I know we are busy (as recruiters) and are pulled in multiple directions trying to help all our hiring managers.  Perhaps we have too many open jobs on our plates.  Perhaps it is just laziness.  Perhaps we don’t care who we irritate and annoy.  Perhaps it is just ignorance.  Not sure, but what I can say is that many recruiters send out too many jobs to potential candidates that just are not relevant.

To illustrate, I will just share some of my own personal stories of recruiters who have reached out to me.

A couple weeks ago I received an email from a recruiter saying she had several Human Resource positions available.  They were all HR specialists or HR managers openings.  I am a recruiter, so I would not be qualified and I wouldn’t be interested.  And yet, she keeps me on some kind of email list and emails me more of the same every month or so.  Maybe she is hoping for referrals?  It is annoying and I rarely read these anymore and the next one I see I will ask to be removed from the list.  I 

been hoping to see something relevant, but no luck.

Last month, I received an email from a recruiter about a Java Developer position.  I have recruited for java developers (and it says so on my resume).  Instead of reading my resume, he just sent an email to everyone who meets the keyword in his resume database.  Basically, spamming everyone.  I reported that one as a spam message.  Enough people do this through Yahoo or Google and the domain or ip address of the sender is restricted from sending further emails to Yahoo or Google users.

Also last month, I received an email about a 3 – 6 month contract recruiting position.  So far so good, but the job said it requires 1 – 3 years experience and I have over 14 years.  I seriously doubt the hourly rate would be close to what I earn.  Why send me entry-level recruiting gigs?

Earlier this year I received an email from another recruiter about a Recruiting Manager position.  This kind of got my eye, but then I saw it was in Iowa.  I have lived my entire life in Minnesota and have never worked outside the Twin Cities.  This can easily be seen on my resume or LinkedIn profile.  Why assume I might be willing to relocate?  Most people are not willing to relocate unless they have a history of moving around…we know this as recruiters.  So why spam everyone in surrounding states in hopes of finding someone willing to relocate…and annoying everyone else.

The last time I posted my resume on a job board I received tons of emails asking me if I would be interested in a Sales Associate position (mortgage, insurance, and finance companies were notorious for this).  I know that recruiting does involve some aspects of sales…but I am not interested in a sales position.  Why assume I am open to a career change when I have been a recruiter for years and never in a sales position?  Even when I said I was not interested in sales positions in the objective section of my resume, I still got such emails.  Obviously, they did not read my resume.

Truth be told, of all the emails I have ever received over the many years from recruiters about jobs…I only remember a handful that were relevant to me.  Most of those that caught my eye were when I was not looking or interested in new opportunities.  Usually, it is about a job that would not be of interest because it is not really aligned to my skill-set/career, level professionally, and/or location.

I am sure I am not the only one receiving emails from recruiters about jobs that really do not apply to me.  Don’t be one of those recruiters.  If you are going to “cold email” a potential candidate about a specific job (which is a poor practice IMO – see “What Is Wrong With So Many LinkedIn InMails“), make sure it would be something of interest to that specific candidate.

SPAM-tactics are severely hurting our profession’s image.  Are you part of the problem or part of the solution?

I am just a recruiter, so imagine what is it like for someone with a truly hot skill-set like Java Developer.

 

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