How IT Recruiters’ Ignorance Costs Developers Time, Money & Sanity
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As a freelancer who hops from gig to gig, I’ve had my fair share of run-ins with recruiters. These middlemen can be a real pain.
Though they often don’t reveal the amount of their commission, in my experience, they’re generally pocketing a hefty 10% or more commission — and let’s not forget the 3% extra if I want my money within a week instead of waiting for a month after sending them my invoice.
I even had an experience with a recruiter who shamelessly took around 30% of my hourly rate (not including 3% for prompt payment) and then didn’t hesitate to end the contract the day I discovered the amount of their commission and insisted on an increase in my hourly rate. They told me the contract wouldn’t be “lucrative” enough for them if they took less than 18%.
It was a heartbreaking end because I was so happy to work for that client for over a year.
So, the million-dollar question is: Are these recruiters even worth the cut they take? What do they really bring to the table for freelancers like me and the companies I work for, besides playing matchmaker and preparing the contracts?
Sean McCown argues there are two kinds of recruiters who are “worth their salt”:
“There are really 2 main functions of a good recruiter.
The first is to really dig into the company’s needs and know enough about the topic to pull in the most qualified people. The perfect technical recruiter in my field would be an ex-database professional who just decided to play for the other team… you know, someone who really knows DBs and can ferret out the good SQL guys from the bad ones.
The second, and this is probably more important the first… is to shut up and get out of the way when he knows absolutely nothing about IT or DBs. His job at this point is to be the keeper of the company’s phone number and pass it along to you and setup the interview… then get out of the way.”
This is where I launch into one of my major rants. Nothing frustrates me more than dealing with an annoying recruiter who either gets in the way because of their ignorance or chases me with a fake job or a job that has nothing to do with me.
As a seasoned developer, I thought I had seen it all — until I recently encountered the strangest talk with a recruiter.
When they started the conversation with a confident smile, I thought I was ready to impress them with my 17 years of experience. My mind raced through the myriad projects I’ve worked on, from the latest modern technologies to the dusty archives of legacy systems.
But from my extensive portfolio, they chose to dive into an experience from 15 years ago. Here’s how the conversation went.
Recruiter: “Tell me about what you were doing in that project.”
Me: “I was doing Delphi development.”
For context, Delphi is a programming language that peaked in popularity many years ago. It’s rarely mentioned in today’s tech stacks.
Recruiter: “Was it Angular or React?”
I was taken aback. React was released in 2013, Angular in 2016, and even AngularJS came out in 2010. We were discussing an experience from 2009.
Me: “It was Delphi. It’s a programming language, not a framework. An old programming language that we rarely hear about nowadays.”
Recruiter: “I see. Tell me more about your tasks in that project.”
It puzzled me why the recruiter was so eager to dig into the details of a 15-year-old project though they were looking for someone for a frontend development gig with React. That ancient project has nothing to do with frontend development or React — in other words, it was completely irrelevant to the client’s needs.
Me: “May I ask why you chose this very old project from my CV to ask me about?”
Recruiter: “Because I know some people who work in that company.”
Me: “I see. Okay, I was doing reporting.”
Recruiter: “What do you mean by that?”
Me: “Reporting is a feature. In large-scale applications, we often need a feature called ‘reporting.’”
And then came the kicker.
Recruiter: “Can you name some of the people you were REPORTING TO?”
My mind blanked.
Me: 😳😶
“I was talking about technical aspects of the project: generating reports. Did they think I was reporting to my imaginary friends 🤔?” I thought to myself.
Final Thought
Such a conversation is a typical example of feeling like you’re speaking an entirely different language with recruiters.
Recruiters need to understand the bare minimum regarding the context and history of the technologies they’re discussing before stepping into the IT business. Pen Magnet hit the nail on the head when he said:
“Whenever a programming language emerges, newbie devs feel they are living in a moment of revolution. Soon, the momentum dies down. The developer is left with a CV filled with half a dozen obsolete languages, which gets trashed by recruiters who only know English.”
This is a common frustration in the software industry, showcasing the vast disconnect between developers and recruiters.
And let’s face it, until the latter start doing their homework, we’ll keep having these laughable, if not infuriating, encounters.
Further Reading and Viewing
📖 What the Job Hunt Taught Me as a Seasoned Software Engineer
📖 The Human Side of Software Architecture: How People, Not Just Code, Shape Systems
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Until next time—stay curious and keep learning!
Best,
Rakia
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