The other 9 IT recruiters have been absolutely horrible. For a lack of a better term, complete MORONS. I am fresh out of College with very little work experience and was being recommended for Senior Software Developer positions! Requiring at least ten years of work experience in software development. They would send me on interviews ALL over the place often for positions I was WAY under qualified for. I was set up for an interview at Microsoft in which the position require at LEAST 5 years of work experience. I was told by the recruiter that it was an "entry-level" position. The Microsoft team didn't even receive my Resume until the day of and it was needless to say a humiliating experience.

In conclusion I feel that ANY IT recruiter should have some experience in software development or be knowledgeable about software languages. It's funny when a recruiter asks if I am fluent in C#, and C++ and if I have experience using object-oriented languages. Most have degrees in fields with no relation to IT and it shows when they ask you questions about your software experience.

Just a few thoughts .....

pas·sion·ate /ˈpæʃənɪt/ [pash-uh-nit] –adjective
1. having, compelled by, or ruled by intense emotion or strong feeling; fervid: a passionate advocate of socialism.

I absolutely agree.

Passion with a prediliction to collateral damage is a dangerous combination. Having passion and being able to identify the pace you can "push through" in an organisation is a key skill. Having this skill allows you to work out whether an organisation will be able to transform itself against the EA agenda.

Having led a number of passionate creative teams I believe it's important to ensure the passion is used productively and the team is always perceived as moving forward with minimal or managable collateral damage.

Agree about the cut and paste job ads and the aggrandisement of job titles.

Cheers

Luis

Regards
Vinayak

You'll encounter three types of recruiter; for the sake of argument we'll call them: the optimist,the gambler and the professional.

The Optimist is in many respects the most likely to waste your time, even though they may not mean to; they promise an enormous amount, tend not to challenge potential issues head-on and can have candidates spinning their wheels through a process with little chance of a positive outcome. The solution if you think you have an Optimist on the other end of the phone is to probe baseline issues like sign-off or timeframes and if you don't get a satisfactory answer, red flag it. It doesn't mean you should stop the process but be aware that things may take longer than suggested..

The Gambler believes in a numbers game; if enough candidates are spoken to & enough CVs sent out, something will stick. Whilst practical, it doesn't help the many candidates who go through the process but don't end up with the job & because of the style adopted, getting timely (if any) feedback can be very difficult. The solution to working with The Gambler is to ask upfront about key criteria for the role as defined by the hiring company; again, an unsatisfactory answer should raise a red flag and dictate whether or not you decide to pursue the opportunity..

In a labour market which is increasingly leveraging online solutions to help potential candidates connect with potential hirers, discovering the third type, The Professional, can be a time-consuming challenge. However, the value they add can be enormous; in particular, the relationship they have with their clients - deep, meaningful - means that the relationships they're able to build with candidates are based on well managed expectations, high levels of credibility and successful outcomes, even when you don't necessarily get offered the job under discussion. Typically, The Professional becomes a trusted advisor to candidates and offers an inside track on opportunities that Optimists & Gamblers aren't able to. If you find yourself working with a Professional, you'll recognise it quickly. You'll probably tell people in your network about them. No doubt you'll be able to think of one or two already in this category and hopefully, they've been able to prove to some extent that among the mediocre & the lazy are a small number of experts who genuinely want to help.