I'm not sure how to engage with them in an effective way. My goals are basically two: 1. avoid wasting time 2. avoid coming across as arrogant - they are doing their job and their time isn't worth less than mine.
To know if their opportunity is compelling I need to get some key information upfront, e.g. what's the client's budget. I don't want to even start discussing anything if it turns out that the client pays 25% less of what I'm making today. Of course money is not my only concern, but it's still a very easy way, and a very relevant one!, to filter out jobs that have no chance whatsoever to fit my definition of compelling. Another deal-breaker would be a company that doesn't allow any form of remote work. Also some of them absolutely want to talk over the phone and I don't feel comfortable with that.
So what's your strategy for dealing with recruiters? Do you demand employer information upfront? Do you ignore them? How do you interact? Thanks!
1) Don't ever interact with MPC recruiters. These are recruiters who do not have a contractual agreement with a client in place and want to use your resume to sell their own agency to new clients. 100% wastes of time.
1a) Don't do a lot of legwork (background checks, reference checks, official documents, etc.) before they even submit you. This is a way of filtering out MPC recruiters who are vetting you to become sales material for THEM, not for the job.
1b) Send them your resume in PDF, not DOC form. If they insist on DOC then this is a sign that you may be working with an MPC recruiter.
1c) If they insist on knowing what your current salary is, say you'll tell them if they reveal their bill rate for an equivalent candidate for this client. Again, this is another way of filtering MPC recruiters who will have no way of answering this because they don't have any clients.
1d) Build up a good spam filter to filter out MPC recruiters you've identified. They all share tactics and templates, so they're pretty easy to spot.
Essentially, just be a nice person and avoid MPC recruiters.
If you're considering depending on compensation, I'd be upfront and tell them that. Ask for salary and if it's a remote position in your reply. Tell them you're busy for the phone but give them your email.
About talking on the phone, unfortunately my experience is that the ones with the best opportunities want to interview you themselves before referring. A recruiter from Germany even asked me technical stuff about my GitHub projects, and after that she decided to refer to an even better company.
I don't share details about my salary - I just say I'm paid above market and would still need a raise. This weeds out most run-of-the-mill recruiters just looking to fill your average coder job. The ones who really have a good opportunity will tell me so and we'll talk. The one who don't usually still appreciate being told where I am at, so they know when I would want to talk.
I usually also tell them that if the current opportunity isn't a match, call me again in 6 months anyway, just in case my current project doesn't go well. This gives me a nice safety net if my job changes, and over time builds up a decent network of recruiters that I can just write back to if I ever were to want a change.
This will weed out flakes and save time for everyone.
How much are you making? I can double that!
I've made a couple good checks and a the rest stop bugging me.
Also, yes many will try to engage you on the phone and there's not really any way around that if you're starting a relationship with them. They need to get a feel for you before they can submit you to clients and phone screens are just an efficient means to do so.
How do you identify a good one? Well, I once got called by a headhunter, whom somebody gave my name to. One question he asked is where I was currently working. I told him. He said that he couldn't recruit me, because his company placed people where I was working. A recruiter with ethics? I put his name in my permanent file. If I decide I'm looking for work, he's getting a call.
More recently, I had a recruiter sabotage my interview process by telling me an interview was “non technical” (it ended up being 100% technical) and another time deliberately setting salary too high and pissing away a good opportunity.
Is that second part really true, though?
As a thought experiment, suppose we're talking about scam-running telemarketers rather than recruiters. Would you still consider their time as valuable as your own?
If not, then what's the critical distinction between them and telemarketers who spam everyone that matches some LinkedIn query?
ASK them to forward you a full and complete Position Summary including company name, reporting relationships, and compensation structure-- for your review.
If there's a match-up you'll be happy to engage in further dialogue or provide professional referral.