I would assume that a company that has the money to pay a fair market wage and hire an agency recruiter would be able to give me that money as a signing bonus if they hadn't already spend it on a recruiter.
Also, if I was an employer using your agency, I'd fire your firm if I found out you were telling candidates what was going to be asked in a technical interview. You're doing them a disservice by giving out this information. At one of my jobs where I was interviewing new candidates, we had to make several tests with different questions on each one because recruiters were telling candidates what questions we asked on the test. This became painfully obvious when candidates could answer test questions perfectly, but fell short on other very basic technical question we asked. The recruiter cost us money since we had to dedicate team member time to writing multiple tests instead of working on developing our product.
This brings up another problem with agency recruiting. You can't represent both parties without there being an inherent conflict of interest. At the end of the day, most agency recruiters will misrepresent one party or the other to make a deal and get paid. This of course leads into your article's suggestion that job seekers have an agent who only represents them, but that begs the question whether any sort of middleman is necessary in this sort of transaction. Other industries manage to hire people without using an agency, but recruiting is accepted as a necessity, almost without question, in the IT industry.
Perhaps I am an anomaly because I can, as you said, "do my own taxes." To be fair, I know there are agency recruiters out there who really do manage to add value to both side of the equation. However, in my experience, they are the exception rather than the rule.
p.s. Regarding bypassing a recruiter, I only do this when the company has directly posted the listing themselves in addition to using a recruiter. If I don't see the position posted elsewhere, I assume they are looking exclusively through the recruiter, and I don't bother pursuing the position unless it's exactly the position I've been dreaming about. At that point I'll grudgingly work with the recruiter.
As a developer, I can't help but see 3rd party recruiters as parasites feeding off of my hard work and expertise. I see any money a hiring company pays to a recruiter as money that could have been in my pocket via a signing bonus or a higher starting salary if there was no recruiter involved.
I don't see anyone in this discussion questioning whether we, as job seekers, even need 3rd party recruiters. In my experience, we don't. Throughout my 16 year career as a developer, I've only been placed by a 3rd party recruiter once. That was way back when I only had a year of experience. I haven't needed 3rd party recruiters for the last 15 years.
If you want to disrupt technical recruiting, don't send recruiters your resume, and don't work with them when they contact you. Instead, do some leg work when you're looking for a new job.
Browse the job boards looking for positions posted directly by the company with the opening. Contact people in your network about open positions where they work. Find tech companies local to you, and look on their job boards. (This is how I found my current position, and it is the best job I've had yet.) If a recruiter contacts you about an interesting position and tells you the name of the company that's hiring, bypass them and submit your resume to the company directly.
Bottom line, they can't make money without us. We can make money without them.
Fairway Technologies is a full service, software consulting company based in the village of downtown La Jolla. We know that the best developers are hard to find so we like to treat them well. That is why we offer a fun and relaxed environment in our new modern facility. Our culture includes casual attire (shorts, t-shirts, and flip-flops) and fun office environment with flat-screen televisions, game systems, foosball table and dartboard. (Just to name a few) We work hard to meet the needs of our clients and want to make you comfortable during the process.
We offer competitive salaries, flexible schedule, 5 weeks of PTO, 401k Plan, and generous medical and dental benefits.
We allow our employees to have the ability to work with limited (to no) supervision, remotely, and commute to the office when traffic is light.
We all have a service-oriented attitude. Our clients love us because we are helpful, friendly and reliable.
Fairway is California focused so there are minimal travel requirements and it is anticipated that duties can be fulfilled through a combination of working from Fairway's office in the village of La Jolla, on-site at the client or by telecommuting. This position is an exempt, full-time, W2 position (NOT contracting).
At Fairway, we believe in continued education so we hold optional weekly "Code Brew" weekly talks and "Language Club" discussions. Our sessions are informal and allow our team members to collaborate on new ideas and technological advancements.
Is this a Windows only exploit? I have RUSE installed via Steam on a Macbook Pro and the linked page reports a missing plugin in Chrome, Safari, and Firefox.
I just switched to Verizon from another carrier and didn't know about this. I much appreciated the post.