[ale] Linux Administrator opportunity

[Bob Toxen]

My recommendations on headhunters based on over a decade of contract programming 
experience is:

  1. Use 2-4 different ones to get good coverage.

  2. Make each agree up front: they may not submit you to any position
     without your express permission.  This helps prevent their claiming
     they submitted you first to a position that you gave permission to
     another one to submit you to.

  3. Prior to submitting you for a position require them to give some
     identifying information to prevent double submittals.  Appreciate
     that they don't want to give you enough information to apply your
     self and cut them out of their commission; this is fair.

     I'll insist on something like the hiring manager's initials or the
     street number (but not the street) that the client company is on.

     If they won't tell me anything I'll drop 'em.

  4. Provide your resume and generally refuse to fill out long
     questionnaires.  Those that require questionnaires, non-applicable
     tests, etc. are too dumb to be of any use.

  5. Make changes to their non-compete contract.  Frequently they'll
     want you to agree to not accept any position (especially important
     for contractors) at a company for 2-3 years without going through
     them.

     Keep in mind that all they have a moral right to do is prohibit you
     from getting your next job in the next department over that you
     heard about in the course of your contract with them.

     You do not want to be locked out of a large company such as AT&T
     (formally BellSouth), etc.  Thus I'll write in and initial the
     street address (or if one of the main three AT&T buildings downtown
     the floor as well).  I'll also limit to a year.  If they don't
     accept my changes then bye-bye.

  6. Insist on interviewing with the person you will directly report to.
     If that person is conveniently unavailable, regardless of the
     excuse, then likely it's because that person is so unpleasant to
     work for, i.e., a [insert expletive here], then don't accept
     without that meeting.

  7. Of course consider your driving time (and cost these days).

  Good luck and post your experiences.

Bob Toxen
bob at verysecurelinux.com               [Please use for email to me]
http://www.verysecurelinux.com        [Network&Linux security consulting]
http://www.realworldlinuxsecurity.com [My book:"Real World Linux Security 2/e"]
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Quality Linux & UNIX security and SysAdmin & software consulting since 1990.

"Microsoft: Unsafe at any clock speed!"
   -- Bob Toxen 10/03/2002

On Tue, Sep 09, 2008 at 05:00:38PM +0000, hbbs at comcast.net wrote:
> 
>  -------------- Original message ----------------------
> From: "James Sumners" <james.sumners at gmail.com>
> 
> > Thus my question. Do these vague descriptions really work? Is there
> > actually something interesting behind them? Am I passing up golden
> > opportunities? Or are they a mask for the most depressing job you
> > could ever find?
> 
> My best answer:  yes!  However, there is an issue where troves of recruiters are all pestering the hiring managers of the same companies and they wind up working their contacts (to include mailing lists like ALE's) for the exact same positions.  What is good to find, however, are recruiters who are on *exclusive retainer* to fill a given position.  That means that not only is the recruiter the only one filling the job, the employer itself is not acting on their own behalf to fill it either.  The first kind of recruiter tends to work in a "pit" environment and are younger (think 20s...used to be it was magazine subscription sales; now, it's IT recruiting).  They can get you an interview and for that reason they're worth talking to if you're easy to pigeonhole (e.g., Java coder; Oracle DBA).  The second kind tends to be older, are ex-IT themselves (that is to say, they know that there's no "C+" between "C" and "C++"), and have chummy relationships (do lunch, play golf) with re!
>  al hiri
> ng managers.  They're worth their weight in gold, so buy them lunch every once in a while - a big one.  There are in-betweeners that are worth talking to on a regular basis.  
> 
> The "class" of the recruiter wouldn't necessarily have any bearing on what kind of a goat-rope any given job is going to be - you won't find that out until you're on the job anyway!
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