Whats wrong with Freelance Tech-Recruitment

The Disconnect

I have been a freelancer, developer and product manager for the last years and at some point decided to form a community by and for freelancers.

What many tech recruiters nowadays do, is to cold call or write people with generic messages about their availability for a project which in many cases is not even a potential fit.

In general there is a disconnect between recruiters and tech-freelancers that is causing more and more freelancers to look for alternatives.

Recently there have been a lot of new recruitment platforms popping up and it feels like every second message I get on Linkedin is from some kind of recruiter or outsourcing company trying to either sell me their services or suggest jobs to me. What most of them lack is a deeper understanding of developers and designers (their customers) needs. There are some major issues with today’s outsourcing and recruitment businesses that I want to address in this post. Here is a list of the most pressing and common issues that I have encountered over the last 5 years of being a freelancer.

No Transparency

A common issue I have come across over the last few years is that freelancers do not know about their recruiters commission, even in long-term arrangements. Commissions are generally not communicated transparently in tech recruitment in order to increase margins.

You might think that the commission does not matter as long as you can charge your hourly rate, but a lack of transparency in a partnership shows a lack of trust and potentially unfair compensation.

Most recruiters will not let their freelancers know if they could charge more and instead increase their commission, which is unfortunately a common practice.

Lack of Vision

Why do people choose to become tech-recruiters? It is a middleman business, not unlike realtors, and not unlike realtors, most tech-recruiters are in for the high commissions and opportunity to earn a good living.

In principle there is nothing wrong with this but it lacks vision and a more sustainable idea about the future of work and recruitment.

Recruiters have the opportunity to influence the future of work, improve work conditions for workers and should aim for more than just filling as many positions as possible or getting their bonus.

Job Spamming

When it comes to the job-search recruiters have the obligation to only ask for availability if the job fits a freelancers basic requirements and tech-stack. Too often I look into my inbox to find unrelated and unfitting proposals which is not only annoying but also illegal in some cases since I did not even sign up to some of the services that contact me.

Data Privacy

Data Privacy Protection has recently gained popularity and importance with scandals like “Cambridge Analytica” and various other data breaches. The EU tries to protect their citizens with the GDPR regulation which was implemented in May 2018 and prohibits companies from storing and processing personal data without consent. Still many recruitment companies illegally store candidates CVs and profile data without consent and contact candidates via phone and email. When asked how exactly they got hold of my data, the answer was mostly a generic “it is in our system” with a promise of getting back to me about the details — which never happened.

Remote Work

We live in times where an increasing number of people is crammed into cities and sacrifices around 2 hours per day for their commute to work. Most people working in office jobs do not need to be at the office most of the time. IT-Freelancers especially should not be required to work on site unless its for a limited period of time for onboarding purposes. Commutes have a negative impact on the environment, quality of life and even productivity. Wouldn’t you rather start the work day refreshed than after an hour of finding your way through traffic with thousands of other people.

Our Mission

There are a lot of things that show potential for improvement in today’s tech-industry.

At Glolent we are making a stance for fair rates, transparency, community, remote work and working and in favor of our freelancers as much as of our clients.

If you want to support us, share your experience or become a Glolent member visit us on www.glolent.com or write me an email to behsaad@glolent.com.