Hi guys, this week I bring to your attention a completely different topic… it has nothing to do with software development, it is more related to human behaviour, specifically – it is about headhunters. In the past years I have been seriously investing into my professional growth. Subsequently, I did not escape headhunters’ attention, as it seems. Practically every week so far I have been getting more and more various contract offers, but to be honest, I am getting fed up with the incompetency of the majority of these people. Let me elaborate on that…
Like I have already mentioned above, during the past few years I have been investing quite a lot of time and money into my professional development, only on books I have spent a fortune last year, and I do not even want to mention conferences and training. And it does not end here, during the next months I am planning to invest even more into my training. Are you wondering why I do this? Simply because I have a thirst for knowledge and learning and I am keen on learning ever more . I want to excel with my knowledge!
Those of you who have been in the industry for some years already know that, unfortunately, not everyone is eager to spend the time and money on books and expensive training. So, shouldn’t people be rewarded for putting much effort into their professional growth and get paid salary above the industry average? It seems, though, not everyone thinks so…
Let’s, however, start from the beginning… It looks like most of the time when headhunters contact us they do not even bother to check properly our profiles… They, probably, make a search with just some keywords to get a list of names, and then hit the “Send” button to send messages to those people on the list. They only call us when we change our contact info. Don’t you think they could get answers to the basic checklist questions about us by just looking through our LinkedIn profiles - the very place where they find us? But it looks like they do not even bother doing that. Instead of using the time on the phone to discuss a project on offer, they ask us questions they could get answers to if they only could bother reading our LinkedIn profiles.
Having covered on the phone the boring checklist, they finally get to the question about our rates. As I have already mentioned, once investing so much into the professional growth, you expect a reward for that, don’t you? I do not consider myself an average specialist, I think I am a good professional and I am valued in my company. But when I mention my salary expectations, the reply I get from headhunters is that I ask above the average pay, to which my answer is that I do not consider myself an average specialist, if they want an average worker, they can find dozens of them on the market, but if they want someone above the average - they can count on me. If the communication is via emails ninety nine per cent of the times they do not even bother to reply back after that, which I find quite unwise.
Here is where I think they underestimate long-term relationships: they seem to be working on separate assignments – from case to case and they don’t look beyond one separate task… Though, I am convinced that every now and then they get customers who request highly knowledgeable professionals, beyond the average, no matter the cost. Pooling resources by staying in touch with those professionals beyond the average would, most probably, help them get the needed resources - when needed… Moreover, as we all network, by maintaining good relationships with us they could even get help from us in finding the right candidate through our networks. However, they seem to be overlooking such potential.
I do not like generalizing and, I must admit, I have come across fantastic headunters/recruiters that do wonderful work, but, unfortunately, it looks like they are mere exceptions to the mainstream of headhunters.
I would appreciate your opinion here… Do you agree with me, or have I just had bad luck most of the times?
Thank you so much,
Luis
