Re:Tell recruiters politely “no” with a simple link
by tinco on Sunday October 28, 2018 @03:49PM
(#18322708)
I'm in The Netherlands so this might be a little different than SF where everyone capitalizes on the value of good developers. He opened with a salary that I'd consider average to slightly above average for a regular senior developer, in The Netherlands. I felt a bit cocky and thought if he's worth anything, he should be getting me jobs that pay more than I could get myself, so I countered him 50% above that. He was really hesitant and tried to talk me down, saying it would be difficult to find a job that pays that, saying my CV wasn't that impressive, I held on saying that a good hiring manager would see the value in my skills. Over ~3 months he came up with three leads, one of which ticked all three of my professional expertise boxes (ruby, devops and product ownership) and sounded really interesting to me, but I was pursuing other things at the time so turned it down.
I do agree that it very much feels like having an agent. I tell him what I can do, and what I want to make, and he goes out and find a job for me. I don't mind him taking a cut, if he finds jobs that I wouldn't find because I just go starry eyed from startup to startup.
From my experience it’s the opposite. Recruiters try to get you the highest salary they can because then they get a bigger cut. More than one of them has told me this.
There have been a couple times when I’ve told them my desired salary and they’ve upped it by 40% or more.
Yes, there are scummy recruiters out there, but for the most part I think recruiters are great. It’s like having an agent!
People in other fields don’t get this experience and they have to work harder to find a job. I’m not talking about technical interviews, but just getting your foot in the door.