High hopes usually come crashing down with recruiters
Usually I don't pay attention to recruiters, but this is one of the better recruiting firms. They have high paying IT jobs in high-power industries like legal, jobs that even as an independent consultant can be tempting. I was first introduced to 1872 Consulting through Kian who was excellent. He hooked me up years ago with two interviews with legal clients for decent jobs that paid extremely well. During our talks he was prompt, courteous & wasn't hesitant to fight a little for his potential hire. Recently I was contacted by Joshua M. Things started out good. It was kind of odd how he contacted me on LinkedIn about a position with another firm, but didn't connect (a sign of a potential ghoster.) He wanted to keep communication between LinkedIn (probably so his employer wouldn't see when things turned sour.)
He put me in touch with a law firm that needed a desktop engineer, a system admin role I've been doing seemingly non-stop for the past decade & a job that initially sounded like it would be the perfect fit for me. The interview however brought up some red flags. Glassdoor reviews foretold of an IT running on fumes, running outdated software that users complained a lot about. During the interview the hiring manager mentioned the guy who manages the software (the position I was interviewing for) was this super duper excellent engineer that left recently. He also mentioned that "everybody has to do things outside of their job responsibilities." The manager had only been there three months as well. All of these are huge red flags as a good engineer leaves for a reason, whether that from being overworked, a toxic workplace or personality conflicts with his team. I wanted to ask him to expand on these things, but we ran out of time. Still, the interview went well & the hiring manager talked about next steps where I thought I could get more details about the situation.
I checked the hiring company's website & sure enough the job is posted for everyone to see so it's not even an exclusive job through 1872 consulting.
After the phone interview the hiring manager became flaky & questioned if I would be 100% committed to the job (a pointless question since if you're paying someone they should do their job plus executives like Elon Musk, Bill Gates are on boards of other companies while doing a million other things yet nobody questions their commitment.) I've also written in-depth on this particular subject here. This prompted me to ask Joshua M., the recruiter representing me, to have them expand on the previous engineer's departure as well as the job responsibilities comment since interviews are a 2-way street & I'm 100% within my right to be interviewing the company that wants to hire me. This caused Joshua to freak out & ghost me after telling me he'd send over my questions. It's been two months since I last spoke with Joshua. I even sent him a thank you letter for reaching out to me & didn't get a response. It's doubtful he even sent over my questions & probably just told them I passed on the job.
Ghosting, the practice of ending a personal relationship with someone by suddenly & without explanation withdrawing from all communication is a practice of disrespect as it shows the recruiter has none for their client nor are they worried about the potential consequences of ghosting. Joshua didn't even have anything to worry about since I had already "interviewed" the hiring manager during our initial phone call (asking him about the Glassdoor reviews among other things) which he was perfectly fine with. After all, a potential employee should find out if an employer is the right fit for them.
I checked the hiring company's website & sure enough the job is posted for everyone to see so it's not even an exclusive job through 1872 Consulting. The job description was also different from the one 1872 sent over to me. In the real job description it describes the responsibilities of 3+ COMPLETELY DIFFERENT JOBS ROLLED INTO ONE. They wanted a desktop engineer, a security engineer, a level 2 service desk tech as well as someone to train & babysit the service desk which is absolutely insane as each of those jobs are 40 hours alone. Even with an $120k salary, profit sharing & a nice yearly bonus I'd rather enjoy a nice work/life balance. It seems I dodged a major bullet. My assessment of the situation is that the reason the software was outdated was because the previous engineer was stretched so thin he literally had no time to properly update software. The constant stress & exhaustion from being overworked combined with a junior engineer that brought nothing to the table as well as poor leadership from upper management lead the lead engineer to quit. Jobs where you're forced to be "Superman" aren't worth it no matter the pay.
"As for Joshua unfortunately you'll be known as a ghosting recruiter so good luck with your future endeavors."
The position is STILL open to this day which sucks for them as they missed out on something great because of a particular recruiter. I guarantee the hiring manager has his hands full & is experiencing first hand how time consuming a job like that is as he has to do it himself (it was noted during the interview that the junior tech they have there doesn't know what he's doing.) If the hiring company was already aware of how demanding the job was & instead opted to just give a high salary that was a poor decision since you'd be essentially paying someone to be extremely stressed out. The company could've simply lowered the salary in-order to accommodate hiring more people such as a level 2 service desk engineer or a security engineer. They also could've just hired more people in general since they're a large law firm so they definitely have the money to spare. The more pressure you take off of your engineers the more reason they have to stay...otherwise you end up with good engineers leaving for better opportunities.
What I do appreciate about 1872 Consulting is that they don't push for video or face to face interviews with their recruiters which is probably because they're a relatively new startup & work out of a "WeWork" shared office. This makes for a much faster, more streamlined experience. Their way of approaching things also solves one of my main complaints about the recruiting industry which is that I don't want to waste time talking to recruiters. The main reason being in IT it's rare to come across a recruiter that actually knows tech so they can barely represent you in a fair manner if at all. I want to speak with hiring managers.
Kian, although he's moved on to a bigger position (that's what happens when you're actually good at your job,) can still contact me if need be. As for Joshua M., unfortunately you'll be known as a ghosting recruiter so good luck with your future endeavors. People are entitled to interview potential employers. Grow a backbone & make sure BOTH of your clients can be satisfied as both of us coming together is what pays your bills. Recruiters in general seem to not understand that they are are messing around with people's lives. 1872 Consulting is better than most because the positions they tend to offer are well above average in terms of salary, but that doesn't mean they don't suffer from the same problems that plague the recruiting industry. Bad lawyers get sued for malpractice. Too bad it isn't the same for bad recruiters.
2 out of 5 stars
1872 Consulting
20 W Kinzie St.
Chicago, IL 60654
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