I Always Respond To and Thank Recuiters (opens in new tab)

I do this whenever a recruiter uses a code word from my linked in profile. It states at the bottom "If you are a recruiter and contacting me about an opportunity, please use the word 'crabs' so I know you have actually read my profile. Thanks"

For actual emails (real, or through linkedin mail) I'll always try to respond with a polite "thanks but no thanks".

What absolutely drives me crazy is the linkedin invite spam were they indicate that you worked together at "Recruiting Services LLC". No. We didn't. You're lying; why would I want to start a professional relationship on a lie?

The tragedy there is it lowers the value of all of linkedin for me.

I try to do this, too, for the same reasons.

(Well, it's far from 100%, but I at least make a point to politely decline the higher-quality recruiting mails, like those that reference my work and get into specifics of the position. So far I haven't regretted it.)

I respond and give feedback on their pitch. I find that most recruiters just copy paste things and usually I think, "even if i was in the market for a job, this would turn me off".

So I tell them what I think they should do to get better responses from the people they want to recruit. Hopefully people don't think I'm selling out my kind (whatever that is).

Here is a recent interaction:

Recruiter:

...They are an auction house that is experiencing steady growth and are in need of a hands on Director of Technology. They need someone who is comfortable handling all of the development responsibilities and knows how to delegate when necessary. Ideally they would like this person to be strong in Python, Django, PHP, MySQL and PostGre SQL but are open to seeing someone who is strong with a couple and willing to learn the others....

Me:

Thanks for thinking of me, but I'm not looking for anything at this time.

Also, advice on your pitch to other tech people that will probably improve your hit rate:

1. asking for someone who is good at python and django is mostly redundant -- just ask for django, as it is a python based framework. asking for both makes it look like "credential bingo"

2. same, asking for python and php is a little crazy for single products -- its extremely rare for small companies to be using both in any meaningful capacity as they are basically replacements. this is like asking for a chef at a restaurant that is an expert at japanese cuisine and italian cuisine. sure they exist, but its improbable that you'll use it at the same restaurant.

3. MySQL and Postgres -- same thing -- these are replacements. (a) most people who are good enough at one will figure out the other, (b) the meaningful differences here only manifest themselves at extremely deep levels, where DATABASE expertise is what you are looking for, not a CTO.

Consider it friendly advice from someone who has recruited a lot of tech folk, feel free to ignore.

Awesome, a little decency can make everyone's life better.

As someone who has hired lots of people, I always make sure that I email every candidate who applied and also let them know when the position has been filled. Treat people as you would want to be treated.

When I was looking for work I was amazed at the number of recruiters who contacted me regarding roles which didn't match my skillset. I've now found a great job, but because of this experience when I've been contacted recently by recruiters who have matched me with roles which I would be a good fit for, I respond and thank them and explain that I'm not looking at the moment.

Everything else I laugh at and ignore.

That's fair. I think the main frustration comes from recruiters that mislead.

The primary lie seems to be, "We want to hire YOU!" along the lines of "You've been pre-qualified!" junk mail.

I'm with you. I thank every recruiter who calls, and actively look for 1 or 2 leads that may help them.

Yes, there are awful recruiters out there, but there are plenty of good ones just working hard for a living. What goes around comes around, and helping them will increase the chance of getting that incoming call when you need it most.

The last point is when I need to sell something, I'd much rather hear, "Thanks, I'm not interested, but X or Y may be" than get hung up on, or disrespected.

I typically respond fairly abruptly, asking where specifically they got my contact details.

If they respond nicely, and with a plausible explaination I'll generally thank for them for their interest, but tell them I'm not interested and have a nice day.

If they're hostile about it/obviously lie I'll typically blackhole them and mark as spam/internally subscribe them to my "people I will personally ruin when I'm godking of this domain" list.

Funny. I was thinking exactly the same thing today after seeing one more "here is what I do to punish recruiters" posts. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6063951