It is my sad duty to report that after 20+ years I have yet to meet an agent that had a clue. While my personal perspective is not a lot of data to make a good judgement call... it does say a lot
The data that follows is from only a couple of weeks after I posted my resume to a collection of site. My resume states my skills, the technologies that I know and that I am only looking for a position within Nwe York City.
Here are some examples of what I have experienced just in the past few weeks.
- Turned down a position, only to have the recruiter reply back telling me the location and rate. Obviously he did not even read my response.
- Email address is "noreply@companyname" - This one made me laugh at it's stupidity.
- Yelled at for not taking the interview for a position that I was not qualified.
- Told to lie and fabricate items on resume.
- Met with one agent who was proud to inform me that he had never owned a computer. Obviously tech recruiters do not need to know anything about computers, software, etc. /sarcasm
- Have had multiple agents argue with me that C# ONLY means web development.
- I have seen specifications that say; "Web Developer" without any mention of the technologies necessary for the position.
- One of my favorites: "Please check your Spam folder to see if you got this"
- Once had a recruiter, who had just placed me at my current job a few weeks prior, call and ask if I was looking for a new position. Really? Do agencies EVER use a database or keep notes? Seems not.
- A recrutier called and said; "I have a position, are you interested?" I guess that is all the information I need to make an informed choice.
- (23) Calls after hours
- (12) Obvious scams
- Unqualified for position based on technology
- (4) C++
- (14) Java
- (8) PHP
- Unqualified for position
- (27) Sales
- (24) Insurance
- (9) QA / Tester
- Delivery Driver (Amazon, really?)
- Applebees
- Investment Assistant
- Customer Service
- International Mobility Administrator (Rather sure this too is a scam)
- Receptionist (Really?)
- Graphic Designer
- Project Manager (ok, I have done some of this… however it's not on my resume)
- Outside NYC
- (2) Omaha, NE
- Hagerstown, MD
- Atlanta, GA
- Ontario, Canada
- Boston, MA
- (2) California
- Chicago
- (2) Colorado
- Long Island, NY (and no, this is not NYC)
- White Plains, NY (neither is this one)
- Harrison, NY
- Woodbury, NY
- Schenectady, NY
- (2) Edgewood, NY
- (2) Detroit, MI
- Troy, MI
- Milwaukee, WI
- (10) New Jersey
- Cleveland, OH
- Columbus, OH
- Texas
- Washington, DC
- Kirkland, WA
- Renton, WA
- Oak Brook, IL
- Connecticut
- Charlotte, NC
Again, this is data collected only in the past few weeks. I could spend all day talking about the bad, rude and just plain awful recruiters I have had deal with, which makes me worry about companies that use these agencies.
For additional "wtf" check out this subreddit: reddit.com/r/recruitinghell/