Headhunters strike out again

A follow-on from my negative experience with headhunters. I've begun receiving exactly the sort of "job offers" that I was fearing. I've got offers (from all over the world, mind) asking me if I'd like to work as (for example) a junior developer on an embedded-kernel contract in Belgium... which'd be nice and useful if I were interested in that sort of thing instead of having only 6 months non-commercial experience (at uni) doing this stuff as a elective subject... or at least held a work-permit that allowed me to work in Belgium.

The end result makes it fairly obvious that their recruiters are just too damn lazy to do more than a quick search on the db... followed by spamming all the results. They've ripped out the db-friendly data (ie my naked skillset) and divorced it from the important stuff (ie what sort of job I'm actually interested in). Leaving me to be spammed by every idiot with a contract to push.

If I were a junior developer, desperate for any job I could get, I'd probably just have to suck it up... but I'm not - and they're alienating an in-demand developer with lots of experience. This doesn't make me feel like responding positively to any of their future offers... even if they do suit my requirements.

What gets me is that it'd be so easy to make this system work. Even if they had a few extra fields in their db for "what type of job is the candidate looking for", they could run these as a filter over their resultset and turn that spam into much-less-despised targetted advertising.

I'd even be interested (possibly even grateful) to receive such a service - instead of so annoyed that I've blogged about it twice.

Headhunters and a dearth of trust

What is it with some headhunters?
I had a phonecall from a headhunter the other day that really rubbed my fur up the wrong way.

First, they wanted my CV in Word format. I hate that. Quite apart from having to explain that I use Linux - which frequently leads in to the "what is an OS" discussion that I find so annoying coming from an IT recruiter. Yes I can use OpenOffice to create a Word doc, but it's a preference thing. I prefer to write my CV in PDF so I have more control over the formatting - because I've found that .doc format "helps" too much, and suffers from bit-rot.

But it's not like they can't read/print-out a copy of my CV if it's in PDF. What really gets me is that there are only two reasons for wanting my CV in Word. First is so they can copy/paste my skills/experience into their mammoth database - reducing me to a set of numbers... which I really don't like.

I recognise that might be a knock to their usual system, but I really don't like being just a number in an uncharted sea of applicants. It doesn't work for me to be recruited by a company that would view me as only so important as the number (and not the quality) of the years of experience I have.

Second is that they want to remove my contact information so that they are the only point of contact between me and the employer. This view is especially reinforced by headhunters that refuse to give you the prospective employer's name, industry, size or any other potentially-identifying details (or politely change subject when I ask, as this one did). How the hell am I supposed to decide if I'm interested in working for a company I know nothing about?

I should point out - I get a phonecall a week from various recruiters. I don't have time to go to an interview a week - so I have to decide, based on what you tell me, if you are worth a morning of my time.

Word to the wise: recruiters perform a valuable service - both to employers and employees. If you are good at what you do, then nobody will be unhappy about paying you for your services! The only recruiters that need to resort to cheap tactics like hiding names are the ones that cannot build a reputation for excellence on their own... thus if you flat-out refuse, then it instantly gets my suspicions up.

Yes, I'm sure you will get ocasionally burnt by employees and employers that are unscrupulous and try to screw you out of your fee. But are those the kind of clients you want to keep anyway?

Recruiting is a people business - it is outsourced HR and builds upon long-term relationships. Trust is important, and screwing around like this ruffles that layer of trust and just feels tacky.

Please don't do it.