

Ask HN: What do recruiters do that annoys you? - rjspotter

What kinds of things to recruiters say or do (or not say and not do) that annoy you the most?<p>Especially in their cold emails and cold calls.
======
edent
\- Spends ages talking about what a great opportunity it is, then switches to
"So what are _your_ resourcing needs?"

\- Not telling me the name of the employer. I kinda need to know that if I'm
to write an effective CV. Or if I want to move to where they're based.

\- Emailing my work address. Last think I want is my Outlook to pop-up a
notification saying "Thanks for the job application" while I'm presenting to
my boss.

\- Lying. So many do this - they lie about salary, experience needed,
benefits, location, timescales.

There are some good recruiters out there - but a lot of charlatans as well.

------
computerjunkie
Where do I start.

1\. "My client is a leading company in x..."(does the client have a name?)

2\. "My client is looking for university graduates from a top 20
university..."(so because I didn't go to Harvard/MIT/Oxford/Cambridge et.al
you wont consider my application)

3\. "Fast paced environment which is constantly changing..."(this company
sounds like a confused sweatshop which decides to chose another technology
because they hit technical debt.)

4\. Experience in
C/Haskell/Python/Java/C#/F#/Clojure/Lisp/Erlang/Rust/GO/Ruby/Assembly/Forth/Brainfuck...(Signs
of a dodgy recruiter)

5\. "Github account a must and you should have a contributing history to
opensource"...(I use open source, I'm a huge fan of it, but because I didn't
contribute to it means I can't get a job? Clearly this recruiter is following
media trends. And what if I don't want a Github account, with what happened a
couple of days ago[0] I would be pretty concerned about having one(though
awesome work for getting the message out Github, other companies would just
keep quiet and hope nobody notices))

6\. Graduate with 2 years of commercial experience(I just finished university
when I "learn" hoping to get that experience which you are asking for.)

I could probably write a blog post. I probably will when I get the energy. HR
is a dodgy industry which doesn't know a lot about each of the sector it works
with.

[0] [http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/12/critical-git-bug-
all...](http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/12/critical-git-bug-allows-
malicious-code-execution-on-client-machines/)

------
phantom_oracle
Asking for X years experience in a technology that is Y years old:

X > Y

Seeing cookie-cutter job descriptions (companies always talk about keeping CVs
short, so why do they let recruiters write out template-style blocks of text
try to magically explain what a great company it is without just saying the
name - in fact, if you are bothered enough, you can work backwards and figure
out the company)

------
pkroll
When a recruiter told me about an awesome opportunity in Michigan (I live in
Chicago), I pointed out that my then-girlfriend probably wouldn't want to move
there. His response? "Sometimes when an opportunity presents itself you have
to evaluate whether a relationship is helping or hurting you."

------
sarciszewski
Pretty much this:

[https://scott.arciszewski.me/blog/2014/08/technology-
recruit...](https://scott.arciszewski.me/blog/2014/08/technology-recruiter-
misery)

------
andsmi2
Cold call or email me. I'll call you, don't call me.

Linked in to me for no specific reason other than to build network.

Tell me about an amazing opportunity that they then forget about when I reach
back out to them.

------
Solsmed
Sending their first email as a connection request on LinkedIn

------
joezydeco
Cold-calling my office receptionist (who has caller ID and also works as an EA
for my boss) and asking for my extension.

------
kedargj
Every opportunity they present is awesome⸮

