High recruiters?

[Niklas Karlsson]

Okay... so I got contacted on LinkedIn, by the company's own HR,
inviting me to a 100% MS sysadmin job. I can only conclude they have not
read my profile at all.

http://www.unisystems.com/en/vacancies/sweden/item/494-system-administrator-sw.html

I might have expected clueless third-party recruiters, but their own HR
being this confused does not speak well of them. (But then, neither does
their choice of technologies...)

Niklas
--
"But you've got to hand it to IBM, they know how to design hardware. The
servers all had handles to pick them up and throw them out of the window...."
-- Juergen Nieveler in asr

[Erwan David]

Niklas Karlsson <ank...@yahoo.se> disait le 10/18/14 que :

> Okay... so I got contacted on LinkedIn, by the company's own HR,
> inviting me to a 100% MS sysadmin job. I can only conclude they have not
> read my profile at all.
>
> http://www.unisystems.com/en/vacancies/sweden/item/494-system-administrator-sw.html
>
> I might have expected clueless third-party recruiters, but their own HR
> being this confused does not speak well of them. (But then, neither does
> their choice of technologies...)

I once thought that providing reading courses to recruiters could be a
career path. Then I considered it would be too depressing.

--
Les simplifications c'est trop compliqué

[Garrett Wollman]

In article <87mw8t8...@bibi.depot.rail.eu.org>,

Erwan David <er...@rail.eu.org> wrote:

>I once thought that providing reading courses to recruiters could be a
>career path. Then I considered it would be too depressing.

I don't think the incentive structures for recruiters would make that
a worthwhile endeavor.

The problem is that recruiters are generally invoked by corporate HR
people, not the actual hiring manager, and so their reward system
inventivizes "activity" (bringing in lots of resumes) rather than
utility (finding the one perfect candidate). HR doesn't care whether
you find the person you want or not; they just want to make sure that
the proper formalities are observed, one of which is making sure that
you have a large pool of applicants from as broad a selection of
backgrounds as possible, because that helps the company to defend
against discrimination complaints. Whether those people are actually
useful (or indeed interested in the actual job you're hiring for) is
not really their concern.

-GAWollman

--
Garrett A. Wollman | What intellectual phenomenon can be older, or more oft
wol...@bimajority.org| repeated, than the story of a large research program
Opinions not shared by| that impaled itself upon a false central assumption
my employers. | accepted by all practitioners? - S.J. Gould, 1993

[Marc Haber]

Recruiters' first filter bubble works by number of applicants, not by
their quality. At that stage, they do not have time to read, they only
have software match strings.

People who reply to the automated first-round mail get first manual
vetting. That way, the recruiter outsources his grunt work to the
possible applicants.

Greetings
Marc
--
-------------------------------------- !! No courtesy copies, please !! -----
Marc Haber | " Questions are the | Mailadresse im Header
Mannheim, Germany | Beginning of Wisdom " | http://www.zugschlus.de/
Nordisch by Nature | Lt. Worf, TNG "Rightful Heir" | Fon: *49 621 72739834

[Garrett Wollman]

In article <m1ufrt$qq3$1...@news1.tnib.de>,

Marc Haber <mh+usene...@zugschl.us> wrote:

>People who reply to the automated first-round mail get first manual
>vetting. That way, the recruiter outsources his grunt work to the
>possible applicants.

I think, after about twelve years, I may have finally convinced the
Tbbtyr in-house recruiters that it's pretty unlikely I would want to
leave my job at a prestigious research university to go work for a
sordid commercial enterprise whose business model is based around
invading the privacy of as many people as they can get away with. Not
even for free lunch.

[Wojciech Derechowski]

On Sat, 18 Oct 2014 19:50:09 +0000, Garrett Wollman wrote:
[...]

> sordid commercial enterprise whose business model is based around
> invading the privacy of as many people as they can get away with. Not
> even for free lunch.

Would it make any diferrence if the enterprise were a religious one?

--
WD

Who is Entscheidungs and what is his problem?

[Julian Macassey]

On Sat, 18 Oct 2014 15:08:06 +0000 (UTC), Niklas Karlsson
<ank...@yahoo.se> wrote:
> Okay... so I got contacted on LinkedIn, by the company's own HR,
> inviting me to a 100% MS sysadmin job. I can only conclude they have not
> read my profile at all.

Just today I had a headhunter contact me to offer me a job
doing retail an an AT&T cell phone store.


--
The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and
opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society.
- Edward Bernays

[Marc Haber]

Julian Macassey <jul...@tele.com> wrote:
>On Sat, 18 Oct 2014 15:08:06 +0000 (UTC), Niklas Karlsson
><ank...@yahoo.se> wrote:
>> Okay... so I got contacted on LinkedIn, by the company's own HR,
>> inviting me to a 100% MS sysadmin job. I can only conclude they have not
>> read my profile at all.
>
> Just today I had a headhunter contact me to offer me a job
>doing retail an an AT&T cell phone store.

Geez! Don't the USA have their fair share of unemployed people so that
they don't have to head hunt for _that_ kind of job?

[Niklas Karlsson]

On 2014-10-18, Erwan David <er...@rail.eu.org> wrote:
> I once thought that providing reading courses to recruiters could be a
> career path. Then I considered it would be too depressing.

Probably quite frustrating, at least.

When I politely declined the job, the HR woman responded by insisting on
adding me to her network, "if something more applicable comes up".
Having looked over their published job ads, they don't seem to have any
tech I'd actually be willing to work with, at least not as my primary
job. So this seems a teensy bit unlikely.

Niklas
--
TV cookery-shows are about as valid a concept as dancing about plate-
tectonics.
-- Tanuki in asr

[Alexander Schreiber]

Garrett Wollman <wol...@bimajority.org> wrote:
> In article <m1ufrt$qq3$1...@news1.tnib.de>,
> Marc Haber <mh+usene...@zugschl.us> wrote:
>
>>People who reply to the automated first-round mail get first manual
>>vetting. That way, the recruiter outsources his grunt work to the
>>possible applicants.
>
> I think, after about twelve years, I may have finally convinced the
> Tbbtyr in-house recruiters that it's pretty unlikely I would want to
> leave my job at a prestigious research university to go work for a

> sordid commercial enterprise [..]

> Not even for free lunch.

Well, strictly speaking, the lunch is not free, but part of the compensation
package. That seems to be at least the view of the tax authorities hereabouts.
Who basically go "Oh, you got something extra from your employer? And it has
a value that can be quantified in $CURRENCY? That is taxable income, fork
over our share."

disclaimer: I'm not a tax accountant, I don't even play one on TV.

Kind regards,
Alex.
--
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and
looks like work." -- Thomas A. Edison

[Alexander Schreiber]

Niklas Karlsson <ank...@yahoo.se> wrote:
> Okay... so I got contacted on LinkedIn, by the company's own HR,
> inviting me to a 100% MS sysadmin job. I can only conclude they have not
> read my profile at all.
>
> http://www.unisystems.com/en/vacancies/sweden/item/494-system-administrator-sw.html
>
> I might have expected clueless third-party recruiters, but their own HR
> being this confused does not speak well of them. (But then, neither does
> their choice of technologies...)

Most likely 'leads contacted per day' is one of their target metrics. For
that, _quality_ doesn't matter, quantity counts. The good old "lets fling
some stuff on the wall and if anything sticks" approach. Only needs simple
bullheadedness and very little thinking.

[Niklas Karlsson]

On 2014-10-19, Roger Bell_West <roger+a...@nospam.firedrake.org> wrote:

> On 2014-10-18, Niklas Karlsson wrote:
>>Okay... so I got contacted on LinkedIn,
>

> Well, there's your first problem. You have failed to block a known
> spam source.

Perhaps. It doesn't seem to usually spam me much if at all, and has been
quite useful to me in the past, so I've left it open for now. If it
continues being this much of a pain, though...

Niklas
--
Butterscotch schnapps is a great memory restorative. Now I remember why I don't
drink it more often.
-- Stevo, asr

[Juergen Nickelsen]

Julian Macassey <jul...@tele.com> writes:

> Just today I had a headhunter contact me to offer me a job
> doing retail an an AT&T cell phone store.

If that were the mobile phone shop that is some 50 m from where I live,
I might even take that into consideration. I am afraid the pay would be
abysmal, though.

--
Take a class. Read a book. Don't expect computers to be simple,
because they are not.

[Maarten Wiltink]

"Alexander Schreiber" <a...@usenet.thangorodrim.de> wrote in message
news:slrnm45v0...@mordor.angband.thangorodrim.de...

> [...] Only needs simple bullheadedness and very little thinking.

This seems to match depressingly many job descriptions these days.

At work yesterday, I mentioned a junior colleague's enthousiasm
for some (work-related) thing, only to be told that he might be
enthusiastic about it, but he knew little more about it than its
name[0].

I'd like to remain bullheaded about encouraging my colleagues to
think. Now I'm among people more cynical than I am, and not even
liking it.

Tebrgwrf,
Maarten Wiltink

[0] That's what I was told. No opportunity to find out for myself
has yet presented itself.

[John F. Eldredge]

On Sun, 19 Oct 2014 01:47:36 +0200, Alexander Schreiber wrote:

> Niklas Karlsson <ank...@yahoo.se> wrote:
>> Okay... so I got contacted on LinkedIn, by the company's own HR,
>> inviting me to a 100% MS sysadmin job. I can only conclude they have
>> not read my profile at all.
>>
>> http://www.unisystems.com/en/vacancies/sweden/item/494-system-
administrator-sw.html
>>
>> I might have expected clueless third-party recruiters, but their own HR
>> being this confused does not speak well of them. (But then, neither
>> does their choice of technologies...)
>
> Most likely 'leads contacted per day' is one of their target metrics.
> For that, _quality_ doesn't matter, quantity counts. The good old "lets
> fling some stuff on the wall and if anything sticks" approach. Only
> needs simple bullheadedness and very little thinking.
>
> Kind regards,
> Alex.

I have been working as a programmer and system administrator since the
late 1980's. I was once contacted by a recruiter who claimed I was a
perfect match for one of his jobs -- crawling underneath oil storage
tanks to check for leaks. I wondered if this was pure coincidence, or if
the recruiter had ever heard the phrase "tracking down memory leaks" and
totally misunderstood it.

[Alexander Schreiber]

John F. Eldredge <jo...@jfeldredge.com> wrote:
> On Sun, 19 Oct 2014 01:47:36 +0200, Alexander Schreiber wrote:
>
>> Niklas Karlsson <ank...@yahoo.se> wrote:
>>> Okay... so I got contacted on LinkedIn, by the company's own HR,
>>> inviting me to a 100% MS sysadmin job. I can only conclude they have
>>> not read my profile at all.
>>>
>>> http://www.unisystems.com/en/vacancies/sweden/item/494-system-
> administrator-sw.html
>>>
>>> I might have expected clueless third-party recruiters, but their own HR
>>> being this confused does not speak well of them. (But then, neither
>>> does their choice of technologies...)
>>
>> Most likely 'leads contacted per day' is one of their target metrics.
>> For that, _quality_ doesn't matter, quantity counts. The good old "lets
>> fling some stuff on the wall and if anything sticks" approach. Only
>> needs simple bullheadedness and very little thinking.
>>
>

> I have been working as a programmer and system administrator since the
> late 1980's. I was once contacted by a recruiter who claimed I was a
> perfect match for one of his jobs -- crawling underneath oil storage
> tanks to check for leaks. I wondered if this was pure coincidence, or if
> the recruiter had ever heard the phrase "tracking down memory leaks" and
> totally misunderstood it.

Well, lets see:
- presumably somewhere on your resume/CV: "tracking down memory leaks"
- on the recruiters checklist: "tracking down oil leaks"
--> *tada* perfect match, obviously
Oil leaks, memory leaks, what is difference?

HTH,

[Alexander Schreiber]

Juergen Nickelsen <n...@w21.org> wrote:
> Julian Macassey <jul...@tele.com> writes:
>
>> Just today I had a headhunter contact me to offer me a job
>> doing retail an an AT&T cell phone store.
>
> If that were the mobile phone shop that is some 50 m from where I live,
> I might even take that into consideration. I am afraid the pay would be
> abysmal, though.

And from what I've seen the last time I spent some time in a cell phone
store in the US (to get a local prepaid SIM card for data), the typical
customer there is even more in need of the (repeated) application of a good
old fashioned clue-by-four than your typical luser.

Kind regards,

[David Cameron Staples]

On 22/10/14 9:51 AM, Alexander Schreiber wrote:
> Well, lets see:
> - presumably somewhere on your resume/CV: "tracking down memory leaks"
> - on the recruiters checklist: "tracking down oil leaks"
> --> *tada* perfect match, obviously
> Oil leaks, memory leaks, what is difference?

To quote Horrible Histories:

Host: "... and to get rid of that wart, it's Tudor surgeon Bob the Surgeon!"

Tudor Peasant: "... What?! I thought you were a barber!"

Bob the barber^Wsurgeon: "Oh no, love, all Tudor barbers *are* surgeons.
You know: hair, limbs, it's all cutting, isn't it."

--
David Cameron Staples | staples AT unimelb DOT edu DOT au
Melbourne University | ITS | Hosting | Unix Operations
- the only annoying thing about Perl is there's always at least 10
ways to do the same thing =)
- and half of those make absolutely no sense when you come back to
the code 30 minutes later -- bash.org/?66197

[Kevin Goebel]

On Wed, 22 Oct 2014 00:51:18 +0200, Alexander Schreiber

>Well, lets see:
> - presumably somewhere on your resume/CV: "tracking down memory leaks"
> - on the recruiters checklist: "tracking down oil leaks"
> --> *tada* perfect match, obviously
>Oil leaks, memory leaks, what is difference?

One is a dirty, tedious, mind-numbing, uncomfortable thankless job working
in dodgy places which will leave you with a creeply-crawly feeling on your
skin. The other job involves petrochemicals.

Kevin Goebel