Since I am currently on the hunt for a new contract position either in the area where I live or remote, I thought I’d share an interaction I had with a recruiter this morning. When I am looking for a new position, I use recruiters and LinkedIn as two of my tools. I would say that easily over 90% of the messages I get via email or LinkedIn I am either not qualified or are not in my area or they will not accept remote work. This creates a lot of frustration in me every morning when I check these messages. I’m frustrated because it clearly states in my profile and in my resume where I live.
This morning while checking my LinkedIn messages, I replied to one of these messages from a recruiter and sure enough, it is in Bellevue, Washington for a position at Expedia. So, I finally decided to ask the recruiter why she even contacted me at all. Below is the entire conversation, unedited (including spelling errors). I have removed the recruiter's name and any contact info.
Recruiter - Dear David,
Hope you are doing great !!
We currently have few open roles that matches your profile. Are you available for a call so that we can discuss further?
Me - Can you tell me more about the positions and where they are located?
Recruiter- The position is in Bellevue, WA with Expedia
Please share me your email id so that I can share you the job description.
Me - (I sent her my email address) I've seen their building many times from my trips to Microsoft.
Recruiter- Ahh!
Recruiter- David, I have shared you the description
Please go through, and if you are interested then please share your most updated resume in a word format and also let me know the best time to reach you.
Me - Looks interesting. But I don't live in that area. Can this job be remote?
Recruiter- No, David. We have this role only in Bellevue
Me - Then why did you contact me about it? Just curious.
Recruiter- I had sent the bulk emails so you might have got. I do have few roles in CA as well but that is only for Java Developers
Me - Ahh. I really wish recruiters would stop doing that. I get so many of these.
Recruiter- but David some of the candidates want to relocate themselves so that is also the reason, we recruiters send them the request. If you have got disturbed, apologies.
Me - You are saying people are willing to relocate for only 6 months? People with my experience and number of years in the industry?
Recruiter- No this role is Contract to hire role and it can convert into FTE based upon your performance. We never contact the people for small amount of period
Me - But still the first 6 months are contract. No guarantee of converting.
Recruiter- because we do understand that Sorry wrongly typed we do understand
I have recruited many candidates and they have turned into FTE
Me - Ok, I'm just trying to understand this practice and you are willing to chat with me about it :-)
Recruiter- yes David, because I dont want that the people should get misunderstood. Recruiters are putting lot of efforts to get the best opportunities for the deserving candidates.
and some of them think that we are disturbing them by dropping emails and calls
Me - That's the way I feel.
Maybe recruiters need a better system based on AI! LOL
Recruiter- Yeah :)
Me - I appreciate you chatting with me on this subject.
Recruiter- It was my pleasure
Thanks David for giving your precious time.
Me - If you find anything in my area or can be remote, please feel free to contact me.
Recruiter- Will do for sure
Me - Thanks again
Have a nice day
Recruiter- You too David
The Smoking Gun
There are two interactions I’d like to point out. The first one is this from the Recruiter- I had sent the bulk emails so you might have got. Even now I’ve always known most messages I get like these are from bulk emailing apps, this is confirmation of that. This is one of the reasons that software engineers either do not use recruiters or hate dealing with them, like myself.
It’s fricking 2019, we have artificial intelligence (AI), why does this continue to happen? Recruiting companies need to change their practices because they will lose the good engineers and only submit to companies the not-so-good ones. I have personally witnessed this in some companies I interviewed with or ending up accepting the position. Once I realize this is happening I usually start looking for a new position. Also, companies like Expedia, will (and should) fire the recruiting company and find a better one. I have done this on numerous occasions when I have been the hiring manager. All the recruiters that I use or recommend, do not practice this. The ones that do either get added to my spam filter or blocked on LinkedIn. Here are the junk emails I received just yesterday from just one of my email accounts,
I hope you can see that from just this email account, ALL the junk email that I received was from recruiters that I have blocked.
The second thing I’d like to point out is this message from the Recruiter- Please go through, and if you are interested then please share your most updated resume in a word format and also let me know the best time to reach you.NEVER ever, ever, ever send a recruiter that you haven’t worked with in the past your resume as a Word document!
One of the reasons they request this is, so they can put their company logo and info at the top of your resume. Many developers have told me that recruiters have submitted their resume to a company without their approval! I’m not aware of this ever happening to me. The trick is to only send them a PDF, so it’s harder for them to do that. With a licensed copy of Adobe Reader, you can easily prevent this. ONLY send them your resume as a Word format when you approve them to do so for a position. I discuss this in detail in my book titled “Rock Your Technical Interview”.
So is dealing with recruiters frustrating… yes! Have I gotten jobs in the past using recruiters… yes! Will I use them in the future… yes! I just wish this was easier, so I can concentrate on other things. Due to the frustration, I limit myself to only dealing with recruiters in the morning. I must stop at lunchtime to prevent more frustration and anxiety.
Call to Action
The moral of this story is if you contact me like this, you just might end up in one of my articles that are viewed by thousands of software engineers. I really wish more recruiters would read my book on this subject (mentioned above). There is an entire chapter in my book dedicated to dealing with recruiters.
Have you ever had any interactions like this with recruiters? If so, please make a comment below so we can discuss it.
Chittaranjan SwainPosted Jul 31, 2019, 10:51 PM
Nice article.
Gakenh01Posted Feb 14, 2019, 11:40 AM
Consulting for me was extremely disappointing. I remember I was offered a 3 month contract to hire at a well known financial company which was about 100 miles from me by a recruiter in 2004. Of course I declined as it made no sense to rent an apartment for 6 months and only get paid for 3 months. I have known only a few consultants that were hired full time. Another frequent occurance, was quite often when a contract ended, the recruiting company I worked for was not looking hard for another position for me. I'd then go to another company and they submit bids for me. What I didn't realize is the previous company would submit me for the same position without telling me; thus, I'd be disqualified for the position. Unless someone is a "Rockstar," my recommendation is to find a full time position in a reputable company with good benefits. Work hard, study harder, and in no time you'll move up and make good money. Today, is my 14 year anniversary and though the position is not so cutting edge or exciting, it allows me to travel globally and know when I get back, I'll still be getting a paycheck.
Mahesh ChandPosted Feb 14, 2019, 8:16 AM
I agree. Recruiters are very frustrating/ Not only jobs websites but also from LinkedIn. What most of the recruiting companies have done is, hired these offshore people who have no idea and they spam the heck out of you. They don't spend time reviewing your profile. They just get your email, put in their database, and send you every job they have. There need to be a law for this similar to DO NOT CALL registry that should be applicable Internationally. But again, how do you go to India and China an fight them. I'm frustrated with the spam I get from Indian companies related to jobs.