Automatically detecting and replying to recruiter spam • Hacker News Board

Re: Automatically detecting and replying to recruiter spam

#21

Post by hansel_der » Tue, Nov 23, 2021, 9:35 AM UTC

dt3ft wrote: post #5

andrewstuart wrote: post #2

Deleted as too negative.

Many recruiters don’t bother understanding what they were actually supposed to be doing. You can not be a tech recruiter if you do not understand the basics of the said tech. I get offers for jobs asa frontend eng, when I am a 100% backend guy. Recruiters need to understand that based on the very detailed information that they have about me. They clearly don’t care, so why should we care?

> I get offers for jobs asa frontend eng, when I am a 100% backend guy.

for you it might be the difference between "tire guy" and "engine guy" whereas the recruiter just sees a car mechanic.

Re: Automatically detecting and replying to recruiter spam

#22

Post by maaaaattttt » Tue, Nov 23, 2021, 9:47 AM UTC

ma2rten wrote: post #15

guessmyname wrote: post #13

I used to do something similar a couple of years ago, but ultimately, the bot replies became so short it made no sense to pay AWS to run the code. The last version of the code, which I kept running for over 6+ months, continued replying with things like “Thanks . I’m interested.” —or— “Thanks . I’m not interested, but I appreciate the invitation.” After comparing the success rate of my interviews with the length of m…

Actually when I wanted to change teams I cold emailed managers of other teams at my company. I found the same thing: a short 3 line emails have a great response rate. If you send a message that is too long, you just increase the barrier of responding.

When I receive a long email/message I feel I also need to answer with a long reply, that it would be rude to answer with 2 lines to an initial 20/30 lines message.

Maybe most people feel that way and when they receive a 3 lines initial message they feel confortable answering with 3 lines and they do it right away.

Re: Automatically detecting and replying to recruiter spam

#23

Post by lapsis_beeftech » Tue, Nov 23, 2021, 9:53 AM UTC

I advise my users to never reply to spam, doing so proves the address is valid and messages read which will encourage the spammers to send even more crap. I tried content filtering to deal with spam in the past but do not at all these days because false positives are not acceptable to me. If my mail server accepts a message it always gets delivered to a mailbox and never to /dev/null.

The only effective way I have found of dealing with spam is to add the mail servers they use to relay their trash to an IP blacklist and reject future messages from those servers. That means some legitimate mail will bounce, but that is acceptable because those senders are notified of the delivery issue and can try to send again using a less shady service provider.

Re: Automatically detecting and replying to recruiter spam

#24

Post by acatton » Tue, Nov 23, 2021, 9:54 AM UTC

ruuda wrote: post #14

There's a much simpler way to identify recruiter spam: put this in your profile: “Please include the word ‘banana’ in your message.”

This is indeed a very good technique. 3 years ago I left the python community and decided to stop doing Python.

All my previous positions are Python dev positions. The first line of my profile is "I am NOT interested in any Python job".

Since then I just filter out Python job positions, I know this recruiter didn't read my profile.

Re: Automatically detecting and replying to recruiter spam

#25

Post by nitred » Tue, Nov 23, 2021, 10:05 AM UTC

I have a question for devs in Germany/Europe. Is it a violation of Datenschutz/GDPR if the recruiter sends a first email with a link to a video/website that tracks whether I clicked on it or not and then they send me a follow up email because they know I clicked on the link from the first email?

Re: Automatically detecting and replying to recruiter spam

#26

Post by circlingthesun » Tue, Nov 23, 2021, 10:22 AM UTC

I have an emoji prefixed to my name on LinkedIn so whenever someone starts an email with: "Hi Rickert", I know it's an automated message.

Re: Automatically detecting and replying to recruiter spam

#27

Post by mvc » Tue, Nov 23, 2021, 10:23 AM UTC

I don't understand the attitute that most software engineers seem to have with recruiters.

My early years as a software developer were in locations where opportunities were not like they are in your big tech centers. In those years, recruiters would get you a foot in the door and you were grateful for any opportunities that came. Even in big tech centers, until you build your own network, recruiters will likely be an important source of opportunities.

It's ugly to see senior engineers' sneering attitute towards recruiters in front of their junior colleagues (at lunch or whatever). I'm not sure what they're trying to signal when they do that but to me it signals insecurity.

Be kind to your recruiters. You never know what the future holds.

Re: Automatically detecting and replying to recruiter spam

#28

Post by chrisseaton » Tue, Nov 23, 2021, 10:35 AM UTC

mvc wrote: post #27

I don't understand the attitute that most software engineers seem to have with recruiters. My early years as a software developer were in locations where opportunities were not like they are in your big tech centers. In those years, recruiters would get you a foot in the door and you were grateful for any opportunities that came. Even in big tech centers, until you build your own network, recruiters will likely be an…

Yeah it's a bit odd listening to people laugh about having to beat away Google etc recruiters with a stick.

Re: Automatically detecting and replying to recruiter spam

#29

Post by ajb » Tue, Nov 23, 2021, 10:38 AM UTC

mvc wrote: post #27

I don't understand the attitute that most software engineers seem to have with recruiters. My early years as a software developer were in locations where opportunities were not like they are in your big tech centers. In those years, recruiters would get you a foot in the door and you were grateful for any opportunities that came. Even in big tech centers, until you build your own network, recruiters will likely be an…

There are some good recruiters. But the problem is that recruiting is like being a real estate agent or rental agent: there is a big payoff for each transaction (up to 20% of 1 candidate years salary), and low barrier to entry. So there are an awful lot of people whose model is to 'drum up business' by hassling engineers.

Re: Automatically detecting and replying to recruiter spam

#30

Post by rlayton2 » Tue, Nov 23, 2021, 10:39 AM UTC

mvc wrote: post #27

I don't understand the attitute that most software engineers seem to have with recruiters. My early years as a software developer were in locations where opportunities were not like they are in your big tech centers. In those years, recruiters would get you a foot in the door and you were grateful for any opportunities that came. Even in big tech centers, until you build your own network, recruiters will likely be an…

I closed my LinkedIn account due to recruiter spam. My account said I wasn't looking for work but I still got lots of messages that were just keyword hunting.

A good recruiter is gold but it's a profession that has a large number of spammy practices.