Recruiters' Capital Sins (Part 7)

Another sin intrinsic to IT recruiter is that actually they don't have a clue what are the technologies required by the job they are recruiting for.

(Most don't hold technical degrees, they come from soft sciences. If they were engineers they would likely be on the job and not peddling jobs. This is the misanthrope in me speaking.)

This is not necessarily their fault: they must know how to talk people into things (A.G. of M$ comes to mind) and how to evaluate candidates for non-technical traits.

But not understanding the nature of the job makes the job seeker's life miserable during hard times when employers ask for nonsensical things (e.g. 15 years of experience administering Solaris, MCSE and 10 years of administering Windows NT -- no self-respecting UN*X Sysadmin will touch M$ clickware).

During such times recruiters are pressed to find candidates that check mark ALL requirements regardless how oxymoronic they are.

Alternatively I could lie (imagine a fake accent: "Ja, ja Ich bin Good with Windows, Jaa") to get past the recruiter but I've never lied/mis-represented my professional skills.

Most people just lie to recruiters with delight.

-ulianov