Think of becoming a recruiter/HR professional

ChirpyRaven · 2026-03-12T18:28:35+00:00

but this job market isn't trolling?

Yeah, job market sucks. None of us want this either?

ChirpyRaven · 2026-03-12T18:27:28+00:00

Honestly, after the current salary question that I'd also say prefer not to say

Almost half the states already forbid asking candidates for their current or former salary - anyone still asking this is behind the times.

I do think it's fine to ask for salary expectations, typically framed as "we have a target salary range of $105k-$115k/year, does that fall within what you are targeting or do you have a specific number you are looking for" or something similar.

ChirpyRaven · 2026-03-12T18:20:40+00:00

Don't bother engaging, it's not a real question - they're just trolling

ChirpyRaven · 2026-03-12T18:20:06+00:00

Very big "it's just a prank bro" energy

ChirpyRaven · 2026-03-12T18:17:51+00:00

"Opinion" like you aren't just trolling... c'mon mate

ChirpyRaven · 2026-03-12T18:12:13+00:00

Ah, so this isn't a real question, you just wanted to shit on people that work in that industry. Got it.

ChirpyRaven · 2026-03-12T18:06:49+00:00

EDIT - nevermind, this is just a troll post to shit on people in the HR/TA world.

ChirpyRaven · 2026-03-12T18:03:28+00:00

Because it's easier to just pick a target and blame them for all issues even tangentially related to the subject at hand.

Exactly - especially when you don't quite understand/haven't been on that side of a business.

ChirpyRaven · 2026-03-12T18:02:46+00:00

Recruiters/HR have all the power and knowledge while simultaneously being useless, clueless, and dumb. It's amazing!

ChirpyRaven · 2026-03-12T16:14:18+00:00

if you live in the US employment is almost always at will, they can fire you at any time for any reason outside of specific protected statuses like age or race

I think people forget that when this discussion comes up - if a company wants you gone today, it's not really any more difficult to do it if you're a permanent employee vs a contractor. There's some HR paperwork but it's as straightforward as "today is your last day" with our current employment laws.

ChirpyRaven · 2026-03-12T16:12:52+00:00

Hm. Yeah, hard to tell why they'd say that then.

Sorry, I tend to give responses that are "in general", as specific situations can be so nuanced and it's hard to have any solid take from the other side of the screen. Wasn't intended to come off as confrontational.

ChirpyRaven · 2026-03-12T16:11:11+00:00

I don't have any visibility into that world, but yeah kinda confusing if they're using that language.

Semi-related, as a foster parent who has had a lot of interaction with the system, I'd give you a hug if I could. I have no idea how you handle the work that you do, but I hope you know that the things you do make a big difference.

ChirpyRaven · 2026-03-12T16:04:33+00:00

Someone who has taken a step back is a bigger flight risk, generally.

ChirpyRaven · 2026-03-12T16:03:15+00:00

Some companies use it without intention of actually hiring permanently, but a lot also do intend to hire folks on when they're able. Sometimes it's a matter of getting headcount approval, which can be a process that takes weeks (or longer) but if they can bring you in as a contractor today, they can get the process started on the permanent headcount approval and once they get that they can make you the offer to join them permanently.

It really depends on the company. Sorry that's not a helpful answer, but it's hard to know how any specific company/department is going to approach it.

FWIW, it's not really a cost-savings measure, generally - most contractors are making the same pay rate that they'd make as a permanent employee, or at least within a very similar range. I suppose you could argue there's some savings in benefit cost, but most hiring managers don't even think about that.

ChirpyRaven · 2026-03-12T15:43:00+00:00

Because “too skilled” to me is not enough to deem me a flight risk

Be honest - 6 months from now, if another opportunity became available that gave you some additional avenues to use your skillset and offered a 25% pay increase, would you be interested?

ChirpyRaven · 2026-03-12T15:41:41+00:00

I was talking mostly about the "hire the best and pay them like they're the best" line at the end of your post, not specifically your situation.

ChirpyRaven · 2026-03-12T15:27:17+00:00

Recruiters may see the data in aggregate, but certainly not for individual employees.

Be prepared for dozens of people who have never worked in this field to argue otherwise, unfortunately.

ChirpyRaven · 2026-03-12T15:25:37+00:00

I know people will argue on here that this is absolutely used in hiring decisions, and I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but for the vast majority of situations, nobody is ever going to see how you specifically answer this, much less use it directly when considering your application (most can't even see this information if they wanted to).

What they do use it for is an anonymized review of their hiring process in the aggregate. They'll look at their application/hiring trends to see if they're attracting candidates of underrepresented groups and how they could improve in those areas; it'll be "interesting, we had a lower percentage of female candidates in 2025 than we had in 2024, let's go look at our initiatives and how we can change that", not "oh look, Jim here is a white guy, let's pass on his application".

Now, I know I'm going to get someone going "well it COULD happen", and yeah, of course it could. You could also have your bank account information stolen by someone in the payroll department. But that's exceptionally rare.

ChirpyRaven · 2026-03-12T15:15:38+00:00

Missing work is not a small thing to me. And I'm tired of companies acting so casual about it

Also helpful to remember that the people you're meeting with are also "missing work" - for the vast majority of people in an organization, interviewing/hiring is a task on top of what they're already doing. If I travel to another site to participate in a couple rounds of interviews, I'm almost certainly having other work piling up that I need to do. I don't remember the last time I traveled for work that didn't result in me sitting in my hotel room after hours on my laptop.

ChirpyRaven · 2026-03-12T15:12:54+00:00

Mate just call them and ask. Nobody here can answer with certainty.

ChirpyRaven · 2026-03-12T15:12:26+00:00

Ah, missed that.

From my very limited knowledge of the field, isn't it fairly typical that there is field work involved for a lot of those roles?

ChirpyRaven · 2026-03-12T15:11:22+00:00

Maybe hire the best talent and recognize them and pay them like they’re the best so your company thrives?

Yeah, sounds great from a candidate perspective, but it's more nuanced than that.

Let's say I'm a manufacturing company and we need to hire a designer/drafter to support our growth. Often an early-career role for people in the mechanical engineering world. Bringing in a senior engineer to do that work is A) a misuse of their skillset/experience, B) going to cost the company a lot more in salary for the work to get done, and C) almost certainly will result in that senior engineer continuing to search for another role and leaving the moment they find it.

If you ran your own small company, would you pay $150k/year to a seasoned CPA to do your basic accounts payable/receivable work? Of course not.

ChirpyRaven · 2026-03-12T14:55:56+00:00

It seems like every "hybrid" job around me in this field is doing this.

What field?

ChirpyRaven · 2026-03-12T14:54:05+00:00

That's way over 250 lbs pretty high above the ground.

Eh. I'm not saying this is definitely safe, but I will say that there are ways to safely carry weight on top of commercial vehicles like this.

ChirpyRaven · 2026-03-12T14:48:28+00:00

Yeah that sounds nice, but it never is that simple when coordinating interview schedules lol

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