The recruiter can often be a hard fish to fry. The recruiter may have been involved in technology at one point in his career, but more than likely was not. They may have a cursory understanding of technical terms and technical jargon, but likely they can just identify buzzwords. Even though a lot of these buzzwords may not really mean anything to a real geek, they’re very attractive to recruiters.
Here, you need to think like a recruiter. A recruiter has probably been given a task (find me a programmer) and a set of skills (C++, STL), and experience (3-5 years). To get past the recruiter, you just have to match (or mostly match) this checklist.
So, if you’re looking for a job as a Linux C++ server engineer, you need to make that apparent in your resume. If possible, you should list it in the skills section of your resume, and also in the experience section, if you have relevant experience. Typically, all you have to do to make it past the recruiter is match your resume to the words they’re looking for.
One other thing to note about recruiters – there are really two kinds of recruiters: the kind that works for a company that actually hires technical people, and the kind that works for a company that places technical people in other companies. There’s a big difference here.
Recruiters that work for placement agencies (commonly called “headhunters”) may sound very friendly, and you may be happy to hear from somebody that is so anxious to talk to you – but keep in mind, the way they make money is to place people in technical jobs. Since you’re looking for a technical job, the headhunter might sound like a great person to talk to. Sometimes, they are - but I’ve found much less success with headhunters than I’ve found on my own.
Keep in mind that the company where they’re trying to place you is likely paying up to 30% of your first year’s salary for the right to hire you. Given that, do you think it’s more likely that they will hire someone from an agency, or someone that applied to the company directly?
Not all headhunters do this, but some just want your resume to send out to companies as part of their standard package of resumes (which may be anywhere from 20 to hundreds) in hopes of landing a placement. If a headhunter sends your resume to a company, the company will be contractually obligated for a certain period of time (I usually see 6 months, but it can be up to a year) to pay the headhunter, even if you find your own way there later. While most of them will tell you whenever they are submitting your resume to a company, not all of them will.
Early in your career, it’s a good idea to talk to anybody who is interested in getting you a job, regardless of their motivations – but be cautious and understand what you’re getting yourself into.
Here, you need to think like a recruiter. A recruiter has probably been given a task (find me a programmer) and a set of skills (C++, STL), and experience (3-5 years). To get past the recruiter, you just have to match (or mostly match) this checklist.
So, if you’re looking for a job as a Linux C++ server engineer, you need to make that apparent in your resume. If possible, you should list it in the skills section of your resume, and also in the experience section, if you have relevant experience. Typically, all you have to do to make it past the recruiter is match your resume to the words they’re looking for.
One other thing to note about recruiters – there are really two kinds of recruiters: the kind that works for a company that actually hires technical people, and the kind that works for a company that places technical people in other companies. There’s a big difference here.
Recruiters that work for placement agencies (commonly called “headhunters”) may sound very friendly, and you may be happy to hear from somebody that is so anxious to talk to you – but keep in mind, the way they make money is to place people in technical jobs. Since you’re looking for a technical job, the headhunter might sound like a great person to talk to. Sometimes, they are - but I’ve found much less success with headhunters than I’ve found on my own.
Keep in mind that the company where they’re trying to place you is likely paying up to 30% of your first year’s salary for the right to hire you. Given that, do you think it’s more likely that they will hire someone from an agency, or someone that applied to the company directly?
Not all headhunters do this, but some just want your resume to send out to companies as part of their standard package of resumes (which may be anywhere from 20 to hundreds) in hopes of landing a placement. If a headhunter sends your resume to a company, the company will be contractually obligated for a certain period of time (I usually see 6 months, but it can be up to a year) to pay the headhunter, even if you find your own way there later. While most of them will tell you whenever they are submitting your resume to a company, not all of them will.
Early in your career, it’s a good idea to talk to anybody who is interested in getting you a job, regardless of their motivations – but be cautious and understand what you’re getting yourself into.
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