
Dear Recruiters - Flopsy
http://dearrecruiters.com/
======
msr101
Recruiter here.

We do not tell you the company name for a few reasons:

1\. If we tell you the name of the company straight off the bat, the next
recruiter will ask you some sneaky questions and get the details of the role
under the guise of trying to find out where you are in the process of looking
for a job. This works more times than you can believe.

2\. Candidates will apply for the role directly because they hate recruiters
or they think they can get a better rate.

3\. Company has specifically mentioned not to disclose the name of the company
until we are sure we have found the right candidate because of reason one,
imagine getting calls from 10 recruiters in a day, not just that IT recruiters
the worst kind of all!

Please note as well that most of these emails are not about this specific
opportunity or getting to interested or compelled to apply its about finding
out if you are looking for new work or open to new roles.

It works and its easy, its not right and it can be annoying but just email
back the recruiter and mention you would like to see all the information you
have on them as per the privacy laws in your country and they'll stop dealing
with you pretty quickly.

~~~
jacques_chester
> _If we tell you the name of the company straight off the bat, the next
> recruiter will ask you some sneaky questions and get the details of the role
> under the guise of trying to find out where you are in the process of
> looking for a job. This works more times than you can believe._

Can you rephrase this? I don't understand what you're trying to say.

~~~
dsr_
He means that all the recruiters are in competition with each other, sometimes
even at the same recruitment company.

As a result, they will all back-stab each other in order to make their
money... which comes from a surtax on your new employer, and thus reduces your
bargaining position.

In the other direction, I've had the same person represented to me by multiple
recruiters a few times. In all cases, the actual person was not at fault.

~~~
subway
This. I live in a relatively small city, so I frequently see 3-4 different
firms ping me on the same job. I'm the kind of person who feels guilty not
sending a frendly no thanks. Usually by the 3rd or 4th recruiter on a gig, I'm
able to respond with 'Oh, this is the <company name here> gig. Thanks, but it
isn't a good fit for me.'

------
lostcolony
"Please, for the love of all that is holy, lead with the company's name.
That's all we ask."

Not so. I also ask that -

You understand the role better than just a list of bullet points and so can
answer questions.

You are in contact with the team that is hiring so that any questions you
can't answer you can get me an answer for.

You have read enough about me to have proactively filtered the job; I'm not
interested in a junior position, nor a lead position requiring a decade of
experience. If you say you think I would be a "great match for this Perl
position!" I will cut you.

You know enough about the industry to accurately sell the job. "An exciting
Java opportunity!" followed by a description that makes it sound like it's
writing business CRUD apps is an oxymoron. And any description that clearly
shows you have no idea what you're talking about ("You must be familiar with
the following languages: Java, HTML, CSS, JSON, OO, Functional") means
immediate deletion from my inbox.

You actually remain in contact until a yea or nay is decided upon, either by
me or the company. Don't just disappear. This also means if you change
positions, you pass your leads to another recruiter. I filter email addresses
of recruiters who don't do this.

------
sharkweek
Or if you're a company being repeatedly contacted by recruitment agencies:

[http://recruitmentcheck.com/](http://recruitmentcheck.com/)

(and also kind of an ass - try just spamming a few letters in each text box)

~~~
luney
Okay this one is hilarious.

I especially liked the box "This question is intentionally left blank"

~~~
radley
> Do you agree with this statement? 'Recruitment is a art'

No, because grammar.

~~~
forgotprevpass
It's (presumably) a joke. See:
[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=trolling+is+a...](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=trolling+is+a+art)

------
hacknat
I don't even understand why you're trying to help them. Good recruiters don't
need your help and the bad ones can leave.

Unless I can tell that an email has been custom tailored to my personal
profile and experience I don't give it the time of day.

A recruiter, in one or two paragraphs, should be able to tell me about the
company (without mentioning the name) and why several items in my personal
history (work experiences, patents, articles written, code bases committed to,
etc) are relevant to what they are trying to do. Anything short of this is
garbage and should be treated as such.

~~~
jonny_eh
Why can't a bad recruiter become a good one?

~~~
hacknat
I didn't say a bad recruiter couldn't become a good recruiter. I said the,
"bad ones can leave", which, I acknowledge, is quite dismissive. What I meant
is, "pay no attention to the bad ones".

------
nsmnsf
> Seriously, we like you.

I don't. I'm not looking for a new job currently. Recruiters aren't any
different than Viagra spammers to me (I'm also not looking for Viagra).

------
dredmorbius
I don't expect a recruiter to lead with the name, but if asked, they'll
provide.

Hell, I'd be happy if they'd lead with the city, state, or country, half the
time.

------
redmattred
Dear Entitled Software Engineers,

Take a step back. You're living during one of highest periods of unemployment
and economic depression in recent history, and you're complaining about being
bombarded with job offers. Usually this is happening on LinkedIn, a website
entirely about having a public resume that shows you are a good candidate to
be hired.

That staffing recruiter who is emailing you probably didn't dream of becoming
a staffing recruiter - they took the job they could get. Most staffing
recruiters are a recent graduates who were recently un/underemployed. They're
working in a cutthroat, sink or swim environment where 40% of their coworkers
won't be there next month. If they don't make their numbers, they're gone.
Most of the jobs they work on are impossibly hard to fill jobs in an industry
they don't know anything about.

Those annoying staffing recruiters also provide liquidity in the labor market.
Remember that 20K salary bump your new employer didn't blink at? That's
because they know how hard it is to hire good software engineers and they
understand the competition they face.

Remember that time you were constantly being proactive about your career,
always checking to see if there might be something better out there? Yah, I
don't do that either, but a good recruiter will.

Yes, there are terrible recruiters out there and many of them are annoying.
But they do serve a purpose to both you and the companies you will work for.

With every good there is a bad. You're lucky enough to be in a position where
thousands of companies are desperate to hire somebody like you. It could be
worse :)

XOXO

------
hackdays
Its annoying when recruiters email you especially when the job description
doesn't quite match your expertise but they think all 'backend roles' mean the
same and you are a perfect match!

The best people to connect talent to job roles are the ones who work in the
same field. aka Referrals!

With that in mind we are creating a platform where you can can bring right
opportunities to talented folks you admire and earn a referral bonus for it
(instead of the recruiters getting rewarded for spam)

Checkout the initial version of
[http://referralhire.com](http://referralhire.com)

~~~
odonnellryan
I actually tend to hate the exact opposite: When they need someone very
experienced in a specific technology, but do not consider a very similar and
related technology.

------
stox
Or better yet, demonstrate that you have done the most basic research into
what the real job entails rather than a vague paragraph submitted to you by
HR. You know, something silly, like spending 5 minutes on the phone with the
manager being recruited for. 10 minutes for extra bonus points.

------
CmonDev
"Awesome companies are facing a talent crunch, and finding the most awesome
software people out there is hard." \- that is the biggest misconception:
looking to buy cheap something that simply is expensive.

------
crorella
Only in the valley...

~~~
Volscio
Applies to just about every industry.

------
gfosco
I was expecting something different, although the part about desperation rings
true.. My "Dear Recruiters" letter would beg them to just Google me, or look
at my LinkedIn... something, anything, spend 10 seconds to find out that I
have a great job at a huge company... then think twice about sending me a lead
for a short-term contract opportunity using a technology I haven't touched in
years at a no-name company in some other random state.

------
jmaha
It's usually pretty easy to find out the company by simply Googling a line or
two of the description as well.

