Unethical Hiring Practices 12

[Indyneer]

Is anyone else annoyed by the postings on the big internet career sites? All the jobs are through recruiters and alot of them are just temp contract to direct jobs. It seems that none of the companies want to identify themselves and deal "upfront and honest" with engineering candidates.

Is the future of engineering such that we will all have to choose between being pimped out by technical staffing firms or being jobless? Any thoughts?

 

[ANTHAE]

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I've worked as a road warrior, a head-hunter, and built
my own consulting firm, giving me a little persective.
When it comes to love, and work, there are no ethics.

Recruiters twenty years ago were a LOT better than today,
more knowledgeable, better connected, good to work for,
they would carry you from your front door to the job-end,
and have a new job waiting. Not so much anymore. Boo hoo.
It's like your banker or broker or lawyer, you just have
to find someone (two) well-qualified, and work with them.

Companies that may or may not have posted jobs use temps
as Federal and State hiring practice laws have gotten so
egregious, and number of spurious, unqualified candidates
so huge, that it's simply not possible to hire direct(ly).
Add to that the tremendous impact of e-mail spam on a LLC,
and you'll see why everyone remains anonymous these days.

So to answer the original post, yes, that's your options.
Figure your first temp job as a loss-leader and really get
busy. Any decent employer will take you direct afterward,
or at least keep you on the will-call list until they can.

From that perspective then, it would be wiser to CALL the
companies you'd like to work for, and ask what head hunters
are doing recruiting for them, than answer @Monster.com's.
You wouldn't look for a blind date online, would you? ; )

And forget about consulting on your own as a bridge, unless
you have exceptional and rare and in demand talent that
people are already asking you to form your own firm. Not
only will you starve, but you can't put it on your resume,
or you won't get call-backs. Nobody wants a free-thinker,
or a person looking to steal clients, even if you aren't.

Hey, look at it this way, there are EIT's out there asking
to work as unpaid aides, just for the experience. At least
we're not so far down they offer us $100 at the day-labor!

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[leanne]

$100/day for day labor is more than you'd make as a substitute teacher in most school districts...

Teachers are not paid enough for what they have to put up with. You have to have a calling & a talent for it to be happy there - this is true for any career. FWIW, were the salaries reversed for teaching & engineering, I'd still pick engineering.