I have a problem with recruiters. They ask all these tricky questions, and God forbid you reveal your true flawed self, even in your voice. One recruiter asked me once "what would you like to change about yourself?" Sure I would like to change many things, but I am sure if I mentioned one of them it means the end of my application then and there. So, you have to fake, and fake well.

In the training I took at the employment agency they train you how to answer as the recruiters want to hear, and to change your story. For example if you were fired from your last job, don't say they fired me, but the position wasn't a good match for me, and they let me go, which I am glad they did. Right, that's why they waited until they were fired!! I found myself creating stories just to please recruiters.

Recruiters make a decision about you in 10-15 mins conversation. That's if they pay any attention to your application in the first place. Recently a recruiter posted on LinkedIn a list of positions and said if you are interested in any of them reach out to me. I reached out to her for a position I am interested in with my resume, and she hasn't acknowledged let alone replied to my message, while she keeps posting about other positions!! We applicants are not humans apparently. You have to please recruiters. To keep messaging them. To make them feel important. To read their mood when they call you. Some of them are casual, some are very serious. I've encountered both types. The last phone interview I did ended before it started. I felt it. She didn't like how I opened the conversation ... casually.

The only time I did an on-site interview is when I skipped the recruiter phase (i.e., phone screening) directly to the staff engineer for a "mini-technical" interview over the phone, who then decided to move forward with me for the on-site interview. Granted I didn't receive an offer, but this was the only technical interview I have done in the last 5 years since I graduated!! One probably needs to do like 10-15 technical interviews if not more to receive one offer.

I apologize if anyone here is a recruiter, but I am saying things from an applicant's perspective, who struggled a lot to land a job, and recruiters in my experience have been the barrier and the most difficult part of it.