Job offers from recruiters online

Career Advice
1

I’ve read a lot of the posts on this forum pertaining to job hunting and in particular dealing with recruiters and whatnot. I’ve been getting messages from recruiters on LinkedIn in the NYC area without even having having to apply for jobs. This doesn’t seem odd considering how large the NYC tech market is.

My question is how reliable/knowledgeable are tech recruiters? I’ve heard some people say they message anyone that comes within a mile of their requirements and other people say that recruiters usually know what to look for and aren’t unrealistic.

I recently got this message from a recruiter and I’m wondering how I should proceed:

Senior Front End Engineer (JavaScript, React, Node.js)
Nicholas,

I am a recruiter with the name of company omitted by me in NYC.

I’m really not sure if you’re looking for new opportunities however, after reviewing your profile on LinkedIn, I feel compelled to reach out to you.

I am looking for a Senior Software Engineer with JavaScript, HTML, CSS and React or Node for a full-time, perm position with a major television network in midtown Manhattan.

This is an opportunity to play a critical role in the digital evolution of the organization.

Salary range is $120K to $135K but flexible to go higher based on skills and experience. The job spec is attached.

If you would like to hear more about this opportunity and the firm or about other roles that I am working on, please let me know.

Best regards,

Some background info about me. I’m 30, an unconventional CS student (military vet, older than most students), halfway through a CS degree at a good but not great school, and have been programming as a hobbyist for a few years but started getting serious about it about a year ago. Did some basic C++ in college, as well as two Chingu cohorts, all the front-end FCC projects, a few of the data vizualization FCC projects, and I’m learning React. I’m good with CSS/Sass, got the Javascript basics down but haven’t worked in the industry yet, and I’m capable of building simpler apps with React. Here’s my githib profile: Nicknyr (Nick Kinlen) · GitHub

How unrealistic is this job offer? I think I’m ready for an entry level developer job, but $120K seems high and I’m not sure I’m ready for a senior developer job. How much of my self doubt is imposter syndrome and how much is warranted?

Would love to hear some feedback from people working in the industry or who have experience in hiring.

2

I wouldn’t reject all recruiter overtures out of hand. This does seem like a recruiter casting a wide net based on a keyword search. A senior role doesn’t seem right for you yet. It might be worth responding to the recruiter anyway and asking if there are any junior developer roles.

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3

I agree with @ArielLeslie this seems like a “wide-net” sort of email. I get a few of these sometimes, or something similar from job-sites.

If your looking for work, Id look into it, never know what would happen. If you can talk/communicate with someone and mention youd fit a junior position better, they might be able to refer you.

Hands down the most important part of getting a job is networking, so any potential lead should be considered, especially if your starting out.

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4

I was looking to get my foot into the industry just awhile ago too. I am in NYC as well and was struggling to get a job for 7 looooooooooooong months. No degree and no experience just a bunch of projects.

For emails and messages, I usually ignore jobs that are unrealistic like senior/lead or has crazy job requirements like 5/8+ years experience. But I always pick up random recruiter calls since I think of it as a practice conversation and on trying to sell myself.

Just last week a recruiter called me about a job in Arkansas. I told him I didn’t wanna relocate there but he convinced me to accept the offer to recruit me. He applied me, I got the phone interview, I got the job offer and now I’m just waiting for the background check. I had another job offer 2 days ago here in NYC but I already accepted the one in Arkansas and I think it would be great for me to start anew somewhere.

If you’re great at socializing try ReactNYC on meetup.com they have biweekly meetups and there are people recruiting most of the time. You would easily identify people who are recruiting cause they are asked to raised their hands at one point.

Best of luck to you!

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5

Congratulations on your job adventure overseas!
It is always exciting to leave the country of origin to grab another job elsewhere is something you should feel extremely proud of.

Recruiters in USA are starting to reaching out to me, but I am refusing to since they call for extremely exotic places that I am not sure they exist (Montana, Iowa, some other weird places… I know, smells like scammers…), but I want to build a good relatiomnship with one eventually and fly to the US!

What motivted you to fly out of the US ?
Can u tell me about your process ?

6

Recruiters sometimes get paid just by getting you in for an interview. And from my experience with them, they’re just normal people trying to find a relevant candidate. They’re not like us. They know enough of the terminology to find candidates in their relevant field or team such as being focused on front end or backend.

In my experience they don’t know anything. I get offers for web designer positions and even for positions outside my experience. All my info is on my profile, but I don’t believe they even read my profile.

7

Your portfolio looks pretty good. Congrats on the offers.

That’s the funny thing though. I’ve seen people with impressive portfolios like yours on here get stuck in the job search for months on end with no luck and other people with far less impressive portfolios land jobs quickly. It makes it hard to gauge where I am when it comes to job readiness.

8

if you like to have a competitive edge you should try to come to places where demand is high and population is not meeting that demand.
I have applied here for Luxoft, Ooyala and Wizeline. You know, big solid companies with super large teams.
I will have an interview with Luxoft next week, I’ll tell you how it went.

9

Also, Banking and insurance.
Those two industries are ALWAYS fighting to get you to work with them.
They are an incredibly strong and wide source of employment. Sure, it won’t be as sexy as that cool new startup or a big SV company, but it will get you where you want to go.

10

Sometimes you just have to keep rolling the dice. Even if I was stuck for 7 months with probably around 500 applications sent, I had no choice but to roll the dice.

I think I had decent projects but I have to admit that I sucked at selling myself. Some people have better luck and some people actually does a great job at selling themselves.

Edit: Open yourself up for relocation if you can. Also don’t forget to ask for relocation fee, if they give you a relocation fee that’s pretty much a good sign IMO.

11

just out of curiosity, is the job in Arkansas for walmart in bentonville? I live in memphis and I have heard of several people going there as well from here. Walmart is looking for good programmers everywhere. I have heard they have some pretty big and exciting things planned over the next few years.

12

I live and work in London. I get 40-50 recruiter emails/linkedIn messages, calls and whatnot a month and most of them are very broad and ‘catch-all’ situations. They’re trying to resource candidates for when the opportunities come and I don’t blame them.

My advice to you is to be polite to them and understand their struggle. I always when have time, try to reply to them and thank for interest - some funny conversation often happen and I’ve built relationships with some recruiter them that last years. And that’s when you stop being sent spam but tailored jobs, you’re able to make money by referring others etc.

Get to know people who email you with opportunities and you’ll be surprised how much easier your career becomes. And please understand them - their jobs are really hard, mostly cause we are so spoiled!

13

A lot of these offers you get from online profiles are the result of a recruiter doing a simple search for skills and sending messages to everyone that comes up. They do no work to actually asses whether you’re a good fit before that initial contact, and after you ask for more details, they may just ghost you. My rule of thumb is to ignore any job listings where the title is “senior” because I know that I’d never get hired for a senior position simply because I don’t have enough years in the industry.

14

@Nicknyr - Be cautious when receiving emails and notes from recruiters.

I personally am a tech recruiter and work as a corporate recruiter full time with Arrow Electronics… Which means, if I am reaching out to you, its because I have a job to fill that is currently active and i see you as a potential fit.

Always look to see where the recruiter currently works. If its an agency, you need to ask what the job is and for what company. if they fail to give you that information then, they are only collecting your resume to “cast a wide net” with a “spray and Pray” method of recruiting.

Hope this helps.

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