

How To Handle Recruiter Calls - dweekly
http://blog.dweek.ly/how-to-handle-recruiter-calls/

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BigBlueSaw
Politely inform them that you're not looking right now. Ask them to e-mail you
a job description so that if you happen across anyone who meets the
requirements, you can put them in touch.

There's no need to go nuclear on them. After all, they might be able to do you
a favor one day.

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pbiggar
I disagree. I get 4 phone calls a day from recruiters trying to sell me
"talent" for my startup. They refuse to get off the phone when I politely tell
them we have a policy of not using recruiters, follow up by email, and then of
course they call again next month. My phone going off causes a distraction,
causing me to fall out of the zone and waste a few minutes as I try to figure
out why they're calling and try to politely get them off the phone.

Really, they are absolute fuckers with no consideration for anyone but
themselves, and going nuclear is long past due.

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BigBlueSaw
How about not answering the phone unless you recognize the number?

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pbiggar
Unfortunately, that's completely incompatible with being the CEO of a growing
company that prides itself on support and puts its (that is, my) phone number
on the website.

Also, this is a bit blaming the victim. My phone is for productive
conversations I want to have, not a direct line into my soul for parasites.

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fecak
Recruiter here. I've written on this topic before (notably here
<http://jobtipsforgeeks.com/2012/09/17/disrupt/>), but a major part of the
problem is the incentives built into the contingency recruiting model. It's a
competitive rat race that is the reason behind both the incessant cold calling
and the barrage of resumes sent to companies hoping that one will stick. It's
an industry with no barrier to entry with huge potential payoff. I don't think
most engineers realize how much good recruiters actually make.

I make relatively few cold calls now, as you shouldn't need to once you are
established, but that takes time. The problem now is that there are simply too
many recruiters in the marketplace (again due to low barrier to entry and high
payoff), and contingency recruiting firms are more than willing to pay recent
liberal arts majors from mediocre schools pennies to make calls all day (I'm
qualified to say this with my Bachelors in Econ from Delaware).

Companies that farm out their work to 20 contingency firms fuel this fire.
Find 1-2 good firms, pay them some money up front and make them earn the rest.
My fees are much lower than contingency firms, because I'm willing to take
less if my client is willing to absorb part of my risk. Contingency firm had
100% risk, retained firm has 0% risk (some variation) - find somewhere in the
middle with a recruiter you trust.

If you are a company hiring manager or startup founder, tell recruiters your
company works with recruiters at 10% fees - they should stop calling to
solicit your business (but may start soliciting your employees, because in a
world with finite talent resources, if you aren't a potential client you are a
potential source).

If you are being called with opportunities, that is tough to solve, but making
a reference on a LinkedIn profile that you are not interested in recruiter
contacts should help. I make few cold calls, but always honor that request
when I see it. Keep in mind - when I got into the business in 98, before
LinkedIn and when you had to really hunt, many people were somewhat rude when
called. A few years later when the market went south, these people became much
more friendly. Recruiters don't control the job market by any means, and they
are having less and less overall influence as an industry every year it seems
as technology makes them a little less necessary. Be nice to them the first
time, maybe take a second to tell them what they are doing wrong, set a
guideline with them (you can ping me every n months)and if they pester you
after that, do whatever feels right.

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webwanderings
I don't like LinkdIn (I don't like to put up my profile on any social media
platform because they are all alike). How do I circumvent this personal
preference and still be out there looking? How do I satisfactorily answer that
I have no interest in sharing LinkdIn with you?

~~~
fecak
Not sure I follow. You don't have a LinkedIn, so you have no LinkedIn profile
to share. There is no reason to tell someone you have no interest in sharing
something that doesn't exist, is there? Maybe I am misunderstanding. If you
want to be out there looking and be in touch with recruiters, it looks as
though you are going to have to find them if they are unable to find you.

~~~
webwanderings
It is as if the whole professional world is on LinkdIn and I am resisting
alone. The pressure is too great and I am looking for ways to circumvent the
pressure. I am sure there must be others out there with this kind of
mentality.

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1123581321
The problem is that the retaining company doesn't receive black marks for
hiring bad recruiters because the companies are anonymous until the candidate
shows strong interest (and this were happy to receive the call.)

I can think of two healthier payout structures. One is for the recruiting
company to pay regardless of results and better instruct the recruiter what to
do and not do (this would be followed more closely since there would be little
incentive to spam.) The other is to retain the firm and pay an earnout for
every candidate hired during that period regardless of source, with the
understanding that the recruiter must identify the company that is hiring.

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tonystubblebine
I appreciate this article for taking an angle I'd never thought of, actually
getting recruiters to stop by punishing them. But if you're not going to
actually take those steps, I wrote up a different set of tips.
<https://medium.com/tony-stubblebine/cda0c5da9c8e>

Recruiters can be infuriating, so the true cost of the call is the 10 seconds
it took for you to hang up on them plus the 15 minutes it takes to calm down.
As an example, I hung up on someone yesterday who called right back with this
line, "Are you that fast will all your women."

They're relentless.

Anyway, the TLDR; version of my trick in the Medium post above is to have a
script that's very happy but which leads to you hanging up no matter what
response they give you. Somehow that lets me imagine that I'm having a polite
conversation regardless of how they try to trap me.

I'm usually super calm, but these calls used to get under my skin and distract
me. I can't have that.

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nreese
I find it amusing that most companies are irritated by recruiters (Yes we can
be annoying) trying to sell them their services. Have you ever stopped to
think that the organisation you are in, or work for drives people mad trying
to sell it's products also? 90% of companies use cold calling as a mechanism
to generate sales.

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gallinaponedora
How can they earn that much? Most of them are useless as professionals and
worthless as human beings. Real mystery for me.

