Your experiences with Recruiters?

[Wapsie B]

Good, bad, indifferent? Right now I am this close to writing a post so inflammatory about that profession, *cough cough* that I'd get ts'd for sure. But I won't.

[qnr]

1. Mine was pretty good, but I was only looking at the bastard stepchild

of the services, so that had an impact.

[Patiod]

2. Military or professional?

My job description is incredibly narrow, but damned if recruiters didn't find me my current AND previous jobs.

As for military recruiters, the Clerk at my church (like a pastor) has been holding meetings to help young people prepare for them. Kind of like shark repellent.

[qnr]

3. I was wondering that myself, but I only had experience with military,

so I piped in with that :)

[Wapsie B]

6. Professional.

My field is very narrow as well, very specialized.

[Jimbo S]

8. There's a couple I've worked with I respect

Too many out there who don't understand you, the job opening, employer or the field, who are looking to hook you up with someone just to pull in a commission.

[Patiod]

10. Good point - you need to realize their motivation

And stick to your guns.

They just want to make the placement, even if you have strong reservations about it. I made the mistake of going to an interview set up by a woman in my book club who is a recruiter, but not normally in my line of work. It was a perfect fit job-wise -- they needed someone with my exact skill set & background -- but a bad fit personality wise. I told my friend I couldn't work with the one partner, and she got very pissy (there went her kid's private school tuition for the year).

On the other hand, a few years ago I had TWO recruiters offer me two different great jobs, and I had to pick between the jobs (a nice place to be). When the job from Recruiter #1 disappeared after 18 mos (they let go a bunch of people go all at once), I called Recruiter #2 (who I had not burnt any bridges with) and let her know I was looking, and she found me my current position.

[pagerbear]

4. One pretty good experience, the rest, meh

But that's mainly because my skill set and current duties are so narrow, much narrower than most others in my field.

[Dragonbreathp9d]

5. cant stand'em

no respect for them, especially the ones in high schools. One targeted my friend cause he had a mohawk (thinking he might drop out), guess what? can you say Marxist Quaker Salutorian? He blatantly lied to him (I witnessed this, it was during lunch) and my friend was like "I'm a Quaker, and I actually know what is going on, so 1: I dont believe in war, and 2: you're full of shit"

[Patiod]

11. Our Friends Meeting has tried to keep our kids well informed

and prepared in case there's a draft.

One kid in the Meeting ended up in the Coast Guard, and the Meeting has been very supportive (unlike 100 years ago when they would have read him out). So if you want to go Coast Guard, we'll support you, but we'll support you if you stand up for your pacifist beliefs, too.

[DS1]

7. less than phone stock salesmen

[KitchenWitch]

9. Used car salesmen without the useful product.

[TZ]

12. I've had good experiences with mine

They got me the last two jobs, including this one which I think is a good one.
I did see the dark side a bit on my last job-two different recruiters presented me as a candidate or claimed to. The company I actually worked for never actually helped me specifically but they claimed to have presented me first when it was the other company who physically presented me. In other words the agency I worked under LIED but in the end I ended up getting a higher salary because the two groups fought over me....

[ericgtr]

13. In my profession it's the most common way

to get hired. The current company I am with barely speaks english but they landed me the job and fortunately I rarely have to talk to them, when I do I'm like "What?? could you repeat that? what?!", it's mostly email based though. Usually what happens is an opening pops up in my area of expertise and then a dozen recruiters call within the same day. First come, first server I guess.