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Please don't spam people looking for employment. It's just cruel

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Re: Please don't spam people looking for employment. It's just cruel

#51
post #26

Have you gotten the "hey, wanna be a North Korean proxy?" offer yet?

Does that happen?? I’ve always been curious how those things go down

They say they're a software developer from a poor country looking for someone willing to leave their laptop on overnight for a 50% split of the paycheck. I got one a long time ago, they even mentioned they need help because their can't do the work from an IP of their country. Needless to say I just trashed the email and only figured out it was one of those after reading about the NK employee scandal on here.

Re: Please don't spam people looking for employment. It's just cruel

#52
post #42

My email is filled with junk from cybersecurity "experts" telling me that my open source project is "very compromised" and that they will gladly reveal to me what the issue is, if I commit to paying them a bug bounty. I get at least a few every week. I hate them, but I feel like we are well past the point where in any place where there is money to be made, the majority of cold outreach will be from semi-personalized…

Reminds me of all the recruiters who reach out to me saying they're working on filling some engineer position but never say the company name, and when asked, they want to have a call. Stop wasting my time, STATE THE COMPANY UPFRONT AND AT THE TOP, preferably in the subject line

They can't, otherwise a significant fraction of the people they reach out to would just skip the head hunter and contact the company directly.

Same reason these same head hunters will usually strip any direct-contact details out of your resume before sending on to companies -- they don't want those companies running around them and contacting the candidate directly.

IMO, these people are all grifters and uses-car-salesman. Their goal is to get as many people as possible to use them to change jobs so they get bonuses. They provide little-to-no value add in the actual process and will actively try to shovel you toward shitty companies and dead-end roles, despite how well they dress them up.

You are ~20-50%~ cheaper (typical is 30% IIRC) in the first year of your employment if you are a direct hire instead of going through a recruiter, from a hiring manager's perspective. If you switch jobs often this compounds to make your offer chances lower as well if you're going through a head hunter (I've been part of these discussions from hiring side).

Re: Please don't spam people looking for employment. It's just cruel

#53
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speak for yourself, I’m voting this to the top.

Well, yeah, but spammers still aren't going to care. We are not talking about decent or reflective people here.

The great benefit is, initially, to know that you're not alone. And indeed, the OP is very much not alone. The suffering is much greater when you think it's just you going through it; when you connect with others in the same boat, real solutions present themselves be they political or technical and together you have the strength to face it.

Re: Please don't spam people looking for employment. It's just cruel

#54

My email is filled with junk from cybersecurity "experts" telling me that my open source project is "very compromised" and that they will gladly reveal to me what the issue is, if I commit to paying them a bug bounty. I get at least a few every week. I hate them, but I feel like we are well past the point where in any place where there is money to be made, the majority of cold outreach will be from semi-personalized…

Whether it helps or not—the typical contact like this hasn’t been a human for decades now. What I’m seeing these days is materially almost identical to what went out ten years ago. Basic form letter with a cover sentence or paragraph of either no relevance, or a tenuous but normally ill-researched claim at relevance.

[flagged]

Re: Please don't spam people looking for employment. It's just cruel

#57
post #16

As a general rule, if someone ever posts any kind of career troubles on any platform, the only correct responses should contain sympathy or a relevant career opportunity. Anything else is so callous. Hang in there Ilia, you're not the only one hurting, and don't apologize for venting. Most of us in the HN community are far more supportive.

[flagged]

Re: Please don't spam people looking for employment. It's just cruel

#59
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whether it helps or not—the typical contact like this hasn’t been a human for decades now. What I’m seeing these days is materially almost identical to what went out ten years ago. Basic form letter with a cover sentence or paragraph of either no relevance, or a tenuous but normally ill-researched claim at relevance.

[flagged]

No space em dash = a real person who has been bulldozed by LLMs using it with spaces.
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