If you follow me on Twitter or have read my Why I don’t work with recruiters post, you’ll be aware that I have had a terrible experience with the recruitment industry over the past decade, both as a candidate and a client. Every few days I get an email, phone call or LinkedIn message asking if I’m interested in an irrelevant role, and the responses to my ‘sorry, I don’t work with recruiters’ reply have ranged from silence to ‘probably why you have a good education but in an under performing position’. I also know a lot of people who run companies who are fed up with being sent unsolicited CVs whenever they advertise a position, even if the job description clearly states ‘no recruiters/agencies’.
Rather than continually grumble about the state of the industry, I’ve decided to try and do something about it. I’ve launched two new brands as offshoots of my web development and consultancy business – PHP Recruiters and DevOps Recruiters – which will take a different approach to recruitment, including:
- Communicating by email, unless a phone call is requested. This is better for everyone as email can be read and replied to whenever is convenient for the client/candidate.
- No unsolicited approaches to clients or candidates. Hassling someone who isn’t interested just wastes everyone’s time and gives you a bad reputation.
- Providing relevant candidates – nothing is more annoying than receiving a CV for a .NET/Windows developer when you’re looking for a LAMP developer.
- Providing relevant roles – I find it frustrating when recruiters don’t ask or don’t care what my requirements are, and end up sending me roles based in London or Amsterdam, or at a salary which is half what I earn at the moment.
I don’t know if this will take off or not, but I’m planning to run with the idea for a couple of years and see how it goes. I think there is a market for all the people who are frustrated with current recruitment practices but might be willing to give someone else a try.
At the moment I’m slowly building up a database of clients and candidates. If you’d like to join, even if you’re not looking to recruit or move at the moment, please give me a shout via whatever means is most convenient for you. I only work with people who approach me directly, so you’ll never be added to my database unless you’ve explicitly asked me to. If you have any questions about how I handle your data, there is a privacy policy on both PHP Recruiters and DevOps Recruiters, and I’m happy to clarify anything you’re unsure of. I’m also registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office and you can check that under reference: ZA352994.