Alternative sources of Perl programmers

[Peter Corlett]

On Wed, May 15, 2013 at 10:37:08PM +0100, Duncan Garland wrote:
[...]
> I didn't mention the company because I was (and still am) using my personal
> email and it didn't seem appropriate. Anyway, the company is Motortrak
> (www.motortrak.com).

Now I know which role you were referring to, I can follow-up on my previous
post where I wrote "I don't know if I've even seen your advert as you didn't
say who the company is. I've certainly not had my interest piqued by it if I
did."

I have now seen the job ad, because I've just searched for it. Opus Recruitment
Solutions sent it to me on April 30th. They sent it to an tagged email address
that I only ever used on CVs submitted to job boards until about 2009, and
which I now only glance at infrequently. So they're working from a very old
candidate database.

I did not have my interest piqued. Thames Ditton is a very inconvenient
location, and the salary does not compensate for the longer commute. The advert
lists PHP as "very desirable" which is a red flag. The agent added "OPUS WILL
PAY £300 TO ANYONE WHO CAN RECCOMEND A SUCCESSFUL CANDIDATE" in a double-size
font, which showed a certain amount of desperation to fill the role, another
red flag.

As it happens, Opus Recruitment Solutions send me quite a few job ads. Some of
the roles are even in London and correspond to the skills on my CV. But more
often they do not. Sometimes they send me the same irrelevant role multiple
times. And they all go to that retired address and into email purgatory. So
when I wrote "I'd consider firing that agent for a start", you might want to
take heed.

In sharp contrast, Christine Wong of Square One who sponsored our previous
social actually reads CVs and makes a proper effort to contact her shortlist of
relevant candidates instead of indiscriminately spamming addresses on their
database. So instead of dealing with amateurs, why not call in a professional?
Square One's number is 020 7208 2828.