, your motivations, your ambitions and I basically want to make your life better by giving you an interesting job. Sounds silly and naive? Maybe. But for me,
the biggest happiness is when I read:

In return, I tell you a lot about the company I work for and about a specific role. I’m with you through a whole recruitment process. I help you prepare.
I catch up to see how your interviews went. I make sure all is going well. If it works out, I celebrate with you and I keep in touch till the day you start your work. If it doesn’t, we keep in touch for the future and I remember about you when I have new roles.

Things you might not know…

  1. It’s never easy

— for me — to tell you that you didn’t make it. I really really don’t like calling/ writing to people with this information. I realize you took your time, you engaged and you had some hopes it would work out. I always try to give you feedback so that you know what you can improve
and I really do want to keep in touch. We never know what can happen in the future.

2. I work with clients that are oh-my-god-so-amazing

and I just love working for them. But I also used to work with clients that could-also-be-so-amazing-but-weren’t. I usually don’t know that until I start working for them ;) In most cases, it’ not their fault. For example, they just don’t know how to do onboarding well — and I help them to do that. But sometimes they change the requirements during the process even though
I tell them they shouldn’t. Or they forget to send a feedback even though
I pinged them a couple of times.The only thing I can do then is to grin and bear it and try to explain things and find them a proper candidate.

To finish this short essay, I don’t want it to be for & against…

I wanted to give you a glimpse of what my work looks like and to show you that — as anywhere else — it has its ups and downs. Nonetheless, I really like it. I like changing people’s lives and even sometimes making them move countries. I like making people go out of their comfort zone and be proud of it. I hope we will have a chance to chat (again?;) one day and that I will be able to change your life as well.

Written by

Business Development Manager @ Bee Talents. Speaker. The Best Recruitment Consultant in Poland-HR Pearls 2016. They say I can talk to developers.

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade