Silicon Valley Recruiters Are Sending Out Their Own Résumés – NYTimes.com
Recruiters Are Sending Out Their Own Résumés – NYTimes.com
The majority of the approximately 90 recruiters who attended the networking luncheon were in the same situation. The monthly luncheon, now in its 11th year, has long been a source of job leads for countless recruiters, and many showed up last week with the faint hope of hearing about an opening for themselves. What they found were old friends, unemployed colleagues and words of encouragement. They also got a few tips on adapting their skills to other professions and one offer for affordable health care.“It was pretty hard to see so many people in the same situation,” Ms. Lovell said.
There are no precise counts of recruiters in Silicon Valley, and no one knows how many are unemployed. But interviews with more than two dozen recruiters suggest that the recession has slammed the profession particularly hard, both here and across the country.
Scores of recruiters have been let go in recent months and new positions are virtually nonexistent. Those that pop up attract as many as 500 applicants. And rates paid to recruiters, many of whom work as contractors, have fallen by about 50 percent.
“Recruiters are kind of the canary in the coal mine,” said John Moed, who moderates an online group for San Francisco-area recruiters that has about 3,700 members. “When things are great, the bird is singing away and you can’t find enough recruiters. But they are the first to go when things are slow.”
First indeed. Consider Google, a company that in 10 years had never laid off employees because of economic conditions. In its first round of recession-related job cuts last month, it fired 100 recruiters.
The malicious NY Times will obviously try play up any weakness in the Bay Area. It’s their attempt to attack us and keep us from rising up to beating Manhattan in our quest to have the highest housing prices in the nation.
This is just another example. Recruiters? WHO CARES?
Has anyone gotten a job through a recruiter here? Of course no. People get jobs from applying online, or… they’re so brilliant that the VPs of companies reach out to them directly. Or they start their own company and then get acquired. Don’t be fooled by this red herring!
February 27th, 2009 at 10:58 am
That’s because there are no jobs! As an electronics tech, who ran my own company for a decade, I find myself un-skilled because those skills have no validity now. I’d say they’re as out of date as being a buggy whip maker or cobbler, but in fact buggy whip maker and cobbler are careers with bright futures right now – if only I’d have the foresight to, since my life was going to collapse in a shamble anyway, blow the last of my credit attending that shoemaking school they run back East.
February 27th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
“This is just another example. Recruiters? WHO CARES?”
Who cares, indeed.
Q: What do you do when you have no skills?
A: Find a job finding people jobs.
February 27th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
An alternative, but just as valid answer to the question would be: “Become a realtor.”
February 27th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
#3,
Not everyone can afford to sit at home like you.
February 27th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
I never like to see anyone lose their job but I have always been amazed (a) how many recruiters there are/were, and (2) how much they make (or perhaps used to make). Based on what I have seen, and I have several friends that are recruiters, they are vastly overpaid for the service they provide. Coordinating an interview between a hiring employer and a candidate just isn’t that tough and I have always been amazed that the going rate seemed to be 25% first year salary per hire. Seems like most employers would just post online. I think this is probably another profession that’s best days are behind it.
February 27th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
From my experience it has always been 15% (engineers including DBAs). Probably higher for mid&senior management. I can see the point of using a recruiter if you don’t have a HR person and you don’t have the time to scan through hundreds of resumes, not to mention the initial qualifying call. Timing can be critical in hiring and the cost of hiring the wrong person can also be great, so it makes sense for good recruiters to command a premium for their services. Same as with realtors.
February 27th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
Yeah, I don’t disagree that they make sense and provide a valuable service in some cases, I’m just amazed how many of them there are and how often they are used. In my profession, I know they get 25%, which amazed me when I heard it.