Recruiters 33

I know I sound like an ungrateful cow, but why is it that the only companies that seem to be interested in me have dull software products and don’t want to pay market rate for a senior product manager? It’s like being in junior high and the only boys who want to talk with you are the dweeby ones.

I spent about three hours on the phone yesterday, being interviewed by three people from the latest of these. I feel like Henri le chat noir.

The thing is—this is my own fault. A week ago Tuesday, I saw a posting on LinkedIn and put my CV into the company’s Applicant Tracking System (ATS), without actually paying much attention to who they are/what they do. (And when I finally looked at their web site—well, it’s always a bad sign when you can’t tell what the product does from their site.) 

My bad.

Then, within hours, the recruiter was on the horn saying that both he and the hiring manager had spotted my sterling qualities and the hiring manager wanted to talk with me tout de suite.

Well, tout de suite (I just like using that phrase) turned out to be a couple of days later because the recruiter is kind of flaky, but I duly spoke to this guy who was so enthusiastic about me I felt a little creeped out. I mean, he asked questions, I asked questions; then he wanted to know my job search status. “Oh, I’m actively interviewing,” I said breezily. Then tacked on some, ah, lies to add an air of verisimilitude to the concept of “active interviewing”.

He said, “Well, I’ll move the process on as fast as I can. Please don’t make any decisions until you’ve given us full consideration.”

I’d feel happier about that if their idea of compensation were actually within market range for the position. (And they’re so far below it that the recruiter actually apologized for their range, saying that they’d recently bumped it up by $10K because no one would even consider it at their previously bargain basement upper limit.)

It’s always something.