The Role of Recruiter with Lena Mills

“Java is to JavaScript as Car is to Carpet” This week Will and BJ invited their friend and the only recruiter Will works with to join as a guest host as they discuss the role of recruiters in finding the right position for developers. Lena Mills is a senior recruiter at a leading provider of technology professionals for initiatives ranging from web development and multiplatform systems integration to network security and technical support. Lena has been recruiting for more than two years and specializes in sourcing talent in the following areas: Applications/Web Development, Business Intelligence, Data/Database Management, ERP Integration/Customization, Programmer Analysis, Project Management/Business Analysis, System Integration. “I think that building relationships is the number one thing and that’s the top tip I give to both junior developers and senior developers.” Episode Breakdown * 9:44 Why Talk To A Recruiter “You can optimize a system if you know the input variables, but if you believe the variables are different than what is actually coming into the system your optimization is always going to be wrong” Many developers have deep misunderstanding of how recruiters work in the development ecosystem. Unrealistic expectations and ignorance of how the economics actually works leads to surprise and suboptimal results. Lena offered to take some time to help developers better utilize the resources that recruiters provide. * 11:45 The Recruiting Process Recruiting is broken down into recruiters that work with developers and account managers that work with companies in the area that are seeking developers. While her office does have a database of developers and she is active on LinkedIn and other job boards Lena gets most of her business through referrals and networking events. Account managers will see jobs posted online or through networking with companies and human resources departments. The recruiter knows the developers available and looking for a postition. Then they find the developers that match the job posting. * 14:20 Working With Multiple Recruiters “I never tell people not to work with multiple recruiters or agencies, I just say it’s always a good idea to keep track of everything” Keep a spreadsheet of who you are working with and where they have submitted your resume. Will prefers to only work with Lena so he doesn’t have to worry about being submitted multiple times to the same position. Junior developers like BJ looking to get into the market benefit from working with multiple agencies or recruiters. It is important to find recruiters that you feel comfortable with and can trust. They should be willing to help you by giving you advice and helping edit your resume. “Commodity products have advertisers and luxury products have agents.” At some point you want to make the jump from commodity to luxury product. Otherwise you get limitted on the roles you can find and keeping up with the spreadsheet becomes tedious. As a junior developer saturate the market as much as possible to help find the person you trust and want to work wi...