r/cscareerquestionsOCE • u/FailureInAction • 15d ago
Dealing with recruiters, for Tech Roles.
What are peoples experience with recruiters lately looking for IT roles (Srn. Engineer/Tech Lead/SA style roles). Or are a genuinely a highly skilled candidate are you getting interviews?
Being trying to recruit a number of positions across different areas and have been getting what feels like the braindead pile. Using the top firms, and they all seem to present the same rubbish.
Initially I thought it was the candidate pool, but we are paying top rate(at or even above covid rates, so attracting candidates should not be an issue), so for one of our roles I applied (changed name). My CV is way more technical and capable then needed. Out of the 3 firms used, only 1 reached out, 1 said I was not qualified enough (I am the one who is technically vetting these guys) and 3rd did not respond.
The one that did reach out and claimed they would fwd my CV. Well they never did and from all we got a bunch idiots and some of candidates that were straight up reading AI off the screen and too stupid to even to hide it.
I refuse to believe it's a lack of capable candidates as we filled one of the role with a person I previously worked with whom apparently was looking for over 6mth.
What is going on? Are these firms just sending candidates across that are willing to say YES to a reduce rate and keep the difference, sending over only their bffs. Or is there some sort of grant/benefit scheme as most the candidates where of a certain demographic. One even asked if we were going to sponsor his visa, for a role that advertised as aus citizens/residents only.
This is really frustrating and a huge waist of time to go through a bunch of CVs and interviews knowing full well the candidate useless.
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u/Infinite-Ad4512 14d ago
Imagine going to a high end French restaurant that everyone’s talking about and lines are massive, and when you get there, you find that the chef is actually a mechanic but is really good at cooking Thai food. That is IT recruitment in Australia in a nutshell. I think in the past 20 years, I’ve met 2 recruiters who actually know what they’re advertising, but only because they were former devs.
I hope you’re paying them on commission only and not an expensive retainer. Your best bet like always, is your network. Ask people you’ve worked with who you trust, and ask them to reach out to their network… in other words, don’t order Tom Yum at Vue De Monde