Question from TA: Ar3 recruiters evil? Do companies look at resumes that are not submitted by recruiters? 

Recruiters are not evil. Large companies, small companies and medium companies use recruiters but outside recruiters are usually only getting paid if they find an applicant that is actually hired. For instance, if the recruiter is looking for a job that pays $100,000, they may get 10% of that from the company and then the person ends up being paid $90,000. That $90,000 may be within the Standard range for that job. Then again a recruiter may get bonus money if they get someone to take the job it’s $40,000. Ask for references from work orders if they call you, if you find one that works really well with you or find one through friends stick with him or her, and avoid signing any exclusivity documents with a recruiter early on.

Like with anything, you should protect yourself. The way to protect yourself, as stated above, is not to quickly enter into any exclusive deals with a particular recruiter or recruiting firm. The other way to protect yourself is to know your industry. What is the going rate for the position a recruiter wants to submit your resume for? What is the standing of the recruiting company? What is the standing of the company the wher the job is going to be located? Will you be an employee of the company whose behalf the recruiter is working or an rmployee of the recruiting company? Will this be a standard job or an independent contract (1099)?

I get a lot of recruiters hitting me up on LinkedIn.com. Most times I don’t bite, but I always except their connection request or send them a connection request because I never know when I will need their services. Remember they usually only get paid if they find applicants that the company hires. Therefore, if they are hitting you up out of the blue it is because they believe that they can find you a position and make money off of that position. In summary they are a tool to get what you want (the best working situation, pay, location, potential for growth, etc. that you possibly can get.

Oh and real companies actually do searches in their resume bucket. That is, when you submit a resume to a company online, those resumes are stored. A human resources person or hiring manager does a search, much like a Google search, to see if they can find candidates that fit the bill. Recruiters are used to supplement the number of resumes and the amount of effort that the HR department, or hiring manager, has to spend looking for resumes.