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svandamme svandamme is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2003
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JeremyD View Post
A recruiter / headhunter - a quality version - will be professional, quick, concise. If I know what company you are working for - I already know what you are being paid. If I'm good at my job - I already know your supervisor is banging the receptionist and everybody is worried the ceo is dipping into the 401K contributions.

Really - be courteous - be professional - keep contact information. You never know when you might need it. This day and age, it's beneficial to cast a wide net in a job search. That includes friends and family, professional associations, that includes social media and that also includes agencies and head hunters.
Well, probably not, this is Belgium he spoke Dutch, or at least mumbled it.
So i assume he was from Brussels not from a 3rd world country, Dutch is not an easy language for foreigners to learn.

What you describe, i would call that a headhunter, i've been headhunted before, and that was not an unpleasant experience at all. In fact it got me a kickass job at Novell at the time.. great on my CV..

But in Belgium recruiters are just terrible.

it starts with the job ads.
- Need all round It person
So you call to find out "what" they need , programmer/devver , support, project mgmt, etc etct
They'll flat out refuse to give out any information , insisting you drive 140 km's to go see them in person

As if. I want to know if there's even a point in me going there.
Why would i drive 140 km for a developers job, if i'm not a developer?

Or they list the ad as
"you are the It manager, you will manage the support team, the inhouse developer, and do occasional network troubleshooting"
When it turns out it's a job where they pay you as a 1st line helpdesker, but expect you to manage yourself, be the in house developer, and do all throubleshooting yourself.

another example from a MAAAJOR recrutement agency had me over for a reasonably high profile tech job in 2007... the want me to do psychotechnical questions, i oblige..
He comes back with , well this is your test result, it looks ok and all that, not a bad match for the job..
But this is a senior profile we are looking for, and from where i'm looking i see more of a junior profile.

* excuse me? Could you care to elaborate on that, 10 years of experience, 6 years at Novell as Backline tech & team coordinator? Doesn't that count for anything?*

He goes, i don't really know Novell, i normally don't do IT stuff, i'm just filling in for a coworker who's on pregnacy leave.

I walked out without saying another word.
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Old 10-13-2011, 10:55 AM
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