Who are the most genuinely helpful recruiters (individuals), who you've interacted with and why? Hoping this might be a good supplement to Who's Hiring.
Any recruiter is only as good as his/her listings. Comparing recruiters is like comparing NYC brokers. They're pretty much all terrible (principle-agent problem, along with tending to be the type of person who had to resort to recruiting because they couldn't get a better job), only as good as their listings, and inherently work to your disadvantage by making you significantly more expensive to employers (recruiters charge employers ~20% of your first year's salary). Again, even if your recruiter has an awesome personality and makes you feel fuzzy inside, at the end of the day he/she is only as good as his/her listings.<p>A better post would be to evaluate companies so that we can bypass the recruiters, make our own educated unbiased decisions, and capture all of our market value.
Dave Fecak, <a href="http://www.fecak.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.fecak.com/</a> and @fecak on here. Although he's never placed me (I'm on the west coast, and he really only recruits for NYC/Philly), he's volunteered his time to help me with some resume issues I've had. I'd contact him again in a heartbeat if I was looking in his backyard.
If you're in NYC and looking for a tech role in finance - Kate LeSaffre @ Princeton Group is spectacular (<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=8894110" rel="nofollow">https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=8894110</a>)<p>She's a close friend, does none of the "bad recruiter" things (spam, annoying, etc.) and does all of the "good recruiter" things (interview prep, helps you negotiate salary, knows all the hiring managers at all the top hedge funds, etc.)<p>I know HN is a Silicon Valley-centric crowd, but for better or for worse, if you're the kind of engineer that wants to make $350k+ in finance, she'll help make that happen.
I had a good experience with my recruiter. She was independent and was good friends with most of the HR managers at tech companies around the city. She told me the exact questions that each company would ask and told me who would be interviewing me and how to handle myself around them. I felt very confident going into interviews because of her. I had two follow up meetings with her at 2 and 6 months, which was just a 10 min coffee date to see if everything was cool (it was).
Melissa Sezto (<a href="https://twitter.com/mel_sezto" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/mel_sezto</a>). I meet with her almost 4 years ago and she took her time to get to know me, what I am looking for, my interests etc.
Aline Lerner! Former engineer. No bullshit.
<a href="http://blog.alinelerner.com/" rel="nofollow">http://blog.alinelerner.com/</a>
Nice guy whose been contributing here on Hacker News for years:<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=Peroni" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=Peroni</a>
I stumbled across a great technical recruiter in Australia. Contacted them saying I was considering becoming a web development contractor. Got a response the same day asking to come in for an introductory interview. Went over my skills and experience, recruiter got the ball rolling on a position they had open that sounded suitable. Position got delayed by a couple of months by the client but recruiter kept me updated and then contacted me when they were ready.<p>They handled all payslips from client to myself, superannuation payments, tax, etc on their end. Threw a Christmas party for all of their contractors every year.<p>The things I enjoyed most was reach-ability, them fighting for a higher hourly rate for me when renewals came up (at one point agreeing to forego their usual fee in my rate increase to make sure I got the entire increase to myself), and overall professionalism.
Both of the two with whom I've had great experiences are in the Los Angeles area.<p>Wes Putnam of Putnam Recruiting Group (<a href="http://www.putnamrecruiting.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.putnamrecruiting.com/</a>). A former employee of his got me a great job, and when he left West personally took over the relationship, occasionally checking in to make sure I was still happy. They have a long-standing relationship with said employer of mine, and it seems they operate like that in general.<p>Spencer Allen of Fulcrum Hire (<a href="http://www.fulcrumhire.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.fulcrumhire.com/</a>). Introduced to me by a former colleague, Spencer works with high quality and low quantity. The one interview he arranged for me nearly resulted in a job, and would've been a great fit if I had had a bit more experience at the time. He placed a close friend of mine with a company he's been very happy with for over a year, too.<p>I can heartily recommend both to anyone looking for a technology position in LA.
I've had good experiences with smaller recruiters. Generally, if a recruiter calls you and asks for an SSN to apply for a job then just hang up because it will be a waste of time to talk to them.<p>If, however, they want to meet in person, that's a sign that they're likely to match you with jobs that you have a reasonable chance of getting.
I've had great experiences with Nancy Soni and her team at FILD <a href="http://www.fildit.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.fildit.com/</a><p>She was incredibly helpful on both a personal and professional level. She reached out, and up an interview at a top Ecommerce company in NYC.<p>The company wasn't a great match for what I was looking for at the time (earlier stage, smaller team, building the groundwork) and she introduced me to an (at the time) much smaller company that I had never heard of.<p>But it was a great fit, and I loved the job for 2.5 years and used her to help grow that team.<p>She was probably the first person to convince me that not all recruiters are terrible.
Willem Wijnans, check his blog here: <a href="http://www.sourcingmonk.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.sourcingmonk.com</a><p>He's a tech recruiter now working for improbable.io < amazing startup in London.
I don't believe there's a single recruiter that's a good fit for anyone / everyone. If you form a good relationship with a well-connected recruiter they can definitely be an invaluable resource for you that help you get interviews that are outside of your network. It's also worth noting that, like most relationships, it something that is fostered over time, not just when you are job hunting.<p>Quality recruiters are very in-the-know as to who is hiring, what the going salaries are and are able to help you back-channel and get the scoop on people and companies.
Barry Cranford of Recworks in London is one of the few good guys. He started the London Java Community and his approach is much more about engaing with the tech community and definitely adds value to the process.
I'd be interested to see if anyone can recommend recruiters in London.<p>I've had nothing but bad experiences over the last few years so tend to ignore them now, but it'd be good to have a little list of decent ones.
Aline Lerner, though she is not doing recruiting any more - she's now working on interviewing.io<p><a href="http://blog.alinelerner.com/" rel="nofollow">http://blog.alinelerner.com/</a>
I was originally going to make a SAAS for recruiters, so I did customer interviews for about 30 of them. I came to the understanding that they all vary in the way they organize their information. There was even one firm that still had paper resumes on file. I think the best recruiters I talked to had a great skill at reading you like any great salesman. The ones that I did not like as much were fresh in the industry, and they sounded like they were sitting in a boiler room.
The role you were hired FOR, the languages used, the industry, and the company stage are all important details.<p>Some recruiting firms are very specialized and can charge a premium because of it.
They're not a recruiter in the traditional sense, but I quite like hired.com - they're low-touch, and I much prefer to browse a list of candidates once a week than field endless emails and calls and hard-selling from traditional recruiters.<p>We've hired from them, and although I think the signal-to-noise ratio has got worse in the past year, I usually still see one or two interesting people.
My favourite recruiter is an independent. Friend of a friend. Likes having a chat every now and then, only got me interesting leads so far. Even now that I am not interested in a new position, he's keeping good contact. James, <a href="http://www.thundercloudsolutions.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.thundercloudsolutions.com</a>
I just landed a really great offer in NYC and a lot of it is because of Sarah Chimino at Andiamo (<a href="https://twitter.com/schimino" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/schimino</a>). She always had a really positive attitude and I came away with it feeling like she was always going the extra mile for me.
Does anyone have any recommendations on recruiters that focus on marketing and growth roles? I am actively reaching out to recruiters however it is difficult to find recruiters that are not exclusively technical.
Dave Mayer at Technical Integrity was very helpful to me.<p><a href="http://technicalintegrity.com/" rel="nofollow">http://technicalintegrity.com/</a>
Is it worth trying to get in contact with a recruiter if I want to leave academia and enter industry in a data science position, or better to go it alone?
For those of you who don't like recruitment emails, send them this: <a href="http://www.rankarecruiter.co.uk/" rel="nofollow">http://www.rankarecruiter.co.uk/</a>
In 30 years of working in electronics and software, I have never been sent on an interview, or even contacted by an employer, through any recruiter, despite getting weekly calls from them all these years and rising through the ranks of these industries in medium sized companies.
Believe or not. None. They humiliate those who naively think they are genuine. <a href="https://www.pinterest.com/pin/429671620671237170/" rel="nofollow">https://www.pinterest.com/pin/429671620671237170/</a>