What Could Recruitment/Staffing Companies Do Better?

Brian "Panda" Choi

Hey Polycount,

I got an interesting phone call today from a previous recruitment company that I was hired through for a previous gig, and they were asking me what they could do to better make me feel like I wasn't just an "asset" to them and have better customer service in the future.  I wrote that in my exit survey that I felt lke "just an asset."

To you, what could recruitment companies do better to make the process or working with them a better experience than others? 

Have recruiters done anything to be outstanding to you?

During that conversation, at least to me, I mentioned that I felt whelmed with everything: everything profesionally went about as expected.  They did nothing wrong, they just also didn't do anything to especially make them recommended to other colleagues of mine.  I also mentioned that most, if not every single time, the recreuitment company felt like an unecessary wall to get to the hiriing manager because while my resume will get spick and polished at the recruiters request, it ends up being pretty consistently a portfolio judgment call with every single art director/art lead I've interviewed with.  I have yet to have a recruitment company have a positive effect on my portfolio work, if any.  There will be the usual "your work is great!"

I will also remark that them calling this a customer service call felt . . . off.  And it felt as if it further reinforced this cynical tension I have that I'm just useful to them if I can get hired, because then they can get their commission, etc.

Justin Meisse

It seems like the recruiters have no artistic eye or concept of what we do, they just mass email any artist they can find, like approaching a character artist for a hard surface vehicle job. Feels like 3D art recruitment is what they give the juniors while the more senior recruiters work with the real moneymakers, programmers.

Biomag

Personal opinion third party recruiters are in 99% of cases pointless and a waste of time for artists. Recruiters can be a ambassador for the candidate, but that's what your portfolio is and its more transparent than what someone might claim about you. My girlfriend, as a producer, was headhunted by a good recruiter, who acted a mediator between both parties, helped get a good salary (since his provision was based on that), kept both parties informed and made sure both parties knew each other (good and bad, but sold well). That's all great, but not that big of a deal since your portfolio and art test have to break the ice in the first place and after that its just how you get along with the team during the interviews.

Basically I wouldn't go through a recruiter that can't make sure he can make me skip some steps due to good personal contacts with the company - and that's very rare for third party ones. Otherwise I wouldn't bother and apply directly. As a junior I would treat them just as training for interviews - no one pays a recruiter to hire/scout juniors, so if they contact you keep you expectations low.

And not to mention they can't judge portfolio for shit Even worse when they think they can

Alex_J

You just can't count on people to care unless there is an obvious carrot dangling in front of their nose. In other words, like mentioned, unless you got a dollar sign attached to your forehead nobody is going to pretend like they love you.

Neox

actually research the job offer and the people they are pestering

PixelMasher

agree with neox, they need to really research the job and really filter the candidates they approach. also:

- get rid of the copy paste outreach emails and hand craft them, get the persons name right as a start. ive got so many emails starting with Hi Adam! Hi Jeff! instantly goes to the trash bin for me.

- stop being so cagey with their outreach emails. they always say "i have a large AAA studio looking to hire etc" just tell me the studio and job right off the bat, it makes me think you have a scarcity mindset thinking I will learn about the job and go around you. Im not wasting my time going back and forth for 2-3 emails to find out if im even interested in whatever studio they are trying to hire for. 

- actually provide some form of value that is higher than whatever I can do for myself with looking at linkedin/gamedev map/artstation and just applying for jobs myself. if they are collecting a fee for hiring they better be doing something, otherwise that's 2-5k that could have just been added to my salary ask. 

- tbh not much more they can do to add value, linkedin, artstation jobs, gamedevmap etc has given everyone the tools they need to pretty much be aware of all the open jobs out there if they are actively looking for work, and managers sliding into the DM to poach people is the other main way hiring goes down these days. 99% recruiters are just basically middlemen that tech is phasing out. 

a solid portfolio will act as a recruiter for you, passively bringing you job leads each month once you reach a certain level. 

Brian "Panda" Choi

Man, it's sort of depressing that we don't really have a consistent example of the equivalent of "agents' that actors get.

Meloncov

Justin Meisse said:

It seems like the recruiters have no artistic eye or concept of what we do, they just mass email any artist they can find, like approaching a character artist for a hard surface vehicle job. Feels like 3D art recruitment is what they give the juniors while the more senior recruiters work with the real moneymakers, programmers.

Based on what I hear from my engineer friends, programming recruiters aren't any better.

jStins

Hello! I came across your posts on polycount.com and love your writing. I think you'd be a great fit for a role I'm looking to fill. The opening is for a part time copywriter (must be fluent in Spanish and able to relocate to Bangladesh). Please let me know if you are interested in hearing more about this position.

-A recruiter probably  

Zi0

Biomag said:

Personal opinion third party recruiters are in 99% of cases pointless and a waste of time for artists. Recruiters can be a ambassador for the candidate, but that's what your portfolio is

I share this opinion, they are also out of touch with reality. I had recruiters ask me if they could send my CV + Portfolio for senior positions while I just had survived my trial period at IWPL. I get the feeling that they just search for people on LinkedIn and spam studios with "possible candidates" and hope at least one of them is good enough for a Interview so that they can get their provision for finding a "match". Quantity above quality etc.

Ripples

Recruiters rarely understand the role they are trying to fill, and in most cases lack the artistic eye to be able to judge the standard of a portfolio, so as others have said here they go for quantity. I find them to be a little irrelevant in 3D artist roles, especially when the companies often have their own talent departments.

poopipe

What you actually want from a recruiter is a relationship - they contact you, find out what you do, what you want etc.and then they match you with suitable roles they have in their list. They'll know a role is suitable because they'll also have a similar relationship with the people they're recruiting for.  

The thing is, that's all quite time consuming and expensive.  As such you're not generally going to get that level of attention unless the recruiter isn't working on commission or you're looking at a pay packet that makes the commission big enough to warrant the effort- which frankly a graduate or standard artist isn't going to get.