Ask HN: Software Developer to Software Recruiter

1 points by jgregors 11y ago ↗ HN

I am a software developer who has seen the best and worst of recruiters from the perspective of candidate and employer. After a lot of soul searching, I have made the highly controversial decision to start my own recruitment business specialising in software development which uses my technical knowledge and experiences and the proliferation of technology based recruitment startups & technologies to provide a service that I think is much more fitting than what is being provided by the majority of recruiters. I have done a few placements and I have learnt an awful lot but I still want to hear suggestions as to what people consider an ideal service.

I understand a lot of coders would never make this choice and that I may have already committed software career suicide for myself if I ever want to return to the industry as a coder, but I feel that I can really add some value to the software community by doing this. For now, I am running it in the conventional recruitment model but as I gain momentum I hope to introduce more technology, more input into the companies' hiring processes and ongoing talent attraction, more guidance to candidates who are not quite ready yet and hopefully more value for everyone concerned.

Opinions and suggestions, please!

4 comments

[ 460 ms ] story [ 896 ms ] thread

calcsam 11y ago ↗

You may want to read this: http://blog.alinelerner.com/if-youre-an-engineer-who-wants-t...

And reach out to Aline.

jgregors 11y ago ↗

Interesting read - much of what she writes in this post echoes exactly what I have experienced. Thanks for sharing - I will get in contact with Aline.

MichaelCrawford 11y ago ↗

I am often encouraged to do this myself; there are many who tell me that I'd be quite a good recruiter. I know lots of ways recruiters could be a better job.

For example don't say "I hear you" when you really didn't. Not you personally but there is a recruiter I've been talking to who says that quite a lot.

The reason I don't is that I regard recruiting as something that a company should do internally. That is, even a staffing agency would find you good employees, it's better for your company to find them itself.

Even so, sometimes I entertain the idea. I have lots of ideas for things I could do that to the best of my knowledge no other recruiter does.

jgregors 11y ago ↗

I agree in that I believe companies should do their own recruiting and many of the best do. But there are many employers who have a lot of potential who just don't prioritise or want to spend the time doing the sourcing. Maybe this is indicative of a poor company culture. Maybe they just need to be shown how to market themselves.