Ryan Angilly

An open letter to recruiters from developers

I get InMail, tweets, and direct emails all the time from recruiters.  I think I make it pretty clear that I’m not interested in finding a new job right now, but the emails come anyway.  They almost always have the same format:

[generic greeting].  I came across your (twitter profile|profile on LinkedIn|blog).  My organization [generic recruitment firm name] has a [arbitrary list of ‘excitement’ related adjectives] position in Ruby/Rails that I think you’d be perfect for [even though there’s a very good chance I don’t have a clue what your skill set is even after reading your resume/profile because I don’t have a technical background].  If you are interested, please get back to me and I will send you [the job description that for some inane reason I didn’t include in the first place].  If you are not, perhaps there is someone in your network who would be interested.

[generic sign off / apology for wasting time]

* rolls eyes *

Here’s my open letter response to all recruiters:

Dear Recruiters,

Us developers have been getting pretty tired of the “you might not be interested, but maybe you know someone who is” line.  ALL of you recruiters use this line.  I understand you probably think that you are  ”networking”, but it really just seems like you’re trying to get us to do your job.  What ends up happening is that us developers all get together in a bar, have a few beers, and talk about how incompetent tech recruiters are.  Lord help you if you happen to reach out generically with the SAME email on the SAME day to 3 or 4 developers who are friends.  It’s probably not the case that you are incompetent, but it’s definitely a place where we lose some respect for you.

So, cool it.  If you have a good idea, go find people that are actually looking for a job and write them a personalized email telling them about it.  If you’re new and not technical, admit it.  Tell us “hey man I have this Ruby/Rails gig and I saw those keywords on your profile.  It might not be a perfect fit, but would you ever want to chat about it?  I’m trying to learn more about this space.”
Most developers (that I know anyway) react better to requests for help than generic sales pitches.
Be honest.  Be personalized.  Be respectful.  Everybody wins.
$0.02
Love,Developers

EDIT: Shame on me.  The recruiter who reminded me to finally publish this draft responded to me directly about this blog post.  He informed me (very respectfully) that I had not removed ‘looking for new ventures’ or ‘looking for career opportunities’ from my LinkedIn profile.  So apparently I was wrong; I had not made it clear to recruiters that I’m not looking for work.  The rest of the rant stands anyway, though. :)  Happy New Year!