What is the best way to deal with recruiters?

Question

I just had the most ridiculous conversation with a recruiter. A bit about me, I'm a C++ guy that has made a very smooth transition into .NET a couple years ago. I've done some very difficult projects in the past, Fourier transforms, signal processing, physics simulation, , high volume data transactions, etc.

Now I applied to a job yesterday and this recruiter was asking me if I had 5 years of .NET experience and if I "had winforms experience and was 'good with ecks em el'". I told her "yes m'am, I do, and I am quite good with "ecks em el". She asked me how many years of .NET experience I have, I told her about 2-3 years. She told me "oh, sorry, they want someone who is "a little more seasoned".

Now this isn't the first time I've had to deal with this, as I've been passed over many times before by guys who have never done anything but .NET, whereas my years in C++ and other platforms don't seem to count.

My question is, since this is something that will undoubtedly happen again, how would I best handle this situation as I wanted to scream profanities into the phone but realized it would do neither of us any good.

--I should clarify that I REALLY wanted the job, but to someone non-technical, 2-3 years experience is nowhere near as qualified as someone with 5+ years experience.

Answer 1

If they are professional, polite, and not too overbearing. I politely tell them that I'm not looking at the moment, but feel free to keep my info and contact me in 6 months. Most professional people are fine with that.

If they are obnoxious, don't get the message, or worse. I ask them to remove me from their contact list.

If there is some ambiguity about what the requirements are, or the person clearly has no idea what they are talking about, I'll ask them to email or fax their requirements to me.

Answer 2

Tell the recruiter what he/she wants to hear.

"How many years' experience are they looking for? 5? I have 6"

Since recruiters are scumbags who only care about their fee, they'll usually be happy to let you bulls**t your way into the interview, at which point you can explain to the interviewer how you're actually more than qualified.

Answer 3

In one way, the recruiter might be doing you a favor by saying what she did. Any company who bases hiring decisions strictly off of a specific number of years of experience in a given field raises red flags for me -- too controlling? too micro focused on the wrong issues?

We have pretty strict requirements at my location, but I firmly believe that while we might want to see N years of experience, that's never a litmus test for that. The only real thing that I could suggest would be to ask why there is a specific low limit on the number of years of experience and what about your resume or experience makes you less seasoned. Perhaps trying to get to the root of what they want will give you the opportunity to talk about your relevant experience on those particular areas.

One other thing that I thought of -- ask to speak to someone technical. I think that it's fine to be persistent and ask to talk to someone who knows what they are talking about in terms of technical skill.

Answer 4

Recruiters are notorious for following their client's guidelines to the letter. Sometimes that means they lose the best candidates.

I was called 8 times by different agencies for the same position (one of which claimed to be the only company working on the hire) and each time I was told I wasn't seasoned, or experienced enough. They wanted several years experience with Adobe Flex. Funny thing is, Flex has only existed since 2004 and only recently gained significant traction in the industry as of version 2 which came out in 2006.

As far as I know, that position was never filled. ;)

All you can really do, if you are in fact looking, is hear them out and let them know you are not interested as soon as something hits a nerve. Usually they are very polite, and will even offer you a referral bonus if you know someone who would be interested.

Now, if you're not looking, just tell them. That usually signals the end of the conversation though, and they aren't likely to call back.

Answer 5

Well, since the recruiter has no way to check how good you are as a .net programmer, and only knows to ask for years, you only got two options

1) tell him you got 2-3 years, but are better at it than most who done .net for 5 years since you had a lot of good projects and mentoring (or whatever sounds good).

2) lie. If your experience is way more than someone who'd done .net for 5 years, maybe you need to just tell them a number thats reasonable in your book. Maybe with something like "At work for 2-3 years, but privately I used it much longer...".

I'd rather go for 1).

Answer 6

Personally, I try to avoid recruiters. I rather search for interesting companies myself or let myself be found by them. I found that companies rather employ me directly than through a ridiculously expensive agency who usually are superficial when it comes to technological knowledge.

Answer 7

"How many years of .NET experience do you have?"

"I have 10 years of programming experience."

Don't answer the question they ask, answer the question they should have asked. I wouldn't lie at them, personally. If they push harder for a number, you can give them one... but the reality is version 1.0 of the .NET framework is only 6.5 years old, so wanting someone with 5+ years experience isn't very reasonable. You should know that offhand if you're looking for a .NET job, and you should tell them that if you end up giving the actual .NET number and they aren't impressed with that.

If you knew you wanted the job, why are you going through a recruiter -- is there no option to apply directly? Seems like it would be easier to just apply directly, and as someone who has screened resumes before, I can say that if two resumes looked about equal and one was through a recruiter and the other not, we favored the candidate that came to us directly...

Answer 8

When you apply for a job, you need to study the "essential" and "desirable" attributes they are looking for amongst potential recruits. Then, from the outset, you pitch yourself to meet those attributes.

If they are looking for five years .Net experience, and you only have three, you need to tackle that yourself from the outset. Stress your many years programming in a variety of environments. Describe how you found the transition to .Net an easy one and how much of your existing knowledge you brought to bear within the new environment. Ideally you bring this up yourself, rather than waiting for the question.

In an interview, you never want to be in a situation where the interviewer asks something and you answer "no". You need to preempt such questions yourself and deal with them in a positive way.

Answer 9

There are two things that are potentially in play in these cases:

• The recruiter doesn't know the technology and is following the position req to the letter.
• The hiring manager (and their team) doesn't know the technology so they are approaching it in a shotgun approach in terms of skill level. They're looking for an "expert" to bail them out or take the lead, etc. So they put a ludicrous number for years of experience out there. Sort of like in 1998 when I saw job postings wanting five years of Java experience.

In these cases, I would challenge the recruiter on why they're looking for someone so seasoned. Is it years of total experience, or is it the technology? If you know there's a very small pool of people who would have that technology expertise, and you like the company they're hiring for, you should make it clear that your experience is more valuable than they think. If the recruiter doesn't get it, they won't. A recruiter who does will end up filling the gig for the company.

Another tactic is to do the end around. If you happen to know the company they're hiring for, get on over to LinkedIn and see who in your network works there in IT. See if you can connect with that person and ask them about the role. You'll have a better shot of finding someone who would understand your skill set, and they might be willing to pass your resume directly to the hiring manager, especially if they happen to get placement bonuses for referrals.

Answer 10

These companies really need to get with the program when it comes to how long technologies have been out. Back in 2003, I was interviewing at a place that said they wanted 6 years of .NET experience. I was like - so basically in order to get this job, I have to have worked at Microsoft in their development lab when .NET was just a glimmer in someone's eye?

Personally, in that situation I generally try to explain the facts to the recruiter - make them think that despite the "number conflict", you're still a good candidate. Like say, "Well, even though I've only got 3 years of .NET, I think your client would probably find my 10 years of C++ a lot more interesting, because it shows that I am really the in-depth type of technical person they probably want. And, since C# and C++ are so similar, it's really all the same".

If they think they can sell you, they will.

Answer 11

I found it was best to ignore recruiters as it was stressful trying to explain to them that sometimes they kept asking me for a level of experience that you couldn't possibly honestly say you had as you would either have to be lying or using the technology a couple of years before it existed. I also received complaints from referees that they had been approached by the recruiter who had said that I had told them to make contact and solicit jobs.

My current approach is to read their vague 'mid-sized company in X region working on generic product type Y in language Z' type descriptions and try to find people working in and around that area who might be able to take an educated guess at who the company involved is and try applying directly. Even if I'm wrong then I've still possibly found a likely company so it's not a waste of effort.

Answer 12

The problem with most recruiters is, that they don't have much knowledge what "experience in x for y years" means. Sometimes you can tell them "No I haven't worked with .Net yet, but I've worked with Java for 5 years which is very similar." and they take that as an opportunity to sell the client.

I would avoid recruiters. Better build yourself a network of people you know from school, university or work and ask them if their current company is searching for people. I've done well doing so.