As a contractor, I am always on the lookout for my next position, whether it is in my local area or remote. In my search, I often use recruiters and LinkedIn to find job opportunities. However, I find that more than 90% of the messages I receive via email or LinkedIn are either for jobs I am not qualified for, are not in my area, or do not allow for remote work. This can be frustrating, as my profile and resume clearly state where I live and what I am looking for in a position.

One morning, while checking my LinkedIn messages, I received a message from a recruiter about a position at Expedia.com in Bellevue, Washington. Given that this was outside of my area and not a remote position, I decided to ask the recruiter why they contacted me in the first place. Below is the unedited conversation (including any spelling errors), with the recruiter’s name and contact information removed.

Recruiter: Dear David, hope you are doing great !! We currently have few open roles that matches your profile. Are you available for a call so that we can discuss further?

Me: Can you tell me more about the positions and where they are located?

Recruiter: The position is in Bellevue, WA with Expedia

Please share me your email id so that I can share you the job description.

Me: (I sent her my email address) I’ve seen their building many times from my trips to Microsoft.

Recruiter: Ahh!

Recruiter: David, I have shared you the description

Please go through, and if you are interested then please share your most updated resume in a word format and also let me know the best time to reach you.

Me: Looks interesting. But I don’t live in that area. Can this job be remote?

Recruiter: No, David. We have this role only in Bellevue

Me: Then why did you contact me about it? Just curious.

Recruiter: I had sent the bulk emails so you might have got. I do have few roles in CA as well but that is only for Java Developers

Me: Ahh. I really wish recruiters would stop doing that. I get so many of these.

Recruiter: but David some of the candidates want to relocate themselves  so that is also the reason, we recruiters send them the request. If you have got disturbed, apologies.

Me: You are saying people are willing to relocate for only 6 months? People with my experience and number of years in the industry?

Recruiter: No this role is Contract to hire role and it can convert into FTE based upon your performance. We never contact the people for small amount of period

Me: But still the first 6 months are contract. No guarantee of converting.

Recruiter: because we do understand that Sorry wrongly typed we do understand

I have recruited many candidates and they have turned into FTE

Me: Ok, I’m just trying to understand this practice and you are willing to chat with me about it 🙂

Recruiter: yes David, because I dont want that the people should get misunderstood. Recruiters are putting lot of efforts to get the best opportunities for the deserving candidates.

and some of them think that we are disturbing them by dropping emails and calls

Me: That’s the way I feel.

Maybe recruiters need a better system based on AI! LOL

Recruiter: Yeah 🙂

Me: I appreciate you chatting with me on this subject.

Recruiter: It was my pleasure

Thanks David for giving your precious time.

Me: If you find anything in my area or can be remote, please feel free to contact me.

Recruiter: Will do for sure

Me: Thanks again

Have a nice day

Recruiter: You too David

The Smoking Gun

There are a couple of interactions that I would like to highlight. The first one is, “I had sent the bulk emails, so you might have got.” Although I always suspected that most messages I receive from recruiters are sent in bulk, this confirmation only exacerbates my frustration. This is one of the reasons why software engineers either avoid recruiters altogether or dislike dealing with them, and I am no exception.

With the advent of artificial intelligence (AI), it is puzzling that this issue persists. Recruiting companies should change their practices, or they risk losing top-notch engineers who will only apply to companies that do not use such tactics. I have seen this happen personally when I have interviewed for or accepted a job at a company that uses such practices. Once I realize this is happening, I start looking for a new position. Additionally, companies like Expedia should fire the recruiting company and find a better one. As a hiring manager, I have done this numerous times.
I only will work with recruiters who do not engage in these practices, and I recommend them to others. The ones who do engage in these practices are either added to my spam filter or blocked on LinkedIn. After my exchange with the recruiter who works for Expedia, I decided to stop using the site to make travel arrangements. I have serious doubts that they will hire software engineers with enough experience to protect my personal data.

The image below shows the junk emails I received in a single day from just one of my email accounts. All the junk emails were from recruiters that I had blocked, and I am not qualified for any of them!

Dealing with recruiters can be frustrating, but I have secured jobs in the past using recruiters. I will continue to use them in the future, but I wish the process were simpler so that I could focus on other things. Due to the frustration, I limit myself to dealing with recruiters only in the morning. I stop at lunchtime to prevent frustration and anxiety.

Call to Action

The moral of this story is if you contact me like this, you just might end up in one of my articles that are viewed by thousands of software engineers. I really wish more recruiters would read my book on this subject that can be purchased by going to https://bit.ly/RockYourCodeBooks. There is an entire chapter in my book dedicated to dealing with recruiters.

Have you ever had any interactions like this with recruiters? If so, please make a comment below so we can discuss it.

Pick up any books by David McCarter by going to Amazon.com: http://bit.ly/RockYourCodeBooks

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