Ask HN: Recruiters have stopped contacting me? What could have happened?

[the_only_law]

So I lost my job back last year. I didn’t feel like I immediately needed a new job and I’ve never particularly had difficulty finding one so I figured this time I’d bide my time and see if I could get a job I actually wanted as opposed to just whoever offered a big number that looked good.

Usually, like most devs, I imagine, I get a number of recruiters flooding into my LinkedIn account, particularly if I have my account set to show I’m open to new jobs. At first, this seemed to be the case, but I was being very selective with who’d I’d talk to. If a recruiter wanted me to jump through hoops, or refused to give me any information about the role/company/etc. they were hiring for id just ignore them.

Then around mid-December I just stopped getting any contact from recruiters. Nothing about my LinkedIn profile had changed so I figured people must just be in break for the holidays, and so I decided to just sit around for a while.

But it’s February now and I haven’t had a single recruiter reach out to me since December 16th and I have no idea why. Someone suggested reset and reapply the “looking for jobs” status on my account, but that didn’t seem to work.

There’s only a couple things I can thing of offhand.

1) Remote-status. I’ve read that looking for remote right now might be much more difficult with the flood of candidates into the market, but that doesn’t make too much sense because even though my profile was set to prefer remote, I did get some local recruiters in my inbox for a bit.

2) Weird internal ranking system. Not to sound conspiratorial, but I’ve started to wonder if LinkedIn downranks people in searches if they don’t engage, and around November I was ignoring a lot of recruiters. I’m not sure if it’s likely, but it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve heard of something like that.

For reference, I have around 5 years professional experience, mostly in the .NET enterprise world, but have worked with other things in the last and many things outside of work. Anyone noticed this before? Is there anything I can do to get recruiters to start talking to me again, or am I just in a very bad market?

[pyrrhotech]

The tech bubble is bursting, did you miss the memo? Even after the recent dead cat bounce, FAANG stocks are down 30%+ with their revenue growth collapsing and they are laying off workers, and it's a whole lot worse for all the non-profitable zombie companies that have been surviving solely on ZIRP and Quantitative Easing absurdly loose financial conditions that have come to an abrupt halt.

Naive investors in the tech bubble forgot the hotdog stand problem: https://seekingalpha.com/article/4558508-what-hotdog-vendors... so many got burned and they aren't coming back any time soon.

[WheelsAtLarge]

Let's face facts most of the FAANG were/are overstaffed. If Twitter can reduce its staff by nearly 50% and still function then the other tech companies can reduce their staff too. They are just resizing. This is a good time, while there's a threat of a recession, to reduce the number while not scaring the stockholders too much. It's not a burst similar to 2000. It's a correction. Tech is too vital for the economy for it to just fall apart. I expect tech stocks to be booming within the next 2 years. But yes, it's sucking right now.

Also, don't expect working from home to be your choice anymore. Now companies will gain the upper hand on the working from home debate since there's going to be many people looking to fill the same position. It was nice while it lasted.

[exolymph]

"Bursting" feels like an overstatement. It's a correction, sure, but tech is still an insanely valuable sector.

[sircastor]

> dead cat bounce

I’m not following the analogy here. What is a dead cat bounce - does it describe the stock curve?

[chadash]

I don't think it's 1 or 2 at all. I know that you probably don't want to hear this right now, but there's just not nearly as many companies looking for candidates right now as compared to a year ago. There are many companies who are actively laying people off right now. Public companies are doing it, whether they need to or not. Even more so, startups and any other yet-to-be-profitable companies are not sure when they will be able to raise capital again, so they are tightening their belts to survive as long as possible. If the market doesn't change, some will die.

Meanwhile, there's many companies in a second boat. Companies that are doing fine but are worried about choppy waters ahead. Perhaps they are hiring for key roles or to fill spots of people who leave. But on the whole, they want to protect what they have and don't see this as the time to push for major growth.

The good news is that there is definitely a third boat. Companies that are raising money because they have an outstanding product or idea. Companies that raised large amounts of money before things started going sour. And of course, profitable companies with sound businesses that see opportunities to grow further. It seems to me like there are still a significant number of companies in this third boat, so I wouldn't be too worried yet. That said, if you are swimming around in the ocean right now, the water is definitely getting cold. I'm not saying to get on any boat that comes around, but you probably don't want to wait around for a 100ft yacht.

[__sy__]

Another benign explanation: all the recruiters have been laid off.

[kube-system]

Mid December is when I started to see my LinkedIn feed full of recruiters being laid off and looking for jobs, and an uptick in being pestered by recruiters about positions I have open. The job market has cooled a bit. It's not very bad, but it's not the crazy hot market of the past few years.

[jamal-kumar]

I feel insanely lucky to have a well paying job in this job climate right now.

One thing I suggest trying is applying out of North America, and look towards relocating somewhere like Germany. They've been thirsty for talent for a while, it hasn't died down as much as it has in this bubble bursting in Silicon Valley, and although they haven't exactly been attracting it given they don't pay as much it's probably a sacrifice you should be willing to consider if you want to stay in this industry. [1]

An important first step if you're considering this route is signing up here at EURES. [2] That alone will make you more attractive to recruiters out in that direction if you choose to try and go through them, although personally I don't like them taking a cut and can apply just fine on my own.

[1] https://www.itworldcanada.com/post/germany-set-to-hire-laid-...

[2] https://eures.ec.europa.eu/index_en

[__derek__]

From yesterday: "Reject/ghost on all job applications with 8 YoE, what am I doing wrong?"[1]

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34609741

[codegeek]

You are out of a job and waiting for recruiters to contact you ? Most recruiters are out of a job right now so keep that in mind. Why not get more proactive and start applying to companies/teams that you would like to work for.

Plenty of companies hire remote and even if they don't have an open role being advertised, this is your opportunity to reach out to hiring managers and start a conversation. If you want to be selective, you also need to be more proactive especially if you are out of a job.

The market right now is a bit cooler as you can see the layoffs happening but if you are good at what you do, you can always find a role. You just may have to look more yourself since the easy days of waiting for recruiters to approach you is over at least for now.

[the_only_law]

> Why not get more proactive and start applying to companies/teams that you would like to work for.

I’ve been doing this as well, but haven’t had a single interview from either.

[hello_moto]

> or am I just in a very bad market?

Market is destroyed at the moment. Everyone is working around the absolute essential/core with less resources.

Market is also flooded by hi-tech professionals at the moment. Probably thousands or more of them.

[xwowsersx]

I imagine it could be for many reasons, one, which other people have mentioned, is simply the seasonality and cyclicality of recruiting. These things can literally change over the matter of weeks so I wouldn't sweat it too much. The other potential reason, and admittedly the one that might be more cause for alarm, is the fact that there are many layoffs going on so there is a supply of engineers hitting the market . Based on my own anecdata, I don't think there's a reason to freak out. It could very well be that there is more supply than there was before, but the hiring market is still quite strong and there are roles out there. You just need to keep looking and connecting. I know that a lot of people like to rag on recruiters ( myself included) and there are a lot of annoying recruiters out there because there is such a low barrier to entry, but every once in a while you will come across a very helpful and industrious recruiter. They're usually happy to jump on the phone and you can view it as an opportunity for you to get information from them. Ask them what they're seeing in the market, which places are hiring, what roles are they seeing? A lot of demand for, etc. Never hurts to establish a relationship, assuming they aren't an annoying recruiter, that is going to pester you. And if you do establish a relationship with such a recruiter, you can send them your resume and give them an open mandate to search for a role for you, or have you in mind when one comes across that fits your criteria.

I have a bunch of other thoughts. Happy to chat or hop on a call if you're looking for some feedback (no, I'm not a recruiter). My email is in my profile.

[csomar]

You need to re-adjust your reality. I have 12 years of professional experience and to be honest I hated the last two years until now. The market got flooded by junior software developers who got paid a lot of money and delivered very little results. The reality is that work sucks. Sometimes, as a developer, you get to work on something you like, with people you like and in a place that you like (remote). But for the most part, that's not an option.

1. Re-Adjust your reality. If you have had a very high salary with 2-3 years of experience, that was an exceptional event. You'll need to re-figure out how much you are worth.

2. Accept to work on some company that doesn't necessarily check all your boxes.

I happen to be in this particular position: I am both hiring and also looking for a job. It's very difficult to get anyone senior right now. It's also very difficult, for me, to find a position that checks my boxes and still pays a reasonable salary vis-a-vis my skill set. Part of the problem, many companies have difficulty making a value assessment of my contribution's worth.

[DamonHD]

https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/31/netapp_layoffs_8_perc...

210,000+ people in IT now lost their job since start of 2022

[nytesky]

Weren’t those mostly recruiters and product managers, not IT per we?

[matt_s]

I haven't been looking but the volume of inquiry has dropped off a cliff. As others have said, recruiters are being let go and I think the other element is companies are not in hiring mode.

The important thing here is: its not you.

[SavageBeast]

Since you're in the enterprise world, consider this. Larger orgs have a budgetary process where funds for the year are allocated to various projects and divisions. Most of the time these orgs don't get their budget straight and finalized before the middle of March. It takes them 3 or so months of doofing around before they get their ducks in a row.

So, no budget means no funds to pay for new initiatives, no clear staffing requirements, hence no open job reqs and no engaged recruiters seeking to fill them. For this time of year, thats a pretty rational explanation.

[jfalcon]

It has slowed down some on the return call - last month out of the few dozen, about half came back stating they were reconsidering the role with a few interviews and a few more than that stating it wasn't a match for them.

Which is funny as a few recruiters called in December asking what I was looking for - even weirder was the interview loop that failed to call back after we got the interview done and was in salary negotiation phase as they were wanting to chisel me down due to lack of one skill they used but I obviously had experiences all around it and parallel to it. I said fine and came down then no communication since.

I just think that everyone is all bunched up about inflation as costs have gone up across the board.. ask anyone who does the grocery shopping or eats out all the time.

It's a good time for fintech and healthcare who've had to play second tier with all the FAANG-like companies as now there is a flood of talent who have had a long need of people who have the skills and experience - and people still need to pay bills.

So hang in there, apply where you can, up your skills - remote work isn't going away immediately but workers should be aware if mgmt uses this as a way to force their will - I think most mid-managers however also see the benefit of remote and hybrid work even if the C-Suite would rather see people being micromanaged... :)

[moosedev]

Been "looking" since November. I'm still averaging 1 recruiter message every few days on LinkedIn, but 95% of them are from agencies with vague pitches for contract roles I'm not interested in. The daily messages I used to get from recruiters hiring directly for permanent positions at medium-to-large US tech companies dried up sometime last year. I'm applying directly to open roles on those companies' websites instead, and usually hearing nothing back.

[the_only_law]

Yeah that sounds pretty close to what my experience has been recently. The most disheartening part so far has been getting ATS-rejected from a job, only to see the same job freshly posted again a few weeks later.

[clnq]

Everyone is saying that the market is bad, which I would not dispute. But many internal recruiters have been on Winter holidays until early January. Now that they are back, they have bigger priorities than headhunting - for example, to catch up with a lot of resumes which have come in over the holiday period.

I have noticed a period with no recruiters reaching out to me since around the start of December, too. But now I'm back to the usual volume of InMail, emails, and so on.

[amrox]

I'm having a similar experience. I turned off my “looking for jobs” status a few weeks ago, and just turned it back on, expecting a flood. Never came ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[shyn3]

It's slow season wait till the budgets refresh in March.

[chrisjc]

Recruiters were one of the first groups to be laid off?

[kcplate]

Because there are now 100k+ people with a similar resume and 20k+ people with a better resume than yours looking for work.

Recruiters are no longer in hunting mode, they are gathering. You need to take an active role and not wait for a recruiter to reach out to you if you want a dev position in this economic climate. You need to do the work now.

> I was being very selective with who’d I’d talk to. If a recruiter wanted me to jump through hoops, or refused to give me any information about the role/company/etc. they were hiring for id just ignore them.

So you burnt some bridges and are wondering why you can’t cross a river?

[amateurdev]

FWIW I've started getting messages from recruiters since last week.

As others have said, the market is just not in the right place for now. How about directly applying via their websites/LinkedIn/AngelList (cant remember their new name)?

[sys_64738]

I wish I could say the same. The ones I've been harassed by I usually respond telling them to give me their salary information and I'll get back to them. They don't like that and usually don't return.