[nylug-talk] Job Recruiters

[Ron Guerin]

Joshua Zeidner wrote:
> On 2/28/07, Rajesh Menon <menon.rajesh at gmail.com> wrote:
>> If it's indeed an employee's market, then let's favour ads which come
>> straight from the company over the ones from a recruitment firm (they
>> post everywhere anyway.)
> 
>   I don't understand how that can be true if salaries are not going
> up, overseas development operations are expanding, and the general
> economy is clearly getting worse. 

Non-scientifically, I think salaries have been going up over the last
year, certainly not dramatically, but my sense is they have gone up
some.  However, even if you don't agree with that, I'm going to say it's
simply a matter of having recently reached the point where supply no
longer meets demand, and you should see some improvement soon.  But any
weakening in the economy is going to dampen wages.

> Similar to our problems with housing, there are a plethora of quirks
> to market activity on a micro-scale because the metrics are being
> gamed.

Speaking of markets, anything that happens in the stock markets is felt
around here.  Also Here in New York, Google's gravity has affected our
local job market in shades of what's happened in Silicon Valley.  I
suspect this too will end up in the salaries that companies who aren't
Google will have to pay for talent around here.

>   But job market reality translates to pay checks.  If they aren't
> increasing there is no reason to believe that there is an increase in
> opportunity.  In general do not trust random recruiters, they can be
> extremely dishonest people.

I agree, although two people might look at the same paychecks and come
to different conclusions.  Anyone expecting Internet Bubble paychecks is
going to be disappointed.  I fear that in general those same market
forces have determined that technical people aren't individually worth
as much as they used to be.  There's more of them, and the Internet
brings those from lower-wage areas into direct competition with those of
us in higher-wage areas like New York City.

- Ron