Those crazy body shop headhunters just won't stop. I've written about them before. I've had two instances this week of the insanity.
- I received an email this week from a "technical recruiter" for a major technology consulting company. I won't mention the name so as not to embarrass a couple of friends that I have that work for this company. There were two things that troubled me about the email:
- He wanted to learn more about me. Well, Google is a really good starting point. I would suggest that you google for my name. Here, let me provide you with the link to Wally McClure in google. Note the reference to my .NET blog, this blog, the ASP.NET Podcast, and Amazon. Hmm, what can we deduce from this. Well, I have a passion for my business and promotion, I get out and interview people, I talk a lot, I've written, I've done a number of things, and I already run a business. I've had a serious customer come to us one time because they found us by using google. They knew that I coached my kids basketball team, our general record, and other things that I posted in my blog. I immediately gain respect for them.
- He gave me one of the worst lines I have ever heard. "If I had a great opportunity that would advance your career, would you want to hear about it." PPPULLLEEAAASSEEEE. That line is sooooo badddddd. Its worse them, "Hey baby, if I told you that you had a hot body, would you hold it against me." Ok, lets look at this. I am working on my career. I have written, spoken, and done other things. But, lets remember that this person didn't bother going to google to start his search, so he wouldn't know that I am into promotion. At this point, this person has no credibility with me.
Ok, so my response to this person was that if his company wanted to contract with us, we would be glad to discuss that. I got a response from him with the following info:
- They have a potential contract in Milwaukee, WI. Thats fine. Customers have to be somewhere. Its not glamorous, but I don't live them and I'm not moving there. I can fly there, but its on their dime, all expenses paid, and its time and materials.
- Its a bunch of grunt level work in Sql Server. Ok, while I do a lot in Sql Server (and other client server dbs), I wouldn't consider any of this something that can advance my career.
- He wanted to see all the resumes I had before we could do a contract. Ok, lets think about that. If I just freely gave up all of my contacts and resumes, What value do I bring to the table? To a body shopper, there is no value beyond the body. To a customer, there is tremendous value based on experience, but the body shopper would never provide that information to a customer. As a result, this headhunter dude could just bypass our company. My response was that after we had a contract in place that disallowed poaching, I would provide him with some resumes. Hmmm, I haven't heard back from this guy and its been about 36 hours, I wonder why.
- I got a phone call at the office yesterday morning. It was from a phone number in 423 area code which is right outside of Knoxville. The person calling represented a software consulting shop and was looking for contacts that he could hire and wanted to know who I knew. He said that he had gone the bodyshop/headhunter route before and wouldn't do it again. And since I represented the community through my getting out and meeting people, that I knew everyone and would just hand contacts over to him. Ok, lets think about this. This person represents a company in the exact same line of business as my company. We are competing for the exact same people. I kept coming back to "You want what we provide." He had a complete mental block to that as a concept. He kept saying that we want to hire, we want to hire. Well, the hiring marketplace is somewhat different and as I tried to explain it to him, he could not grasp the concept that he could not get 100% of what he wanted. I asked him if he was a developer or an HR person. He tried to defend himself saying that he had "done development." Well, if you aren't a developer, you are either a business person or a bodyshopper/headhunter. He said he had a contact at the business, so it was pretty obvious early on that he was a headhunter/bodyshopper. We have recently hired a fulltime salesperson. We're seeing an uptick in business. I have to have some mechanism to solve customer problems. This is like asking a craftsman to voluntarily give away his tools.
Now, I'm not a harsh person, I'm serious about my business. Software development and consulting is my business. I know the ins and outs. The Jedi Mind Trick doesn't work here. Remember, it only works on the weak minded. On a serious note, honestly, these type of people give the general "small businesses" a bad name with larger organizations. These larger organizations will sometimes think, "Hey, these small guys can't do it. They're just full of hot air."
I help out people that have helped me out, but don't make these type of silly requests without bringing something serious to the table for me. Win-win, its an interesting concept. It means that I win and you win. I suggest that people come up with a win-win that involves me before asking simple questions.
If you need professional software development services and consulting or are tired of getting the body shop shuffle, contact us through Scalable Development, Inc.
|