Have You Personally Used an Honest Head Hunter?

Haacked asks: "As a software manager, I've tried using recruiters and head hunters to find qualified employees. My experience is that used car salesman feel like paragons of integrity, in comparison. It seems their interests never lie with the job applicant, nor the company. However, I once read that some recruiters do act with integrity and actually care about the people they are trying to place. The book suggested finding a head hunter who is interested in a long term relationship with you (not for the commitment-phobic) and will serve more as a career counselor, attempting to find a position that meets your goals. Seems to me that establishing a long-term relationship with fewer as opposed to screwing people over in volume would make good business sense to garner repeat business. Have any of you ever worked with any firms you felt represented your interests well?"

Comments

Yes.

[grub]

Have You Personally Used an Honest Head Hunter?"

Yes, a fellow named Jeffrey Dahmer. Nice guy, if a bit strange. I'd ask him what he did with the rest of the bodies but he always just gave me a sly grin.
I wonder what ever happened to him..

My choice

[JLSigman]

A guy at the Ettain Group did his best for me, and wasn't upset when I chose a full-time job over the contract he offered me. But not knowing where you are, they may not be available to you.

Retainer vs. commission-based headhunters

[jdauerbach]

Some headhunters work on retainer -- generally filling higher-level positions. They tend to put their client's interests first, because their compensation is already earned and because they work on a long-term basis. Others work on commission, filling a position for, say, 30% of the first-year salary. Many of these are, I understand, a bit less ethical.

When you speak with a headhunter trying to fill a position, just ask, "Are you on commission for this, or is it a retainer job?" You can learn a lot from that.

Out there, but rare...

[TopShelf]

I've personally dealt with a wide variety of recruiters over the last few years, and only one has generally conducted himself in a proper, professional fashion (he's from MRI, which is a large firm with offices in several cities). In general, my experience has shown that you're best off dealing with a good-sized placement firm that's been in the game for a long time. Like other aspects of the 90's bubble, recruiting got flooded with resume-shufflers who were looking to make quick bucks by placing anybody and everybody with firms that were scooping up people left and right. By now, many of those prospectors have been driven out of the market. Just for kicks, though, here's a short list of some decidedly unprofessional recruiters I've worked with:

Shortly after introducing himself, asked me to sign a pledge declaring that I would not, under any circumstances, accept a counteroffer from my current employer.

One recruiter, who I had never met or spoken to, submitted my resume to the company I had just left two months previously! Not only that, but he grossly exaggerated my experience and qualifications.

Head Hunter's Over Sell

[Anonymous Coward]

I once had a head hunter place me in a position at Enron as a DBA of their financial databases, even though my only prior experience was that of MS Access and a little VB. My incompetence was almost exposed a few times especially when one of my macros got out of hand and started calculating losses as profits. I just hope my new position at SCO will last a little longer :)

Re:Huh?

[El]

[Suddenly realizing I forgot to click Post Anonymously]
Well, I certainly declared it as income on my income tax forms, and certainly didn't spend a cent of it on illegal intoxicants (or even legal intoxicants) or women of negligable or negotiable virtue, that's for sure!

wait a minute...

[neurojab]

You're trying to tell me that you're having TROUBLE FINDING QUALIFIED SOFTWARE ENGINEERS? Surely you jest. Why not just put an ad on Monster.com and look through a few of the thousands of resumes you'll get. If you're too lazy for that, I can forward you twenty or thirty names. Damn, you can't throw a dead cat in Sillicon Valley without hitting an unemployed software engineer with excellent credentials.

While we're at it, I'm having trouble finding a starbucks in the San Francisco Bay Area. Can Slashdot help? Please send me the addresses of the one closest to me. I'd also like a free Frappucino.