
Ask HN: How do you deal with recruiters when you are not actively looking? - tpae
I have a decent amount of recruiters reaching out to me on a daily basis even though I am not looking for a position.<p>Most of the time, I don&#x27;t respond because it takes too much time to follow up. I try to accept LinkedIn requests, but I do feel bad when I don&#x27;t respond back within couple days, sometimes weeks.<p>My questions are:<p>- Will it hurt my chances in the future when I am trying to apply for the position?<p>- How would you deal with it, what is the most professional thing to do?
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logn
I don't respond under the assumption that the recruiters are sending hundreds
of messages and really only care about responses from people who are
interested. I assume my lack of response won't be noticed and that notifying
them I'm not interested only creates more distraction for them.

Also, I never accept connection requests from recruiters. The reason they
normally request to connect is because with that request is the only way to
deliver a message for free (and after they're connected they can message you
forever). And I like my contact list to be only people relevant to me--it's
nice to scan my contacts occasionally and see where people are working now,
and to see status updates from only people I care about.

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MalcolmDiggs
On a human level, they're just folks trying to make a living; so I usually try
to respond fairly quickly, and politely (except to the mass email blasts,
screw that). I just try and say "thank you for reaching out, I'm happy at my
current position at the moment, but please do keep me in mind as you come
across new opportunities in the future"...or something like that. And then I
remind them of _what_ I actually do, (since they most-likely contacted me
about something I'm not remotely qualified for).

On a business level, you're a walking pile of money to them. So it really
doesn't matter _when_ you start being responsive; they'll be happy to engage
whenever you're ready.

~~~
collyw
>On a human level, they're just folks trying to make a living;

In my experience they are pushy, annoying, slimy people, often less than
generous with the truth.

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scottlocklin
Molotov cocktails, mustard gas and, for the semi-civilized ones, bullwhips.

While I have worked with two recruiters who rose to the level of honorary
members of the human race, by and large, there is a reason they are called
"pimps" on Wall Street. More recruiters have screwed me out of work than have
gotten me work. Most of them are less ethical than used car salesmen. They
will spam your CV all over creation hoping for a bite from a fish, and they
get preposterous payoffs for "knowing" you. They almost never listen, they
provide little value to any of the parties concerned, and I am looking forward
to the day when this job role is obsoleted by software.

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chrisbennet
Don't accept LinkedIn request from recruiters - ever.

Reason: Your linkedin relationships/connections can help you find people you
have in common - your old colleague Bob can vouch for you to Mary who works
for a company you'd like to work for. If you accept a recruiter, now your
LinkedIn connections list is polluted with hundreds of 2nd level relationships
- people you have nothing in common with except that they accepted a linkedin
request from the same recruiter.

You can remove these "bad" connections after the fact so its not the end of
the world.

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iurisilvio
I assume any recruiter who add me in LinkedIn just don't know anything about
me. They are just trying to get my attention to fill some programming job,
probably not related with anything I really know.

If they really want to work with me, It is easy to find my contacts.

Some recruiters send me emails and I answer nicely. If they sent me a good
position (matching my skills), I even congratulate them for the effort. This
is rare.

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dwarman
I only respond to contacts who address me by name and show they have actually
read my cv, not just reacted to search term hits. That said, my response is
typically "thankyou, I'll keep you in mind should circumstances change".

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pmiller2
I'd love to have this problem.

