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From: oyster@uwmacc.UUCP (Vicious Oyster)
Newsgroups: net.jobs
Subject: Re: Headhunters
Message-ID: <1698@uwmacc.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 14-Nov-85 14:51:41 EST
Article-I.D.: uwmacc.1698
Posted: Thu Nov 14 14:51:41 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 15-Nov-85 20:49:26 EST
References: <206@bnrmtv.UUCP>
Reply-To: oyster@uwmacc.UUCP (Vicious Oyster)
Distribution: na
Organization: UWisconsin-Madison Academic Comp Center
Lines: 30

In article <206@bnrmtv.UUCP> fox@bnrmtv.UUCP (Richard Fox) writes:
>I believe that headhunters are a good idea for the people who need jobs...
> Jow many of you people are
>working in an area that you do not like, or is there an area you prefer?
>Headhunters and other agencies might be able to help. When I am ready to leave
>my current job I might use the service if I find the market in the Silicon
>Valley dry.
>
   This bears repeating... it is essential that you get a headhunter who cares
about *your* needs, not her or his commission.  A headhunter who pushed his way
into my job search did the following:  completely ignored my geographic
specification, grossly misrepresented my skills (made me into a telecommun-
ications expert when it's all I can do to remember my 'phone number), badgered
me constantly at home and at work (but only *after* 3 months of no results,
when I told him I was interviewing up here without his "help"), and continued
to help me out by advising me that I could take a job that he might have found
even *after* agreeing to work where I am now!  He also came out with a lead
with a leading employer with a great "human factors" rating (they're on the
net, so I won't flatter them with mention by name) which I believe was
fictitious, just so I would hold off on my decision to work here. My other
encounter involved my (now) wife's search.  She had two separate local
agencies looking for a local job before and after she relocated to this
area.  One of them seemed sleezy, and said she'd only get state COBOL
jobs; the other seemed to care more, but wasn't succesful.  She got a
good job with a small, growing medical systems company by calling all
the Yellow Pages "computer" listings.
   Will I use headhunters again?  Maybe, but I would be quick to tell them
to buzz off if they started ignoring my wishes, and I would continue to
look on my own, however much they disliked it.