Buy them chocolate and flowers?

I'm looking for more full-time work, and in pursuit of that, I posted my resume on some job sites.

I've gotten about 30 inquiries from recruiters. some of them know their stuff, or at least know details about the jobs. Some of them just tell me a location and a rate. The others are mostly in between.

Some (and don't take this the wrong way, I've worked with some very smart, very articulate Indians who enunciate better than I do), some are Indians who all literally cannot understand when they talk.

Because I'm willing to relocate, the jobs are literally all over the place. Most focus on Java/J2EE/SQL stuff, but some are plain SQL, and a few are C++ (which is my preferences, but I'm probably better at Java, simply because it's easier).

The rates are all over the place too, with differences of up to $20 an hour. Some are hourly no benefits, some are regular jobs with benefits. Some are as short as four months, some (putatively) one year or "permanent".

The rates dane always takes place, few of them will offer a rate, instead asking me what I want (or am making), although some will mention a top rate if I ask for more than that top rate.

One guy's really turning me off, because he's insisting I "register as a [His nationally known consulting firm] Consultant. The rest are willing to show me overviews of the jobs, but he wants to not show me anything ("policy") until I "register".

One guy I'm really liking, because he was the only one to give me a technical quiz (20 questions over a broad range). He's also the only one I've released references to yet (apparently my references talked me up pretty nicely). But he's pushing a lot of possibilities my way (which is good), but I'm finding it correspondingly difficult to prioritize/rank-order them.

In case it's not clear, all these guys are recruiters; none are actually the people making hiring decisions. I'd have to interview with actual employers before I got any job, and that's when the recruiters would get paid too (by the employers, not by me).

How do I sort all this out?

How do I get around the "what's your rate" dance to find out what they're offering?

What do I say to the recruiter who says (about jobs I've not interviewed on or even seen the details of) that they really want people to start on Monday???

My preferences:
Stay where I am, for the moment. (Telecommuting would be ideal, but no one is talking about tat.)
Do new work, not maintenance or upgrades.
But preferably not requirements gathering.
Non-government work.
Java or better C++.
For a high rate, but also on a project that won't become a death-march or a change-order festival.

How do I prioritize this stuff? I still haven't even gotten back to a quarter or a third of the people emailing me or phoning me.

How do I explain that I want to consider each position, without being rushed into any one of them? The recruiters, of course, get paid by the employers when the job is taken, so they want to close the deals.

How do I manage to get multiple offers of jobs out of this?

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad of all the interest, but it's starting to stress me out.

How do I arrange the best deal for myself out of this?

Most agency recruiters are idiots. Follow your instincts. If I feel that someone has clearly not read my resume and are just trying to make quota for the number of keywords they can match to add to their database, I don't even reply to their email. Don't feel obligated to treat them professionaly unless you see some indication that they are treating you professionally and not just like a piece of meat. Stick to your guns about the priority list you've outlined before and insist to them that you are looking for the best match. If you find one who listens to you and understands what you're after, you've struck gold, and make friends with that person.

Upon writing the above, I realize that it's a lot like being a female and filtering results from personal ads. You're the one who's in demand. At least recruiters don't send you photos of their dicks.

My experience with recruiters is in the financial world, so my observations may not apply. But a few things I noticed:

1. The headhunters whose primary business is executive search are the higher quality firms. They may focus on CEO/CTO level positions, but a lot of these firms also offer more junior level recruiting as an additional offering to their clients. I find that these headhunters are much more knowledgable about the industries they recruit for and have a more hands-on approach.

2. It's much better to work with a headhunter that only (or mostly) takes on job searches on an exclusive basis. There are some exceptions, of course, but this one rules out the headhunters that take a cattle herding approach.

Again, this is my experience in a different industry, so maybe it doesn't apply.

As with many professional services, whether we're talking a contractor to do some remodelling, or a shrink to help you with some problems, or a real estate agent to help you buy a house, you should look for someone who asks you questions up front about WHAT YOU WANT and is willing to spend some time figuring that out with you. If you have to express any of your preferences to someone twice, then kiss that person goodbye. As matildaben said, you're the one in demand. I'd follow your instincts and try to work with someone you like, someone who you feel understands you when you speak, someone who is interested in figuring out who you are and what will be best long term.

Recruiters are pretty much slime. They reduce people to resumes and numbers. I'm pretty sure they do send people pics of their dicks, just in the off-hours, on Casual Encounters.

I don't know how you can get rates up front. Most of the time there is a range that is available to pay, and the actual number depends on the person hired. They need to find out if you're high end or low end for the position before they know what to pay you. They're paying for the work you will do, right? Not the work they need done.

What you can do to grease the process is provide your own range of what you're willing to work for make it clear that you are serious about that. A good recruiter will not waste your time with jobs that are under that.

You've probably done this stuff more than I have, but I thought I'd just do a brain dump here for anyone else who might be asking the same sorts of questions.

I've had to deal with some recruiters in a very related field recently (Software QA). All-in-all, I hate hate hate recruiters now. Hate. Seriously.

I didn't do anything special with my resume, and I ran into the same spread of not-to-bad to downright idiotic that you did. The ones that really got to me were the recruiters that contacted me about a position, I told them no when I heard the details, and then they called me back the next week about the same position, having completely forgotten that they had ever talked to me. Confidence inspiring. Really. I asked those three agencies (yes, three separate ones) to remove me from their files. They haven't called back about the same jobs again, so I suppose they have. =)

As far as rates go, ask for what you want. If it's too high and they want you for the job, they can either cave or negotiate. There's always some leeway in their rates, whether they tell you that or not. In my case,I think I aimed a little bit low. This was my first time negotiating a contract rate. Then again, had I not been completely misled about the benefits until after I signed the papers.

Which brings me to the next point: get ALL the details on benefits, including what you'll be paying for them, before you even look at a contract. And make sure that when you say "At my last job, I paid $x per month for my health insurance. How much does it cost through you?", their answer needs to also be in per month units. Otherwise you might end up where I am, with health insurance costing $x*40. Sigh

On a highly related note, do not go through Volt for anything. They are lying, incompetent, malicious scumsuckers (I'm currently working via a Volt contract, and the day it's up, I'm never dealing with Volt again - though, sigh, I love the job itself).

Sorry for the mini-rant. Needed to get some of that off my chest.

*mumblemumbleihaterecruitersmumble*

This is great stuff. Thanks guys.

mullac, I'm not sure what you mean by this, exclusive for whom, the employer-client?

It's much better to work with a headhunter that only (or mostly) takes on job searches on an exclusive basis.

matilda, very good analogy. I'm the w4m ad on craigslist. This begins to explain it.

What you can do to grease the process is provide your own range of what you're willing to work for make it clear that you are serious about that. A good recruiter will not waste your time with jobs that are under that.

Yeah, scarabic, I haven't been strict enough about that. Part of it's that I figure there may be a great job just under my range. My last full-time was a telecommute, it didn't pay as much as some others, but I love the telecommunting and that my boss didn't micro-manage me at all. basically one phone call a week. I don't want to miss out on something like that.

DoomGerbil, thanks for pointing out about getting the benefits in month terms. I'd probably have missed that detail if you hadn't.

Again, thanks a lot guys.

So it's OK if some recruiters I never get back to, just like if I was the w in a w4m ad, or should I at least email all of them back? One part of the stress is that I feel guilty for not getting back to every one of them.

Part of it's that I figure there may be a great job just under my range.

The bottom of your range should be the minimum in cash you're willing to accept at a truly awesome job. The uppper end should be how much it would take to get you to work somewhere with a few factors against you, like relocation, working in a sub-par language, something like that. That's how your personal range should be calibrated.

All that said, it's incredibly hard to really come up with these numbers. I honestly don't know how low I'd go for a dream job. Hard to say until you know what you're getting out of it.

Good luck!

orthogonality: I meant that the employer uses one recruiter exclusively to fill the position. As opposed to a situation where an employer tells multiple recruiters about the job and the whoever finds the candidate that's hired gets paid.

The best-of-class recruiting firms in the financial world are able to negotiate these kind of exclusive job searches. But I think I'm veering even further away from information that's useful to you.

Don't email them back if they're an idiot, if they haven't read your resume, if they can't spell, or if you think they might smell bad.