My story is unique and hope it inspires you to value yourself ! I had a call with a recruiter for IC role at Principal Engineer level. The job required BS with 6 YOE or MS with 4 YOE. I have MS with 6 YOE so I did meet the minimum bar. When recruiter called in, for first 10 minutes, he asked typical ‘Tell me about yourself’ type question. After I introduced myself, the recruiter gave HM name and started putting expectations from HM forward in terms of ‘She is looking for someone with 10 YOE’, ‘She is looking for someone who works for similar company’( read competitor), ‘She is looking for someone who have published few research papers’ .... so on and so on. I was polite to point to job posting and politely said that if she needs all these, why job posting failed to mention these ? At that point, recruiter got annoyed and said there are ton of candidates who meet what HM is looking for. I was taken aback, but I wasn’t letting him go with his rude behavior. I started asking about HM. Recruiter told me that HM was recently promoted from Principal Engineer to Engineering Manager. I was like, great. I asked recruiter, ‘Does she have MS?’, ‘Did she graduate from top school?’, ‘How many papers has she published?’ , ‘Did she have 10 YOE when she became Principal Engineer?’ With my questions, recruiter clearly got angry. He did not know that I had LinkedIn open while on call with him and I went through HM profile. She only had BS from average college and had around 6-7 YOE with no prior research experience or published papers. He bluntly said, ‘You cannot ask these questions. She is smart enough to manage people like you and that should be sufficient’. He hung up immediately after that. I felt that I hurt his ego or questioned how HM got where she is today. What does this teach me ? ...Your current manager or future one does not define your worth. You know what value you bring in. Most direct Managers I had were switchboard type Managers and never helped me technically but rather asked me to approach other experienced IC. Moral of the story is to stand your ground and never let recruiter bring you down!
Sounds like a shitty company.
Fighting with recruiter is like fighting with customer care. They have not much power!
They have power enough to block the initial entry! I was initially rejected from Amazon by... a recruiter. She straight up told to "go back to school and study more" Another recruiter a month later and.. here I am without any additional schooling.
You wasted your time. When you know it’s not working through just end the conversation 🤷🏻♂️
Nah then you don't have a story to tell. What's life without all the fun stories ?
Thanks for sharing this. Next time I'll make sure to ask the right questions ;)
Good 4 u
What do you mean switchboard type manager?
Switchboard implies connecting me with someone else( instead of helping) whenever there is a work related question.
If an IC has a question, is it best for the manager to play telephone, potentially missing details, or to redirect the query to someone who can help IC the quickest? I prefer the latter.
I would think about it in a different way. The qualifications mentioned on Job Posting are the minimum, the recruiter was trying to tell you what the expectations from HM is considering other candidates who have applied. I do not see anything wrong here. Now coming to questioning the qualifications of hiring manager, I feel HM is looking for specific skilld for a position that may or may not mean that they are more qualified. I once worked with a manager who was High School but had a lot of other skills that made him a manager. While its easy to get irritated when conversation get tough and do not work in ur favour, always good to see the holistic picture
I would tend to agree. A hiring manager doesnt have to be as technically proficient as people on their team. In fact, I want, and do hire, people who are more skilled than me. That said, the recruiter certainly could have handled the conversation better.
Yes, my thoughts exactly when I was reading the post.
Name and shame?
Shittiest recruiter of all time