Studs, Rockstars, and other names for things we do
tl;dr: If you’re using external recruiters, double check that their listings represent everything you want from candidates, and nothing you don’t.
At my employer we use both external and internal recruiters. Our internal recruiting is really busy on a lot of fronts, and we’ve got numerous locations.We use outside recruiters to supplement our internal efforts, and sometimes recruiters with local presence can be a big help. Sometimes.
I’m sure anyone who’s written job reqs and uses external recruiters has dealt with a recruiter running advertisements based on your requirements. They usually put a bit of effort into obfuscating your listing so that applicant’s don’t hop straight over their commission and on to your jobs page. At best these postings can be a bit off in tech terms and requirements, but good recruiters will screen applicants and seek to match your cultural and skill parameters.
At worst these postings can misrepresent your requirements, your benefits, and your culture. Recently I caught wind of one of our external recruiters cut and pasting our ad onto theirs. Our internal recruiter put an end to that, but it made me wonder how other external recruiters had our openings positioned. I looked up our listing based on a few obvious terms (we’re one of the few app engine/python shops in our area) One of the listings for our positions indicated a few galling things. There where a few nominal annoyances (unnecessary experience requirements, naming a salary range, etc) that wouldn’t be a real issue. What was truly bad was the use of the phrase along the lines of: ‘offer relocation for a real python stud’
What? Are you kidding me? Just so we’re clear – I’m objecting to the term ‘stud’ as a poor and highly gender biased description of programmer prowess. If you’re actually a python ‘stud’ then please enjoy your career siring new python programmers. If we’re ever going to move our industry out of the dark ages and attract some diversity to our ranks we’ve got to get the brogrammer words out of recruiter’s vocabulary.
I would have also objected to the term ‘rockstar’. If you’re a ‘rockstar’ I’ll have heard of you, or you’ll show up in a Google search, and you won’t need to call yourself a ‘rockstar’. If you think of yourself as a rockstar and expect treatment, hours, and room service to match, I’d rather not interview you.
In summary: If you’re part of a hiring team, you owe it to yourself to read your job listings and those of the recruiters that represent you. Make sure that the messages your jop postings are sending about your culture actually match your culture.
(note – as with everything on this little site, my opinions are my own, and may not reflect those of my employer)