Current Events > I'm a technical recruiter AMA

(+) Yeah! (+)

Ive always said Im in sales but never really specified. But its Friday and Im bored so AMA

Anything?

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How I get a job

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what really happened to Cleo_I

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How do I get this gerbil out my ass

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I've never gotten a job through a recruiter unless if you count recruiters inserting themselves into the process after I applied to a posting myself.

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Were_Wyrm posted...

Anything?

Most things. Im obviously not going to answer anything specific like what company I work for or my home address

JBaLLEN66 posted...

How I get a job

Have a solid resume that aligns with the posting. I dont spend more than 30 seconds on a resume and if I dont see the required skillset I move on. Also it helps to do some digging on LinkedIn and find the hiring manager for the role youre applying to. You can send them a connection invite and message them for free if they accept it. I got a job offer that way

SSJGrimReaper posted...

what really happened to Cleo_I

I had Cleopatra85 and Cleo as an alt then I suicided the account years ago. I created Cleo_I a couple of years later to lurk but ended up never doing anything with it and forgetting what email and password I used. So Cleo_II was born

Smackems posted...

How do I get this gerbil out my ass

Laxatives are your friend

1337toothbrush posted...

I've never gotten a job through a recruiter unless if you count recruiters inserting themselves into the process after I applied to a posting myself.

Dunno what field youre in. But Ive placed a crap ton of candidates that I personally reached out to. But I have a solid understanding of what we require for our tech roles since I have an engineering background.

Cleo_II posted...

Dunno what field youre in. But Ive placed a crap ton of candidates that I personally reached out to. But I have a solid understanding of what we require for our tech roles since I have an engineering background.

That helps a ton! The recruiters I've encountered only matched up buzzwords. I do software development so there are plenty of buzzwords to play with.

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Hey Cleo! Hope you're doing well and congrats on the baby news!

1. What are some legitimate job search sites I should upload my resume to other than Indeed, Dice, and LinkedIn?
2. What's the average pay percentage a tech recruiter gets for placing someone in a job?

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1337toothbrush posted...

That helps a ton! The recruiters I've encountered only matched up buzzwords. I do software development so there are plenty of buzzwords to play with.

Those types of recruiters actually convinced me to review my resume and cleanup some things up. I was just collecting items within my Skills section to make it seem like I was experienced with a lot of different software. Turns out I never wanted to touch half of them again so why list them and continue to get job offers for them?

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When going through rsums what is the most common huge mistake people make? What is a good way to make a rsum stand out?

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1337toothbrush posted...

That helps a ton! The recruiters I've encountered only matched up buzzwords. I do software development so there are plenty of buzzwords to play with.

Lol yeah lots of bad recruiters out there. My main expertise is software engineering. Im well familiar with the differences between backend, frontend, full stack, etc. Ive placed server/platform engineers, mobile engineers, web engineers, sdk engineers, data engineers, etc and I have a good understanding of the differences. My background makes me unique so I have no problems finding jobs. My hiring teams love working with me because they give me their requirements and I find exactly what theyre looking for.

BlazinBlue88 posted...

Hey Cleo! Hope you're doing well and congrats on the baby news!

1. What are some legitimate job search sites I should upload my resume to other than Indeed, Dice, and LinkedIn?
2. What's the average pay percentage a tech recruiter gets for placing someone in a job?

Thank you!! Those are the main ones. You can try ziprecruiter too. Its how I found my current job a few years back. Id say LinkedIn is the best one.

Right now I work directly for the company so I dont get a placement fee. Im paid salary and bonus. But agency recruiters get commission. It will depend on if its a contractor role and also if they are full desk recruiters or not. A full desk recruiter is in charge of getting their own business and finding the candidates. Most will be half desk where they are either in charge with getting clients or filling jobs.

I worked at an agency where I was full desk so I made 30% of the placement fee. Which was generally 20%. So say I placed a software engineer making 100k, Id get 30% of 20k so 6k bonus. Half desk recruiters will get 15% so theyd get 3k. Contractors roles will depend I never had any so I dunno but I know they overcharge companies to bake in their fees and give the candidate less money.

If youre good at what you do, you can make bank at an agency. But its a loooot of work to build up your client base and candidate pipeline. I know people making 200-300k but they work 24/7 and are stressed all the time on when their next placement will be. Some quarters will be dead and others amazing. I personally prefer work life balance to be healthy and I enjoy stability, so I became a corporate recruiter instead.

Please find me a job

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TheBiggerWiggle posted...

When going through rsums what is the most common huge mistake people make? What is a good way to make a rsum stand out?

Overly long resumes is a big one. Ive gotten resumes as long as 14 pages. No one is going to read that. You also dont need to stick to 1
page either, unless youre junior. 1-3 pages is the sweet spot. No more than that.

Other than that, when youre looking at 100s of resumes a day they all pretty much look the same. So I will do a quick scan of the first 2 most recent employment histories and see how well they match the requirements. So I highly suggest tailoring your resume to be aligned with the job posting as much as possible (if you have the experience of course)

I personally dont read cover letters at all so you can skip them. My teams love reading them so if theres one attached then Ill send it to them with the resume and notes of my call. But a cover letter isnt required for a screen with me.

Veggeta X posted...

Please find me a job

Yeah ask those big placement agencies for that. Nothing annoys me more than constant LinkedIn messages asking me to look at their profile to see if we have anything for them. I dont have time for that lmao. And its lazy af, do your own homework. The ones that message me with an exact posting and why theyre a fit are the ones Ill respond to.

Also hate the ones where they ask me what they need to do to get into software engineering or other insert field here. Im not a fucking career counselor kthxbye. I might advise friends and such but I dont have time to reply to every rando

do you do strictly tech work or do you place cross functional ppl as well? i do erp implementations and i have found like 90% of recruiters dont know how to wrap their heads around it and try to market me as an accountant or a dba or w/e

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Cleo how big should the resume I bring to a date be

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Cleo_II posted...

Yeah ask those big placement agencies for that. Nothing annoys me more than constant LinkedIn messages asking me to look at their profile to see if we have anything for them. I dont have time for that lmao. And its lazy af, do your own homework. The ones that message me with an exact posting and why theyre a fit are the ones Ill respond to.

Also hate the ones where they ask me what they need to do to get into software engineering or other insert field here. Im not a fucking career counselor kthxbye. I might advise friends and such but I dont have time to reply to every rando

I have an Associates Degree in Computer Networking and Administration from a Community College. I work currently as a SYS-Admin, I am middle management and I do everything from basic Help Desk work to maintaining our server infrastructures. I recently received my SQL Certification as well. I want to find work for a Hospital or a local government, and looking for a salary that is 70k+.

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Romulox28 posted...

do you do strictly tech work or do you place cross functional ppl as well? i do erp implementations and i have found like 90% of recruiters dont know how to wrap their heads around it and try to market me as an accountant or a dba or w/e

Lol yeah you are neither. What ERP? Oracle, SAP, something else? I havent worked those roles but Ive seen them. Theyre considered application developers/integrators and such. I do cross functional as Im the dedicated floater on the team that will get random reqs assigned if others cant fill them. Ive had DBAs, Cloud engineers, HR roles, Analysts (data and business), data scientists, UX/UI designers, PMs. Ive pretty much touched on most things other than finance.

Cleo_II posted...

I had Cleopatra85 and Cleo as an alt then I suicided the account years ago.

My interest is piqued. Are you able to share the story?

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Veggeta X posted...

I have an Associates Degree in Computer Networking and Administration from a Community College. I work currently as a SYS-Admin, I am middle management and I do everything from basic Help Desk work to maintaining our server infrastructures. I recently received my SQL Certification as well. I want to find work for a Hospital or a local government, and looking for a salary that is 70k+.

Dude you need to specialize at this point. Sys admin/infra, networking, SQL, management? Pick a lane.

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Oh yeah, none of that contract work shit either. I want to be eventually hired in and offered benefits and shit.

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CyricZ posted...

Cleo how big should the resume I bring to a date be

At least novel sized. Girls love reading material on dates!

Veggeta X posted...

I have an Associates Degree in Computer Networking and Administration from a Community College. I work currently as a SYS-Admin, I am middle management and I do everything from basic Help Desk work to maintaining our server infrastructures. I recently received my SQL Certification as well. I want to find work for a Hospital or a local government, and looking for a salary that is 70k+.

If youre looking for hospital or government then you should reach out to an agency recruiter. I work for a medium sized tech company. My guess is youre a Windows sys admin too if you want government/hospital stuff. We generally only hire Linux sys admins.

BlazinBlue88 posted...

Dude you need to specialize at this point. Sys admin/infra, networking, SQL, management? Pick a lane.

I do all that, and honestly they're kinda the same. At least the sys admin and networking part.

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Veggeta X posted...

I do all that, and honestly they're kinda the same. At least the sys admin and networking part.

Those two are quite different if you work for a large enough company. You want to work somewhere with a dedicated Network team. I also didn't think there was much to networking when I was a one man team way back when. I thought it was just an extension of sys admin work.

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Cleo_II posted...

Yeah ask those big placement agencies for that. Nothing annoys me more than constant LinkedIn messages asking me to look at their profile to see if we have anything for them. I dont have time for that lmao. And its lazy af, do your own homework. The ones that message me with an exact posting and why theyre a fit are the ones Ill respond to.

Also hate the ones where they ask me what they need to do to get into software engineering or other insert field here. Im not a fucking career counselor kthxbye. I might advise friends and such but I dont have time to reply to every rando

This is really helpful

@Cleo_II a lot of times recruiters will reach out and off to just share info about a role even if i am not looking. Im not looking, but i do like to keep tabs on the market for my skillset and make connections with recruiters for when i am looking.

I am very open about the fact that i am not looking, but i still feel a little bad taking up their time. If im confident i cant be wooed, should i just decline a call?
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how do I, an associate level 29 year old white man with flaky/oily skin and a receding harline, bag one of those six figure recruiting girls who suck at their jobs but have teeth that look like ivory pearls?

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So_Hajile posted...

My interest is piqued. Are you able to share the story?

Back in early 2000s the board was crazy active and I was a popular poster. I had daily ATTN: Cleo topics and so half of CE hated me while the other half liked me. It was getting to be a lot on me. Just constant people making sure to tell me how I wasnt all that, average, telling me to go away, while others were super nice. It came to a halt when a user called Kaneadian printed out my picture, then posted a picture of it with his uhhh stuff on it. No one on CE defended me and everyone thought it was funny. So I just killed my account and left.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

Thank you! Its not something I saw myself getting into but I love what I do and it feels great to be good at it too

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

Oh man. Well one will be that you are your biggest advocate. I know a lot of men early on in my career didnt take me seriously and would treat me like I was dumber than them. And it intimidated me to the point where I shut down and felt like they were right instead of putting them in their place. Now people are more open about sexism in the workplace. So speak up if it happens to you. Talk to HR. Dont let anyone try to intimidate you or try and have you doing menial work because youre a woman.

And I know its cliche but value yourself above anyone. Dont waste dating anyone that isnt up to your standards because you feel shallow. Standards are a good thing. In your 20s, you have every option available as an attractive woman. Dont settle. I tried giving guys lots of chances that I otherwise shouldnt have because I wanted to be nice and give people chances when really I was just undervaluing myself.

BlazinBlue88 posted...

Those two are quite different if you work for a large enough company. You want to work somewhere with a dedicated Network team. I also didn't think there was much to networking when I was a one man team way back when. I thought it was just an extension of sys admin work.

True but the company I currently work for isn't a public company. IT still very much do a bunch of variable of things. Jack of all trades if you will.

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Cleo_II posted...

It came to a halt when a user called Kaneadian printed out my picture, then posted a picture of it with his uhhh stuff on it. No one on CE defended me and everyone thought it was funny. So I just killed my account and left.

wow wtf

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Can you recruit me to get paid lots of money to do nothing?

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BlazinBlue88 posted...

Those two are quite different if you work for a large enough company. You want to work somewhere with a dedicated Network team. I also didn't think there was much to networking when I was a one man team way back when. I thought it was just an extension of sys admin work.

Yeah. Smaller companies want people who wear a lot of hats. But bigger companies will just see that as someone who is a jack of all trades and master of none.

g980 posted...

This is really helpful

@Cleo_II a lot of times recruiters will reach out and off to just share info about a role even if i am not looking. Im not looking, but i do like to keep tabs on the market for my skillset and make connections with recruiters for when i am looking.

I am very open about the fact that i am not looking, but i still feel a little bad taking up their time. If im confident i cant be wooed, should i just decline a call?

No problem! Its not a waste of time at all, just be upfront that you arent looking but want to learn more. This is how you network and build relationships with recruiters. So when you do find yourself in the market, then you have some rapport already. Ive had lots of calls with passive candidates that dont want to look. Then they reach out to me a little while later. Or maybe I talk to them and theyre great but we dont have anything open for their skill sets but we will later. I currently have a candidate in final stages that I reached out to 2 years ago but we didnt have anything for his unique background. As soon as we did, I remembered him and reached out. And he remembered me as well. Good recruiters will value potential candidates, even when we dont hire them. Its called proactive recruiting.

berlyman101 posted...

how do I, an associate level 29 year old white man with flaky/oily skin and a receding harline, bag one of those six figure recruiting girls who suck at their jobs but have teeth that look like ivory pearls?

How do they suck at their job if theyre making 6 figures though?

Cleo_II posted...

Back in early 2000s the board was crazy active and I was a popular poster. I had daily ATTN: Cleo topics and so half of CE hated me while the other half liked me. It was getting to be a lot on me. Just constant people making sure to tell me how I wasnt all that, average, telling me to go away, while others were super nice. It came to a halt when a user called Kaneadian printed out my picture, then posted a picture of it with his uhhh stuff on it. No one on CE defended me and everyone thought it was funny. So I just killed my account and left.

......Now I feel terrible. I was hoping for a fun, light-hearted story about how you decided to run amuck by posting memes or something. I'm not only sorry you had to go through all of that, but also sorry I asked for you to indulge in sharing such a sickening experience.


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Veggeta X posted...

True but the company I currently work for isn't a public company. IT still very much do a bunch of variable of things. Jack of all trades if you will.

Yeah...that's why I'm giving you the advice of figure out what you want to specialize in and apply for those jobs. Don't expect to stay a jack of all trades while continuing to climb up the salary ladder. I could only get $55k-60k before needing to specialize.

I will say if you decide to specialize in Networking then it's a very cert heavy field. One of my friends is in Networking and loves it. Starts job, studies for the next Cisco cert, gets cert, offers come flooding in, gets new job with 30-50% pay bump. He does this cycle every two years. He started off working a $40k Level 1 Networking when I met him 6 years ago. Now he's making mid $100k.

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How do they suck at their job if theyre making 6 figures though?

I guess it was my experience as a temp/contractor that they would be clueless and give me bad or false information on something for my employment. but you're right; I was the product, they sold my employment, and gave fuck all after that.

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Thanks and I know what you're saying but more than likely I'm gonna stay with the company I'm with mainly because my boss, the IT Director, will retire hopefully within the next 3-5 years and I'm next in line for his position. I'll be getting that 90k or more salary plus bonus. I already handle most of the IT infrastructure for our company.

The only thing I don't do is make the big financial purchases/decisions and consult with departments managers about projects that'll help the business out. I've been to these kind of meetings and it sounds like a bargaining all day.

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The IT director only makes $90k?

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1337toothbrush posted...

The IT director only makes $90k?

I'm sure my boss makes more but he's been at that position for years now. I'm assuming that's what I'll start out at.

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Why's it that I usually get contacted by unprofessional Indian recruiters? They are so annoying.

Dark_Koopatrol posted...

Why's it that I usually get contacted by unprofessional Indian recruiters? They are so annoying.

Someone from Linkedin was tryna hire me to sell fridges. I'm like, lady, I dunno nothing about selling fridges, the fuck does it say anything like that on my LinkedIn LMAO.

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So_Hajile posted...

......Now I feel terrible. I was hoping for a fun, light-hearted story about how you decided to run amuck by posting memes or something. I'm not only sorry you had to go through all of that, but also sorry I asked for you to indulge in sharing such a sickening experience.

No worries. I wasnt traumatized by it or anything. Just made me realize CE at that time wasnt for me so I just left.

berlyman101 posted...

I guess it was my experience as a temp/contractor that they would be clueless and give me bad or false information on something for my employment. but you're right; I was the product, they sold my employment, and gave fuck all after that.

Ahh yeah there are recruiters that treat their candidates like products. It was one reason why agency recruiting wasnt for me. I build good relationships with mine so when I see them around they remember me, we have coffee or lunch sometimes. But most recruiters arent going to make 6 figures. Most will fizzle out if they really suck. Though there are plenty that are about quantity over quality and make a ton of money by throwing resumes around and seeing what sticks.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

When I was still in school I did because I think I was less exposed to guys other than the ones in my class. But that was pre-tinder days. I can only imagine what a nightmare online dating is. But yeah I found most guys werent up to my standards and kept thinking I was maybe too harsh. But anytime I tried giving a guy a chance it blew up in my face. I think once youre done with school and more out there youre options will open up. So dont worry about it for now. Lots of great guys out there.

1337toothbrush posted...

The IT director only makes $90k?

lol those IT directors are like senior sys admins or senior desktop admins at my company. The real directors Ive placed make 300-400k with base, bonus and equity. The ones at the big tech companies are making 500k+. I once hired a Director of a major tech company that made 600k total and had like 500k in stocks but he took our role for half the money because just wanted to do something fun and money didnt matter to him anymore.

BlazinBlue88 posted...

One of my friends is in Networking and loves it. Starts job, studies for the next Cisco cert, gets cert, offers come flooding in, gets new job with 30-50% pay bump. He does this cycle every two years. He started off working a $40k Level 1 Networking when I met him 6 years ago. Now he's making mid $100k.

What kind of job did he start with, and how'd he get it?


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Dark_Koopatrol posted...

Why's it that I usually get contacted by unprofessional Indian recruiters? They are so annoying.

LinkedIn is unfortunately flooded by Indian recruiters. I get contacted by them daily trying to share their candidates. C2C is one of the saddest business models where they contract Indian talent to companies and pay them peanuts while pocketing the rest, but they pay for their sponsorship so the candidates have no choice but to be taken advantage of until another company chooses to sponsor them or they manage to get a green card, or their visa expires and theyre forced to return home.

Veggeta X posted...

Thanks and I know what you're saying but more than likely I'm gonna stay with the company I'm with mainly because my boss, the IT Director, will retire hopefully within the next 3-5 years and I'm next in line for his position. I'll be getting that 90k or more salary plus bonus. I already handle most of the IT infrastructure for our company.

The only thing I don't do is make the big financial purchases/decisions and consult with departments managers about projects that'll help the business out. I've been to these kind of meetings and it sounds like a bargaining all day.

Imo, that seems like false promises fed to you by your company to ensure you stay there. How do you know for certain that they won't just fill his position from the outside? Also letting your own career be dictated by someone else's timeline seems insufferable. To be fair, you did say you wanted to work in the gov't and that's how you move up there. Just wait for someone to retire and get moved up. Qualifications be damned. lol

Plus only $90k to be an IT manager? Fuck that. Since your base pay will be so low, it'll take forever for your 2-3% yearly raises to get you up to a respectable pay rate for that job title. Starting should be ~$120k. Keep in mind, I'm talking about IT Manager job title and not the Director level title. Combine that with the pay Cloe mentioned and that should give you good perspective.

Overall, dude you are aiming really low for your career. If your goal is to only get decent/comfortable pay and security then that's cool. I can respect that. I just don't want you thinking you're shooting for the stars in the IT field when in reality you're barely making it into the air.

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Cleo_II posted...

Lol yeah you are neither. What ERP? Oracle, SAP, something else? I havent worked those roles but Ive seen them. Theyre considered application developers/integrators and such. I do cross functional as Im the dedicated floater on the team that will get random reqs assigned if others cant fill them. Ive had DBAs, Cloud engineers, HR roles, Analysts (data and business), data scientists, UX/UI designers, PMs. Ive pretty much touched on most things other than finance.

I do it all but I guess my expertise is with the Microsoft dynamics family. Im more of the process guy instead of the technical admin or the accountant so it makes it hard to shop me around sometimes

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BlazinBlue88 posted...

Imo, that seems like false promises fed to you by your company to ensure you stay there. How do you know for certain that they won't just fill his position from the outside? Also letting your own career be dictated by someone else's timeline seems insufferable. To be fair, you did say you wanted to work in the gov't and that's how you move up there. Just wait for someone to retire and get moved up. Qualifications be damned. lol

Plus only $90k to be an IT manager? Fuck that. Since your base pay will be so low, it'll take forever for your 2-3% yearly raises to get you up to a respectable pay rate for that job title. Starting should be ~$120k.

Overall, dude you are aiming really low for your career. If your goal is to only get decent/comfortable pay and security then that's cool. I can respect that. I just don't want you thinking you're shooting for the stars in the IT field when in reality you're barely making it into the air.

Well like I said I only have an AA. I've already checked a ton of other bigger corporations and they require a ton more credentials and I really don't want to go back to college at least not for a degree. I enjoy most of my company even though users can get on my nerve but you're gonna get that anywhere. I'm just being modest about the pay. We'll see when the time comes. I make good money now.

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