I have been using recruiters for a long time to help me find a new opportunity. For the ones I don't have a relationship with... please stop playing games when sending us an email about a "great opportunity".
Almost daily, I receive emails like this,
I am recruiting for an exciting contract opportunity with one of our clients.
Would you be interested/available for a new contract assignment? If yes, please review the details below, send me your updated resume and let me know the best time for us to talk. Thank you and I look forward to speaking with you soon.
I DO NOT play the "Guess that Company" game, nor do I play the "Guess the Salary/ Contract Rate" game! When I receive emails like this, I reply and ask for the following,
- The company name and location
- Salary range or contract rate
- The original job description that was written by the hiring manager. Including if it is full-time or a contract position.
I think I know why recruiters do this and that is they don't want the candidate to go around them and just apply to the company directly. I'm sure this happens but what recruiters don't understand is that we want them representing us in negotiations for a new job. Most of the time when I find a job I'm interested in, I contact recruiters to see if they work with that company and I have them submit my resume, and you should do this too.
Sadly, most recruiters do not provide me these things, even after asking. When they do this I immediately block their email address forever.
The Good Recruiters
With that said, the good recruiters are there to match us with the best position for us. The good recruiters are there to get us the max salary they can (since they make more commission). The good recruiters are there to negotiate the best employment contract for us. So why wouldn't we want to use recruiters especially when most engineers are not very good at these things, not even me.
The experienced recruiter will not only share information about the company but also the hiring manager, team, product group etc. The more they know the better they are! Try to find a recruiter that has been doing this as a career for over two years.
Summary
So recruiters, please stop playing games with us. Contacting us like in the example above just starts off our relationship with you not trusting us. Trust is important in any relationship.
Do you have stories to share about recruiters? Please share in a comment. This tip and a lot more can be found in my Rock Your Technical Interview.