
An Open Letter To Recruiters - paddyforan
http://paddy.io/posts/recruiters/
======
hodgesmr
I'm always perplexed at how annoyed the dev community gets at recruiters.
Sure, it's weird when they don't put forth an effort, but come on, you're
getting unsolicited job offers multiple times a week! We're EXTREMELY lucky
that our industry is flourishing right now. So many people have been
unemployed for months (years) and they can't so much as get a phone-call.

Take the recruitment as flattery. If you're not interested, delete it and move
on. Better yet, forward it to someone who might be interested.

~~~
jaredsohn
These are not "job offers". And getting contacted doesn't guarantee an
interview either.

(But it is still good to treat people considering you as a job prospect as
flattery.)

~~~
darylfritz
> _getting contacted doesn 't guarantee an interview either_

I think this is the part that bothers me most. If a headhunter contacts me,
why am I not given the inside-track for the interview?

------
untog
_Look, if my LinkedIn profile shows I just started a job three months ago, I
am almost certainly not looking to move jobs right now._

I noticed that last time I changed jobs I got a flood of e-mails just after I
changed my LinkedIn profiles. It was deliberate, too - they'd start "I noticed
you just started at X - if it isn't what you had hoped...", which is actually
relatively smart in recruiter terms.

My pet peeve: calling me on my work phone number. I don't even know what my
work phone number is, but presumably recruiters call the front desk and asked
to be put through to me. It's shockingly unprofessional - as if I'm going to
discuss an opportunity while I sit near my co-workers and boss.

~~~
smtddr
Same here!

Once they called the frontdesk and left a message for me to get back to
them(cuz I have no work number).

They also called the frontdesk for a coworker and lied that they were someone
that played tennis with him months ago. When the coworker called back, the
recruiter admitted he lied because he thought the frontdesk wouldn't relay the
message if he said the truth... o_O;

Another thing, is I _really_ wish they'd stop emailing me at work.... or maybe
my company should give us the option to stop routing
firstname.lastname@companyname.com from external sources. It's terrible to get
that "Exciting Job opportunity" email pop-up when other coworkers are looking
at my screen. I've disabled that notification-alert in my email
client(Thunderbird) because of that. My LinkedIn contact-info says not to
contact me with any other medium besides LinkedIn's InMail. It also says the
office must be walkable from a BART station and organic food locations must be
nearby for lunch(I know, I'm a spoiled bayarea techie).

Nobody reads my LinkedIn conact-info since I always get stuff that misses
these requirements. If anyone from LinkedIn is reading this, you should give
the option to make the contact-info section very conspicuous. I want mine to
be freaking glowing bright red. In fact, just let us have custom CSS like the
hatenablog platform.

~~~
untog
You're aiming way too high with requirements stating organic food locations.
My LinkedIn requirements stated "no recruiters", yet lo and behold...

------
tptacek
I mean this is nice and all, but it's a little like writing an open letter to
a real estate agent. It's a transactional business. Your problem isn't with
recruiters, it's with the recruiting model.

~~~
paddyforan
Oh, I know. I expect to have to send it to each of them, manually, in response
to bad pitches. And I expect 99.99999% will ignore it.

But if, in my entire career, I can help one recruiter suck less, it was all
worth it.

I guess I'm just an optimist like that.

~~~
Joeboy
I guess it's worth sending a thousand unwanted emails if you get just one
conversion.

~~~
paddyforan
We can all go home, you've won the thread.

------
snorkel
Please spare us with the royal attitude. Congratulations, you know how
computers work, and so do thousands of other people who work harder and
cheaper than you. Recruiters don't care if you, candidate number 947392, is
annoyed or not. They simply want to know if you're going to the damn interview
or not. If not then goodbye, next. If you go to the interview, and you didn't
embarrass the recruiter for suggesting you, then good job, thank you candidate
number 947whatever, you did your job. If you actually get an offer letter, oh
boy, you did a very good job! Recruiter gets 10k after you worked that job for
3 months. Wash, rinse, repeat. You are not special.

~~~
paddyforan
How uppity of me, to let my desire to work in a job I like get in the way of a
recruiter's money.

I am thoroughly cowed. I've seen the error of my ways. Thank you.

~~~
snorkel
Not your fault. Recruiters make you feel special because they want you to just
go the interview, but in reality you're the commodity being traded, and the
real customer is the employer. Frankly recruiters hate me because I know how
they operate and call them out on their bullshit.

If you want to stump a recruiter just ask "Why does does company X want to
talk to me? What did they find so interesting about me?" Bad recruiters have
no answer because they're just tossing candidates at roles and hoping
something sticks.

------
codegeek
I hear from recruiters all the time. I sometimes even get on the phone with
them just to get an idea of what they are pitching regardless of my status. I
don't mind them contacting me via linkedin etc in general.

The important realization is that it is not the recruiters necessarily but the
recruiting ecosystem which is broken. Hiring is broken but not for recruiters.
They love the current model of placing someone for a fee. Basically, the bad
recruiters exist only because their _clients_ don't give a shit about hiring
(well most of them and hence the need for these recruiters). I will say this
carefully but again "majority of clients do not give a shit". This translates
to "Hey we are too busy with real work and so go find me a fish". Out comes
these recruiters and search agents. Thanks to places like linkedin lately, all
they have to do is to create an account and start fishing.

What if employers/clients actually invest their _own_ time in recruiting ?
What if they ask their team members to recruit actively and even compensate
them in some way (may be a boost in performance review ?). But no, we won't do
that. We have lot more important shit to worry about.

Recruiting unfortunately is a numbers game (kinda like sales)and recruiters
(read: sales people) have no incentive to stop doing what they are doing. The
barrier to entry is way too low as well which doesn't help.

There are very good recruiters out there and I do know a few good ones too.
Kinda like a needle in a haystack but even they have to compete with the
sleazy ones.

~~~
doktrin
> _What if employers /clients actually invest their own time in recruiting ?
> What if they ask their team members to recruit actively and even compensate
> them in some way (may be a boost in performance review ?). But no, we won't
> do that. We have lot more important shit to worry about._

Is this how large tech companies operate? I have mostly worked at startups,
and am currently employed with a research institution. At no point have I ever
gone through a recruiter when switching employers. In my limited experience,
team members have always been the ones to directly manage their hiring and
recruitment efforts.

------
nimblegorilla
Maybe it's just me, but expecting recruiters to research your sexual
orientation seems a bit over the top. Why don't you just work with local
recruiters.

~~~
paddyforan
It's as easy to figure out I have a boyfriend as it is to figure out what I
look for in a company. Or what my preferred stack is. I'm not really subtle
about it. But I'll give you that one; it's possible to get a good pitch for a
state I wouldn't consider working in, assuming it has some other evidence that
they know something about me other than "Matched my search results for 'writes
Python sometimes'".

I don't work with local recruiters because _I'm not looking for a job_.

------
mathattack
From the bio _I’m friendly. I don’t bite. Feel free to say hi._

That certainly doesn't match the Open Letter.

Recruiters are there doing a job, and it's not an easy one. I have a lot of
sympathy for them. Treat them nice, because at some point in your future,
you'll be looking for a job too. The ones that you treated well ("This job
isn't for me, but try calling X who is looking") will remember it.

~~~
paddyforan
I'm sorry you don't consider it friendly. Personally, telling them why their
pitch didn't work felt friendlier than just assuming they had no interest in
improving and ignoring them, which is the other tenable option.

It would be unfriendly for me to send recruiters after friends without knowing
if the friend is actually a match for the company or not. At least in my
opinion.

~~~
avn2109
+1 for honest feedback. The world could use more of that.

~~~
paddyforan
I'd say _kind_ honest feedback.

If I'm being unkind in my feedback, I would love to tweak it to be kinder.

------
InstajobMick
I think in all the time I have been contracting (and full time employed too
for that matter) I can only remember one recruiter that was any good: He was
knowledgeable about my field (I was an AD/Exchange consultant at the time) and
I didn't feel that he was trying to make a pay cheque off me... but I can only
remember one.

All the rest are just salesmen: I get emails from them these days and the
first line is now "If this isn't your kind of job (paraphrasing here) then
please pass it on to someone who you think would want it!" \- Great pitch
guys!

I don't like them and I don't actually know a single person in the tech game
that has had decent dealings with them.

So for the last couple of months, at night, weekends, on the train etc. I have
been working on Instajob ([https://instajob.biz](https://instajob.biz)) to
basically skip round the recruitment agents.

Only just went online so it's early days but I think they need a shakeup!

Anyway, my $0.02

Mick

------
jrjarrett
So the only "recruiters" I ever get contacting me are for body-shop type firms
(TekSystems, Robert Half). I've talked to them and I tell them that I'm
comfortable where I am, but if you can find me something better, I'm willing
to listen.

And I explain where I am being compensated now, and explain "better" would
have to beat those things.

They say "oh, yes, we can!" and then of course, the only thing that may be
even slightly better is the rate, but all other benefits are essentially zero
(vacation time, sick time, health insurance).

I would LOVE to be contacted by a real recruiter.

~~~
paddyforan
I'll start forwarding you all my recruiter emails! :)

~~~
jrjarrett
Uh, thanks?

 _suspects this is in the class of Things To Be Careful What You Wish For_

------
lugg
The bad ones will never tell you outright, too worried you'll cut them out or
tell your other recruiters. I have a couple of good ones I pretty much deal
with exclusively. If I get a spam op from another recruiter I'll tell my real
recruiter to go pitch me to company x (if I'm actually interested).

Sure its pretty ruthless but its not really my problem these guys look out for
me and only bother me with calls about companies they know I'd fit with. They
also leave me alone for years on end until I initiate the "I'm looking again"
"protocol"

------
storyhound
Full disclosure: I'm not a recruiter or a coder. I'm a publicist. Instead of
pitching Very Important Programmers all day, I pitch Very Important Editors.
But, unsurprisingly, the things that make a great story pitch are the same
things that make a great recruiting pitch. You're completely right - research,
knowing your audience and his/her skills, history, and interests, are more
important than anything else. Candidness and full disclosure are key, as is
professionalism. And receiving dozens of emails a day from people who pitch
without abiding by those processes is probably a huge pain in the ass.

However.

I think it's also important to realize, from a recruiter's perspective, that
not everyone feels the same way you do. How would a recruiter know, before you
posted this extremely condescending letter, that you're too important to speak
to anyone but your mother on the phone? Some people prefer the phone to email
(I certainly think it can be more efficient, especially when dealing with
Q&A). How would a recruiter know that you actually WANT to not be considered
for amazing jobs in certain areas because of your sexuality? (In my thinking,
that's a type of discrimination that should be discouraged.) How is a
recruiter to know that what would be too much detail in a job description for
another potential hire is not enough detail for you? Or vice-verse?

Everyone is busy. Recruiters are busy, programmers are busy, stay at home moms
are busy, CEOs are busy. As soon as you think you're too important and busy to
show other people respect, there's a problem.

I certainly think you're right about many things. Publicists who send blanket
mass pitches that begin "Dear editor," give the rest of us a bad rap and make
our jobs that much harder. But closing your letter with "Most engineers hate
recruiter pitches not because we hate being pitched, it’s because we hate
dealing with recruiters" tells me even if a recruiter follows all of your
guidelines and sends you amazing pitches, you'll still think of him/her as a
less important person than you, and treat her/him accordingly - simply because
of the career they've happened to choose. As a person who's been on the
receiving end of emails like yours before (along the lines of "I don't deal
with publicists") I can tell you you're not going to gain a lot of respect by
making sure everyone knows how Very Important you are. If I were a top
recruiter and happened to read this, you can bet I wouldn't bother approaching
you in the future - I'd look for someone who communicates like he remembers
what it's like to not be on top.

~~~
paddyforan
Disclosure: I am not a Very Important Programmer.

Second Disclosure: I am not on top.

Were either of these different, I might feel differently than I do.

Some people do prefer email to the phone. I have no problem with a recruiter
_offering_ the option to have a phone call. I have problems with recruiters
_requiring_ the phone call before I can even talk to someone who will make a
decision. Hell, the last recruiter blatantly told me they would not _tell me
the name of the company they were hiring for_ until I was on the phone with
them. Perhaps it's my arrogance, but that doesn't to be a matter of "some
people like the phone better".

You are right, not every recruiter needs to read my blog or Twitter enough to
realise that I have a boyfriend. That is a terrible example. I'll iterate on
it with an updated draft that better gets across the point--perhaps a
suggesting I work in an enterprise environment would be a better example, as
I'm decidedly unsuited to that environment, and that's obvious if you know
anything about me at all.

I believe a bare minimum of a job description--the company they're hiring for,
something about the culture or problem they're solving, the stack they use,
maybe why they think you'd be a good candidate--is probably a good bet. I get
too many recruiter emails like my sample that don't tell me, quite literally,
anything about the company. At all. No name. No website. No size. Nothing that
would allow me to determine if this is an opportunity I should pursue or not.

I believe I pointed out that recruiters are busy and that I am busy. I am well
aware I'm not the only busy person out there. :) If you think this is
disrespectful, I'd certainly love to find ways to fix this.

I think you may be unfamiliar with the level of interaction recruiters
provide. The publicists sending the mass pitches you describe are the bad
recruiter pitches I am talking about. It is not a matter of me having very
specific guidelines for how I am spoken to before I'll consider a job; it's a
matter of an industry whose norm is to type in search terms, then hit all the
results with a form letter.

This letter is in case one of those who are trying to do a good job are seeing
everyone else use the form letter and assuming that is how it's done. Or who
simply don't know how to put themselves into an engineer's shoes to
effectively communicate a pitch.

I resent your accusation that I believe recruiters are somehow beneath me. I
actually, as I mentioned, believe recruiters have a really cool job. I don't
have the aptitude for it, but I do not believe that making lights flash in a
pleasing pattern is somehow a worthier job than connecting people to jobs that
fulfill them. And yes, there are recruiters I love. They are the ones I send
referrals to when a friend asks who is hiring. They are the ones I seek out.
Which, for a recruiter, is a powerful card to hold in a limited market. I'm
trying to give as many recruiters that card as I can.

I deal with recruiters all the time. I got my current job through a recruiter.
He was fantastic. I have nothing against recruiters, or I would just set up a
spam filter and call it a day.

I wrote this because I ask for feedback when I'm in the hiring process, so it
struck me that recruiters might also like feedback. It seems to me that this
is the opposite of what you accuse me of; if I didn't care about the
recruiter, considered them lesser, or didn't think they cared about their job,
why would I care if they got the feedback they needed to improve? I'd ignore
them and move on. It's certainly less effort.

And it results in fewer people assuming I think my ass is the gravitational
pull of the universe without bothering to find out anything about me.

------
logn
I don't like recruiters either but I think writing an open letter is going too
far. I don't choose to make it my problem that recruiters suck. When I go to a
sports game and get pestered by ticket scalpers, I don't lecture the scalpers
on how the could be using more effective methods to sell their tickets and get
all angry about how I'm tired of being offered tickets.

~~~
paddyforan
So...

what you're telling me is you're tired of being offered posts on my blog and I
could be using more effective methods? O:)

~~~
logn
Ah, touché.

------
timjahn
Seems like it's every week or so now that a developer writes a letter like
this to recruiters. Trust me, I completely agree - recruiters suck.

But I'm wondering if the recruiters you're actually trying to reach are simply
never going to listen and never stop their ways. That's just not who they are.

Somebody needs to fix the recruiting industry, for realz.

~~~
untog
I'm not convinced it's that broken, though - at least from the recruiter's
perspective. I have no doubt they pick up many candidates - those of us that
are more "discerning" as just the collateral damage.

~~~
timjahn
I'm thinking that recruiter's being able to pick up large amounts of
candidates doesn't necessarily equal success. Success would be defined as
companies getting the right fit for their job openings.

Simply filling those job openings every time does not mean the right fit is
found every time.

~~~
untog
_Simply filling those job openings every time does not mean the right fit is
found every time._

Again, though, success from whose perspective? If the recruiter gets their
commission, it is a success for them.

~~~
timjahn
Agreed. The model is broken.

Maybe success shouldn't be considered success unless the fit is right.

------
joesmo
"Talking to you on the phone is, 100% of the time, an absolutely useless
exercise for me."

Couldn't agree more. I don't understand the desire of recruiters to talk in
person. This must be something that they are required to do for a number of
hours per day, I assume. I appreciate recruiters who can appreciate my time
and not waste it.

------
grey-area
A better solution to cut the flow of low-quality recruiter spam - delete your
linkedin profile. If you have your own website, that's going to be a far
better conduit for attracting interesting job offers and professional contact.

------
gopher1
If they tell you the company, what's stopping you from turning them down and
going directly to the company? I'm pretty sure that's the main reason they
don't tell you the company.

~~~
darylfritz
To me, the recruiter is representing the company. If they're reaching out to
me, I'd like to think I already have an "in" with the company. Why would I
circumvent that and go in alone?

~~~
Bahamut
Salary?

------
rondon2
The recruiters I hear from on linked-in use a shotgun method where they send
out 100 e-mails and hope to get a few people to write back. Paddy, do you get
personalized e-mails from recruiters?

~~~
paddyforan
Totally! I've had some great recruiters reach out to me. I've gotten bad
pitches that were actually personalized, too. But I've also gotten the
shotgun.

Obviously, no hope for the shotgun. I hold out hope for the bad pitches.

------
nsmnsf
> B) not respond at all, depending on how good the rest of your pitch was.

Why are you doing anything but this, in any situation? Delete/mark as spam,
move on.

~~~
rubiquity
Because then he couldn't write a blog post that is partially a thinly-veiled
brag about how much he gets hit up for jobs!

~~~
paddyforan
And oh, man you should see the amount of junk mail and spam I get too!

Be jealous of how frequently telemarketers call me!

You nailed it, ace.

~~~
justathrow2k
What is the intent of the blog post tho, if not just some vanity thing? Are
you expecting recruiters to read this, are you forwarding this link to
recruiters who send you emails? It feels like what you're saying is most
likely not going to reach, or have an effect, on the intended audience.

~~~
paddyforan
Every interview I take, if I don't get offered the job, I ask for feedback on
what I should have done in my past to take the job. Why did I fail? What
should I be working on?

This post is that answer for recruiters. I've typed it out individually, over
and over again, in response to bad pitches, highlighting what they did wrong
and how they could have succeeded or saved themselves time.

This is a time-consuming thing for me to do, but I feel it's justified if it
helps even one recruiter. So this is my shorthand way of handling it--just
link them to the post instead of rewriting it for every single recruiter.

Most will ignore it. Maybe all will ignore it. But if a recruiter is sincerely
trying to do a good job, it will provide them with useful information as to
why their pitch was ineffective and how to improve it.

If I was a recruiter, this is the kind of feedback I'd want from someone I was
trying to recruit, so this is the kind of feedback I offer to people trying to
recruit me.

------
DyslexicAtheist
ahh, recruiting and tech - these 2 worlds will never meet. I worked in both.
Here is some insider tricks I learned:
[http://valbonneconsulting.wordpress.com/2014/01/13/breakingn...](http://valbonneconsulting.wordpress.com/2014/01/13/breakingnews-
hapless-recruiter-searching-for-lamp-developer-hires-electrician/)

------
mightybrenden
you won't have to deal with recruiters if you use Mighty Spring
(www.mightyspring.com)

