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I'm up in the northeast and at a level where I'm not going to get emails from Google/Amazon/etc for an engineering position. But I do get a ton of what I consi

I'm up in the northeast and at a level where I'm not going to get emails from Google/Amazon/etc for an engineering position. But I do get a ton of what I consider recruiter spam - usually something tangentially related to my background, and often fairly junior (I'm on the very low end of the executive ranks nowadays). I used to ignore it, but I've decided since that while I'm not going to be remotely interested in the role they've proposed, I can at least clarify my background and career level should they have something more appropriate. And for the total form email recruiter spam, I'll sometimes reply asking their rate range for W2 and 1099. I never get a response to those. Well, I'm lying, I did once and it was to say "let's discuss it on a call." No thanks, that means it's low. And being a small world up here, I knew who the client was anyway, and what they were trying to do. I had no business getting that email.

digler999 10y ago
> I never get a response to those. Exactly. Thats what makes this such a difficult game. If you pay enough, filling positions won't be a problem. The problem comes when you try to fill positions while simultaneously suppressing wages to the lowest tolerable level. Even the dumbest monkey will learn to do tricks if you offer enough bananas.
- SmellTheGlove 10y ago
  But nobody wants to pay enough. I hate to be a presumptive asshole, but if I get 5 different emails from 5 different recruiters for what appears to be the same position with the same client - all either form emails or in barely readable messages (or incomprehensible voicemails), I'm going to presume they're not offering anything reasonable relative to the work asked.
  - digler999 10y ago
    I had to fight for it, dealing with some really skeezy recruiters for a contract position that advertised/expressed a rate of $x5/hr, once I passed one of the 3 phone/skype interviews, and they realized I was a viable candidate, they immediately tried to insinuate that they couldn't afford anything more than $X0/hr or a fulltime salaried position at $(X-10)/hr. I said shove it, and lo and behold, they called back and the $X5 rate was yet again available. I complete 2 more interviews, and they get ready to draft an offer and they tried again to get me to accept $X2/hr, then $X3, for no explicable reason. I said no, and in my offer letter they wrote $X5/hr *{rate may change at time (sic)}. I made them re-draft it, flew to the client site, and after a tense 2 weeks (worrying if I got paid the full amount), I finally got paid what they advertised.

digler999 10y ago

> I never get a response to those. Exactly. Thats what makes this such a difficult game. If you pay enough, filling positions won't be a problem. The problem comes when you try to fill positions while simultaneously suppressing wages to the lowest tolerable level. Even the dumbest monkey will learn to do tricks if you offer enough bananas.

SmellTheGlove 10y ago
But nobody wants to pay enough. I hate to be a presumptive asshole, but if I get 5 different emails from 5 different recruiters for what appears to be the same position with the same client - all either form emails or in barely readable messages (or incomprehensible voicemails), I'm going to presume they're not offering anything reasonable relative to the work asked.
- digler999 10y ago
  I had to fight for it, dealing with some really skeezy recruiters for a contract position that advertised/expressed a rate of $x5/hr, once I passed one of the 3 phone/skype interviews, and they realized I was a viable candidate, they immediately tried to insinuate that they couldn't afford anything more than $X0/hr or a fulltime salaried position at $(X-10)/hr. I said shove it, and lo and behold, they called back and the $X5 rate was yet again available. I complete 2 more interviews, and they get ready to draft an offer and they tried again to get me to accept $X2/hr, then $X3, for no explicable reason. I said no, and in my offer letter they wrote $X5/hr *{rate may change at time (sic)}. I made them re-draft it, flew to the client site, and after a tense 2 weeks (worrying if I got paid the full amount), I finally got paid what they advertised.