During a recent business development meeting with a potential client I was asked to describe my level of technical literacy. This client is very experienced, and the conversation underscored a few points you should keep in mind when dealing with recruiters.
1. Not the Geek Squad. Good recruiters are paid to find the right person for the position in question; we are not technical consultants. What a good recruiter should know are the fundamentals of the industry learned from networking with people; what he should not be is a substantive expert on the technology at hand. What this means for you, the candidate who may not have much experience with recruiters, is this: Be suspicious of recruiters who try and sell you on their technical skills in the biotech (or any other space). They should be highlighting other qualities, which you have seen me discuss in the past.
2. Not the Dumb Squad. While the above is true, a good recruiter will still understand the fundamental technical issues at play in a given space. Let me use a search we are working on to illustrate this point. We are looking for a specific skill set requiring leading technology knowledge in this area. This industry presents two challenges; the major firms have stagnated on the leading technology while most new employees are hired from competing companies with the same stagnation. It was therefore important for us to quickly understand the need to look outside the industry, and to successfully convey this point to our client. Our ability to discuss the technology helped us convince the client of the need to expand the search pool. You the candidate should have similar discussions with recruiters; if not be cautious and move on.
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