Stop Getting Fu*ked by Technical Recruiters
By: Scott Turman
Tags: Programming, Technology, Recruiting, Careers, Jobs

Why Should You Trust Me

I’ve been working as a moderately-priced technology prostitute for over twenty-five years now: writing code for the likes of NASA, a couple of DOD contracts, working for the Florida House of Representatives, Hilton, Disney, as well as a cavalcade of three to six-month gigs at much smaller organizations.

Standing in the way of the vast majority of these gigs was a technical recruiter peddling a mediocre salary, shit insurance, and a 401k that you would only be qualified to participate in once most of the contract was completed. I have only gone directly to a company as a W2 employee exactly twice in my entire career. I’m not sure if my penchant for going through these technical recruiters was a function of where I’d been looking for my next gig (websites) or how efficiently they (the recruiters) reach out to candidates. However it was, I’ve ended up speaking with hundreds of these recruiters over the course of my career.

Let’s Begin

I have an exceedingly low opinion for most “technical” recruiters while simultaneously owing a great deal of my career to their sales skills. Without them, I would probably never have had a shot in hell at the dream organizations they were able to get me into such as NASA and Disney. I understand, better than most, that the nature of identifying capable people has value, but the problem is that these organizations have become all sales and no technology. In Texas, we would call that “all cowboy hat and no cattle’’. Over the past few years, I have seen rates, that recruiters charge, go higher and higher but I haven’t seen this proportionally translate to the rates paid to the people doing the work. How many of you have been forwarded an email, mistakingly, that revealed what the recruiter was charging for you? I bet you were surprised.

The first time I realized how negotiable this delta between what they are paying me and what they are charging for me was when I was working at a contract for the Golf Channel(Which as a side note is a wonderful place to work and full disclosure my wife currently works for NBC Universal, which at the time of this book, owns Golf Channel). The staffing company had a rule, that I think has since been made illegal, that stated that their consultants were forbidden to tell anyone what they were making. I had to sign a contract to this effect which made me, for the first time, super suspicious as to how much they were charging for me. I was making $38 per hour and a manager admitted to me that they were paying over $90 for me. This is a delta of $52 per hour which translates to $108K gross profit per year to the staffing company. If I knew what I was doing, I probably could have negotiated a much better rate but regardless this experience made me realize how much sky really exists in this game. And by the way, you will need to start believing that salary negotiation is a game. You really should stop taking this process so personally.

That strange feeling you get in your chest when you say your number to your adversary is a combination of guilt, shame, and excitement. These emotions are not helping your clarity of mind and they are also not necessary. How nervous do you think the recruiter / trained negotiator is? I promise you that their heart rate is completely unchanged because they do this 20 times per week. This life skill can be the difference between making a comfortable living and just barely making it and your adversaries practice every day. You may not get to practice it more than ten times over your entire career.

Learning to negotiate how much you will charge for your labor may be one of the most important life skills you can ever develop. For every $10 more per hour, you are able to get from a recruiter/employer will translate into another $20,000’ish more per year to your salary. It is also important to understand that every salary can have an additive effect over the lifetime of your total career earnings. I would also like to remind you that the lifespan of the average human is 70ish. If you’re in your twenties you have a little time but if you are in your forties then you should know that there is a very high likelihood that you will be dead in the next 30 years.

Tick Tock. It’s later than you think.

The Rules — 5 of 16

#1: Only divulge information that benefits you.

#2: Always be polite, as nobody wants to work with an asshole.

#3: Figure out who it is that you’re talking to before you tell them anything.

#4: Know what you’re worth, rate-wise.

#5: What you were paid in the past is none of their business. If they ask, do not answer.

The rest of the rules can be found in my book.

My Mission

I have been taking notes and outlining this book for years as I always knew I wanted to get it published. Most nerds, in general, are not well suited to negotiating our salaries. What is worse is that the people we are up against do it every single day and we do it 5–8 times in our entire life. This book is filled with all the things I wish I knew when I started my career.

So “A Nerd’s Guide to Negotiating Salary And Benefits” would probably have been a good title but I didn’t think he was in your face enough. If you in the tech industry then you have dealt with technical recruiters. If you are like me then you have also probably been taken advantage of by these gatekeepers that neither invented nor innovated in the very industry that was making them millions.

ScottTurman.com