Ask HN: What has to change? I'm sick of it

#1

Post by ethanwillis » Wed, Jun 08, 2022, 2:49 PM UTC

4 days ago(a Saturday!), I received a completely cold email from a Chewy.com recruiter telling me "we're seeking passionate and driven engineers to join..."

As far as I know I've never expressed any interest or given them any of my information outside of being a customer for several years. However, they continued in their email asking me to provide them with lots of information about myself without actually telling me a single actionable piece of information about any role.

Regardless, I replied (on a Sunday!), telling them (paraphrased) "I did find it strange as to why they were reaching out to me specifically. But even so, I do like Chewy from my experiences with them as a company. So I would definitely entertain the idea." I gave them some basic information about myself(YoE, Education, Tech focus) and asked the following questions (with some personal information removed)

  - What are the pay ranges on your senior positions?
  - Is remote a possibility? 
  - What does your overall interview process look like?

Days later, no response. What's the rationale with doing this? Especially when you're cold-emailing candidates whose information you got from.. where? I already have a bad taste in my mouth from what the norm is for modern hiring practices. But, this simply goes above and beyond what could be construed as an opinion. This absolutely should not be tolerated. Why would a company be so shortsighted as to actively sabotage their image by behaving this way?

And unfortunately, Chewy is not the only company behaving this way. They were just my breaking point from seeing this happen multiple times.

Re: Ask HN: What has to change? I'm sick of it

#2

Post by rossdavidh » Wed, Jun 08, 2022, 2:57 PM UTC

1) you're right, that's not great behavior

2) the profession of recruiter is very different from developer, it has a different kind of personality type, with different norms for social interaction; some are great, some are mediocre, gushing with enthusiasm when they think you're going to help them get a bonus, dropping all communication the moment that's not true. A recruiter with mediocre professionalism is doubtless just as common as a developer with mediocre coding skills.

3) most likely, they sent you the email, then got a person for that position, and didn't follow up to let you know that the position was filled. Not right, but no upside for you to let it get you angry, which hurts no one but you.

4) many companies are having hiring freezes, often with little notice; as uncomfortable as this is for us as developers, it is probably worse for recruiters, in terms of their own job prospects. It is possible (I have no inside knowledge here) that the recruiter that sent you the email has been laid off in the meantime...

Re: Ask HN: What has to change? I'm sick of it

#3

Post by t0mmyb0y » Wed, Jun 08, 2022, 2:59 PM UTC

Is it chewy or some spam recruiter?

Re: Ask HN: What has to change? I'm sick of it

#4

Post by jstx1 » Wed, Jun 08, 2022, 3:02 PM UTC

Dude, you wrote back to a spam email and you're telling us that you're at your breaking point because they haven't responded to you within 2 working days.

You need to adjust your expectations.

Re: Ask HN: What has to change? I'm sick of it

#5

Post by ethanwillis » Wed, Jun 08, 2022, 3:03 PM UTC

There's a deaded comment I can't vouch for asking an important question: "Is it chewy or some spam recruiter?"

It's Chewy themselves, using an email address from their domain.

Re: Ask HN: What has to change? I'm sick of it

#6

Post by ethanwillis » Wed, Jun 08, 2022, 3:03 PM UTC

jstx1 wrote: post #4

Dude, you wrote back to a spam email and you're telling us that you're at your breaking point because they haven't responded to you within 2 working days. You need to adjust your expectations.

Not a spam email. And is it so difficult to provide bare minimum information past the equivalent of "Did you know we have open positions?"

Re: Ask HN: What has to change? I'm sick of it

#7

Post by d9000 » Wed, Jun 08, 2022, 3:07 PM UTC

They are probably bots powered by AI. Many recruiters use them.

Re: Ask HN: What has to change? I'm sick of it

#8

Post by ethanwillis » Wed, Jun 08, 2022, 3:11 PM UTC

rossdavidh wrote: post #2

1) you're right, that's not great behavior 2) the profession of recruiter is very different from developer, it has a different kind of personality type, with different norms for social interaction; some are great, some are mediocre, gushing with enthusiasm when they think you're going to help them get a bonus, dropping all communication the moment that's not true. A recruiter with mediocre professionalism is doubtles…

Thanks for this comment. You're exactly right on #3. Really, I'm not that angry really. It's just frustrating to see this type of behavior become more and more common.

Early on in my career I actually worked with some very good recruiters, so maybe my bar is a little higher than it should be.

On point #4 this is definitely a likely possibility that I didn't consider. Definitely some sort of blind spot/collateral damage the company didn't consider if that's the case. But well, shit happens. NBD.

Re: Ask HN: What has to change? I'm sick of it

#9

Post by groffee » Wed, Jun 08, 2022, 3:14 PM UTC

Spam email and last Sunday was a holiday in most parts of the world, that's why no response.

Re: Ask HN: What has to change? I'm sick of it

#10

Post by manuelabeledo » Wed, Jun 08, 2022, 3:14 PM UTC

This happened to me with Google.

Apparently, 10+ years ago, I showed some interest in some Google product aimed at developers. It's been so long, I cannot even recall which one.

For the past 5-6 years, I've been receiving emails from Google recruiters. When I finally asked one where did they get my address, he said that I was labeled in their "database" as a software engineer, and that "database" is shared across the whole organisation.