Oh Fate, you work in such mysterious ways.
Like this morning, when I received an email that at first looked like a job opportunity with a description attached. I quickly scanned it, and moved on to the next email. It wasn’t until after lunch that I looked at the email again. This time I noticed it was sent to other addresses than mine, and the attachment was actually someone’s resume, not a description.
Hi!
He is asking for 40$ after negotiations
Please let me know if he is a good fit for our requirement then I can talk to him and try for 37 or 38 $/hr
The job email was actually one job recruiter’s email to another recruiter. And not just that, it documented that they were planning on lowballing our poor job seeker after negotiations.
Geeks the world over have a love-hate relationship with headhunters. No, scratch that, it’s pretty much a hate-hate relationship. Recruiters are human resource employees on steroids; they not only know your salary, influence it in many cases, but they’re working to get you at the cheapest price to the employer because the less money you cost, the more money they make. My personal experiences with hunters has been one of general frustration.
My favorite example is Janelle (name changed). She called multiple times to remind me to wear a suit to the interview. When I did my pre-interview with her at the office, she talked in a tone like that of a parent talking to their child. Obvious questions abounded, like had I remembered my resume, as she kindly reminded me that its important to make a good first impression. Recruiters treat tech folks like they are professionally inept. There’s some truth to the sentiment, but when you’re not socially inept, it’s easy to see straight through the patronizing “interview coaching” to a desperate, driving motivation of gettin’ paid.
Recruiters will also use every trick in the book to get you to drop your salary expectations and sense of professional worth. I’ve had one tell me that I initially told her lower salary expectations once we started negotations. I’ve even had one tell me that they needed to see my current paystub to prove that I made what I had claimed. When recruiters deal with the oft socially unskilled computer worker, they bank on the candidate being consistently nonassertive. And I would suspect that it often works. Recruiters don’t stop at simple coercive tactics though. They feign extreme frustration when a candidate takes reasonable amounts of time to make a serious decision about their future, saying that the job offer might not be on the table much longer. And you don’t even want to see how mad they get when you don’t take the job.
It is important to know how much your skills and abilities are worth and to not back down when a recruiter starts taking one of their “serious” tones in negotiation. If you are valuable, most employers are willing to pay. The ones that aren’t are probably cutting corners on more than just salary.
So when I realized the true content of the email, I read it to Steve who sits next to me. “You should reply back to them, and blind carbon copy the candidate saying you looked over the resume and thinks he deserve more than 40,” Steve responded. “Perfect,” I thought. So that was it, I crafted an email, added the candidates email address and away I sent it. Was I irresponsible to send? Maybe. Could it have been my little act of justice for the day? Perhaps. Was it no big deal? Possibly. Did it feel good? YES.
After reading Mr. X’s resume and giving it much consideration, it seems like he’d be a great fit for the requirement. I would wholeheartedly start the offers at $45/hour.
EDIT ADD: Today, a day later, I received an email from Mr. X to the recruiter that I was obviously BCCed on. The letter was in response to the candidate being offered less money for the job. Apparently he has a sense of humor as well.
Hi, Hunter of Heads:
I remember that we discussed my rate at $45.00/Hr. I hope this number won’t surprise the client too much. Considering the traveling and all other expense, can you get the number as close as possible. Please let me know your decision.
Sincerely,
Mr. X