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Career advice nobody gave me: Never ignore a recruiter

alexchesser.medium.com

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Re: Career advice nobody gave me: Never ignore a recruiter

#111

Post by gadders »

After reading the responses, all I can say is that the US recruiting industry must be a lot different from the UK one. Or maybe it's different because I'm not in a popular niche like Python dev or something.

I'm in the UK and I just looked at my latest linkedin recruiter message. They told me the company type, the role, the skills they were looking for. An accurate enough description to make me think it was a real role. They didn't include the rate, but that would have been my next question if I had been interested.

If I'm not interested in the role, I normally reply with "Thank you for thinking of me but it's not right for me because [reason]. Good luck in your search." I might even refer them on to a friend if I know one that fits the requirement and may be looking.

Re: Career advice nobody gave me: Never ignore a recruiter

#112

Post by beeskneecaps »

Ignore recruiter if they:

* are a part of a large firm

* use multiple fonts, sizes, or any color in their emails

* send an email _and_ an InMail

* text or call you

* jokingly or seriously refer to themselves as a stalker

* automatically substitute in your skills or past company name

* ask for your resume when they can obviously download the LinkedIn pdf

* don’t disclose comp

* don’t disclose the company name

* use tracking pixels or redirect links

* send an automated sequence of follow-up emails (4 follow-ups = bot)

Write them back if they seem like a human! “Not interested at this time, but let’s keep in touch. Thanks for your time” should do.

Re: Career advice nobody gave me: Never ignore a recruiter

#113

Post by [deleted] »

dogman144 wrote: post #62

I'm always nice to recruiters if they make the bare minimum effort. If the job isn't a fit, I offer to stay in touch. It has led to great opportunities for me simply by taking advantage of the network effects offered by a recruiter link. Things turn up if you talk around enough.

[deleted]

Re: Career advice nobody gave me: Never ignore a recruiter

#114

Post by derwiki »

dewey wrote: post #47
commandlinefan wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or just a canned, "Thanks for getting in touch, but I'm not looking for a change right now."

If it's just that you might as well just ignore it and not cause any additional noise.

Not GP but I can’t shake that it feels rude, even if expected.

But more practically: if I decline after the first, I don’t get the other 4 emails they have queued up for me

Re: Career advice nobody gave me: Never ignore a recruiter

#115

Post by Kalium »

Spinnaker_ wrote: post #11

I also recommend a response to every recruiter, but you don't need to explain your privilege, you don't need to suck up to them, and you don't need to justify your actions. "Hey ____. Before we move forward, can you provide me with the company name, a job description, and the expected compensation. Regards"

> "Hey ____. Before we move forward, can you provide me with the company name, a job description, and the expected compensation. Regards"

I've found that this makes 80-90% of recruiters go completely silent. For some reason, asking for this basic information scares off the vast majority of recruiters.

I'm genuinely unsure what I - or they - get out of dragging this out into a screenful of blah blah blah.

Re: Career advice nobody gave me: Never ignore a recruiter

#116

Post by rr808 »

Does anyone know what the salary range is now though? It seems pretty random. Levels.fyi has a lot of very high numbers. Blind has crazy high numbers. I'm not sure if people are lying or including RSUs that have gone up 10x.

Most experienced people in HCOL areas still earning 150k-200k max. When I talk to a recruited and ask for 300k often they'll say its possible but dont say if you have to be a superstar to get that. Meta seems paying 500k+ often and random big tech cos are all over the place.

Re: Career advice nobody gave me: Never ignore a recruiter

#117

Post by wnolens »

CoastalCoder wrote: post #63
1270018080 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can understand the Bay Area, but it's a little bit crazy to think there's no reason to live in NYC.

"No" reason is probably an overstatement. But it's certainly a different lifestyle than e.g. living in a suburban / rural area and working remotely. Many of us would consider it a step backwards unless the net increase in income was life-changing.

Step backwards in take home pay and square footage. Step forwards in social life, romantic life, culture (if you weren't getting it elsewhere).

If you're married with kids, NYC doesn't make sense. If you're single with passions outside work - it's great.

Re: Career advice nobody gave me: Never ignore a recruiter

#118

Post by MattGaiser »

qubyte wrote: post #97

Most of the recruiter traffic comes from LinkedIn, which is not particularly surprising. The very first line of my profile there reads: Please do not contact me about cryptocurrency, blockchain, NFTs, or associated technologies. Almost all recruiters who contact me on LinkedIn are talking about... cryptocurrency, blockchains, or NFTs etc. If a recruiter isn't prepared to read even the first line of my profile then I…

I have one line from 2017 about working on blockchain proposals. I never wrote any blockchain code. But it is half of my LinkedIn inbox.

Re: Career advice nobody gave me: Never ignore a recruiter

#119

Post by fecak »

ibi5 wrote: post #66
fecak wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Former recruiter here. You are spot-on about referrals, and having an insider advocating for you or just their willingness to make the recommendation starts things off at a great spot. Here's where I disagree. You haven't doubled your salary BECAUSE of your policy of not working with recruiters, but rather DESPITE this policy. Deciding to disregard any recruiter opportunity is just shutting out quite a few things tha…

"but that policy is doing nothing to advance your position (career, earnings, etc.)" Why does everybody assume that the goal is to advance to an exec role? I'm sure that you were a competent recruiter, but the reality is that I don't have the time or the energy to waste on you to figure out if you are or not.

The OP mentioned doubling salary multiple times.

I don't assume everyone is looking to advance to an exec role - in my experience, most actually are not looking for that at all. I tend to assume people aren't looking for exec roles.

"Advance your position" could refer to improved work/life balance, more time off, remote, whatever you value. I was referring to overall position (life quality), not on an org chart. I can see how that wasn't made explicitly clear.

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