#TechRecruiters #RecruitingFail #DataScience #MachineLearning
Hey everyone! 👋 Let’s chat about some frustrating experiences with tech recruiters, shall we? So, I recently had an interview with a recruiter that left me feeling like banging my head against a wall. 🤯 Here’s the scoop:
– Applied for a data scientist/machine learning role, got interviewed for a data engineer position instead. Not a big deal, but still a red flag.
– Was asked about specific data engineering tools I had no experience with, even though I clearly outlined my data science and ML background.
– Got hit with unexpected theory questions out of the blue, like seriously random stuff.
– Was told I needed to become a senior “mentor to junior engineers” (what?) and learn a bunch of new tools in just 2 months.
I get it, recruiters have a tough job, but sometimes it feels like they’re shooting in the dark. So here’s my question: How can we improve this process and make it more efficient and beneficial for both candidates and companies?
Possible solutions:
– Clear communication about job requirements from the get-go.
– More focus on practical skills and experiences rather than obscure theory.
– Training for recruiters to better understand technical roles and their nuances.
What do you think? Share your thoughts and let’s brainstorm some ideas together! 💡 #RecruitingStruggles #TechHiring #CareerAdvice
I had a conversation for a Front end React role the other day. Instead of asking anything about my web dev experience, the recruiter was laser focused on the fact that my C++ experience (my first language and main side project language) was not obtained in a professional setting, and that was a hard line for the hiring manager….
I’ve had a few like that recently, and really had to resist the urge to say something dumb back like “Please ask the hiring manager to explain SIMD to me, thanks”. Not worth it of course so I didn’t, but man there is a lot of stupidity in hiring.
I can say with some confidence that the hiring manager made the recruiter ask these ‘qualifying’ questions as a way to better filter out the irrelevant CV’s she was sending through to them.
She now asks these questions with an air of authority not actually understanding anything she is saying to the candidate, and is unable to have a back and forth conversation to clarify anything.
At this point you might as well b e speaking to an AI that can answer your questions as you are screened.
I would message the hiring manager to say you were rejected by the recruiter who was unable to clarify some technical questions and that if they don’t mind, you would like to get on a 5 min call just to make sure you didn’t miss anything and that you are happy to accept the feedback either way.
9 times out of 10 the hiring manager will respond, it gives you a shot to speak to a decision maker and a way to exhibit your self confidence in your own ability.
This headline is accurate if you define “tech” as “Anything in 2024 that involves, even peripherally, a device with a semiconductor in it. Which includes anything in 2024.”
I’m a product manager. I have, twice in my career, applied to product management positions and shown up to _project_ management interviews.
Always thanked people for their time, but underlined that I wanted a product position.
One was clearly meltdown livid at their internal staff, and the other brought me in for a more appropriate interview.
Both big companies that you have heard of, with products that you have probably used this week.
They wouldn’t let you look it up real quick?
There’s an obnoxious ilk of professional who judges everyone on their book smarts then proceeds to build everything at the pace of a junior
always remember a recruiter can’t do the job they are trying to recruit for.. It’s like explaining the color red to a blind person.
With the way recruiting goes (as in bots filtering the initial intake, scouring linkedin for talent etc), I have to assume that most recruiters will become realtors.
Not sure if the world will be a better place with more realtors, but certainly will be with less recruiters.
/out.
It’s been that way for many years. I had a recruiter see “ASP.NET” on my resume and ask, “Is that, like, ASP for the NET?”
A good technical recruiter may understand they aren’t a programmer, but at least has basic understanding of what the tech terms are that they use.
Sorry about your poor experience with the interview. I think the questions are a bit too much for this type of interview. It’s called a screen interview, and usually takes 10-15 minutes max. It’s purpose is to quickly filter out candidates that are unlikely to pass the next round, and save 30-60 minutes of the technical interviewer time. The recruiter, obviously, is not qualified to fully asses technical skills. But for the company it’s kind of numbers game, where you have a funnel and you try to optimise what you spend on each round. The recruiter most likely got the questions from the hiring manager and didn’t come up with them themselves. As I said, I don’t think these questions are good, but the hiring manager seems to think otherwise.
The previous job of the new sale guy of my cybersecurity company was car salesman.
We have extensive IT experience in a domain but it is either not enough, not the same exact version as they use, not same exact software, missing one mandatory bullshit cert, … But a car salesman can become a sales in a totally different domain without any problem. You should see him try to sell a SIEM service or a pentest to security literate customers that’s peak comedy.
I speak as a recruiter – but recruiters can assess candidates all day long for culture fit, we can verify the information on the resume, and we can ask you to share more about your experience.
We cannot, and should not, be conducting technical interviews. I have never used SQL, or Python. So I shouldn’t be assessing your skills in it. I can speak to a hiring manager and get some key words or terminologies to talk about, I can discuss the role with them and what they need, but having NEVER done the role, I cannot determine if your answer is ‘right’ or not.
It really fucking grinds my gears that ‘technical recruiter’ is a real world thing, because it shouldn’t be… talking to developers and engineers, and discussing SQL with them on a regular basis does NOT make you any more qualified to talk about a piece of software you have never used.
Even worse that this recruiter gave you feedback on the SPOT and told you that you needed to fucking get better.
I have interviewed for engineers, developers, data scientists, business analysts and a host of similar roles, I will always leave the technical interview for the hiring manager.
Never heard of Solid or acid. Just googled them.
Oh I vaguely know what ACID is. Just googled it. It’s some db compliance BS like scrum or agile.
Solid is some best practices thing too. Never heard of it. A lot of it is not bad, but I wouldn’t bother following it if it made code tough to read or too complicated.
This sounds about right. I had an initial interview last month and the guy asked me if I had been working in IT recently, I said no because the job market is terrible right now and haven’t gotten an offer in 2 years but said that I have 17 years experience. He said he would not pass me on to the client because they want someone currently working in IT. Like wtf. I’ve probably forgotten more about IT than the manager knows. Get the fuck outta here. I’m done working for someone else, gonna start my own non profit
If a recruiter starts asking you tech questions. Politely ask what his/her degree is in. This dose two things shifts the focus on them. And or shows they are going off a script.
The best thing that recruiter did for you was tell you you were not moving forward.
After a “technical recruiter” once said to me “yes, it’s Java but Script”… I no longer have any expectations whatsoever when it comes to recruiters.
As a 20 yr SQL guy, I’ve never once had someone ask me about ACID principles. Although I could actually answer it without Google, I would really question why it was being asked and wonder if the person asking was really just full of it.
There are some great technical questions to ask a SQL person like what’s the difference between a clustered and non clustered index? ACID is not helpful in determining ability or knowledge.