4 ms·

What I have tried is also saying "It's cool that you saw my profile and liked it, can you elaborate on what it is about the profile that you see is a good fit?

What I have tried is also saying "It's cool that you saw my profile and liked it, can you elaborate on what it is about the profile that you see is a good fit? Any particular technology or experience that makes me suitable for this position? What profiles did you check was it GitHub/StackOverflow/LinkedIn?". I have never in my entire career (which is older than those websites) had a response that indicated they had found or read any of the profile pages in question. A good idea I learned to weed out the worst spam recruiters is to have a message on your LinkedIn profile saying "If you read this and want to contact me about an opportuntity, please include the following word: toaster". You'll instantly see if someone actually read your profile.

paulcole 3y ago
To be fair, maybe they don’t want to work with someone who is questioning them from the start? Seems like a win-win for both of you?
- alkonaut 3y ago
  I didn't say "I don't think you read my profile, prove it!". I said "Great that you found it attractive, is there anything in particular you thought was a matching competence/experince etc". There is a difference. And I'm genuinely curious about it because it affects how interested I am in the position (For example, if they found some 15 year old thing I worked on a sign that I want to work on their legacy project maybe I'm not so interested), so it's not only a way to weed out bots and spam. So yes, if they can't at least try answer that then I wouldn't go near that recruiter. Win win indeed.
jackhack 3y ago
That's a great idea to make the recruiter actually look at your profile and ensure it indeed matches the offer. Too many lazy recruiters do a simple linked-in search and bulk email everyone who matches. I had a "great offer - perfect fit for your skillset" notice from a recruiter recently, describing me as a "standout candidate" and urging me to apply. I read the description and replied back "which part of the position makes me the "standout candidate?" is it the complete lack of alignment in skills? (they wanted a javascript dev, I'm a former C/C++/C# dev that transitioned to BA then Product Owner for the past decade.) Maybe it's the "easy commute" of only 9 hours 45 minutes each way? (the job is in northern Ohio, I'm in central North Carolina!) Sadly this recruiter never responded. Missed opportunity. If they came back with a humorous response (e.g. "oops! That's our mistake, but let us tell you about something else...") I might have continued to work with them. Instead, I just added to my block list.
jwestbury 3y ago
I have a canned response for most recruiters when I'm not looking. But when a recruiter makes it clear they've actually paid attention -- a recent one was someone who said they realised I probably wasn't ready to move on yet, having only been at my current job for ten months -- then I write a personal response and thank them for actually taking time, and send them a connection request. They'll be my first stops for job searches in the future.

paulcole 3y ago

To be fair, maybe they don’t want to work with someone who is questioning them from the start? Seems like a win-win for both of you?

alkonaut 3y ago
I didn't say "I don't think you read my profile, prove it!". I said "Great that you found it attractive, is there anything in particular you thought was a matching competence/experince etc". There is a difference. And I'm genuinely curious about it because it affects how interested I am in the position (For example, if they found some 15 year old thing I worked on a sign that I want to work on their legacy project maybe I'm not so interested), so it's not only a way to weed out bots and spam. So yes, if they can't at least try answer that then I wouldn't go near that recruiter. Win win indeed.

jackhack 3y ago

That's a great idea to make the recruiter actually look at your profile and ensure it indeed matches the offer. Too many lazy recruiters do a simple linked-in search and bulk email everyone who matches. I had a "great offer - perfect fit for your skillset" notice from a recruiter recently, describing me as a "standout candidate" and urging me to apply. I read the description and replied back "which part of the position makes me the "standout candidate?" is it the complete lack of alignment in skills? (they wanted a javascript dev, I'm a former C/C++/C# dev that transitioned to BA then Product Owner for the past decade.) Maybe it's the "easy commute" of only 9 hours 45 minutes each way? (the job is in northern Ohio, I'm in central North Carolina!) Sadly this recruiter never responded. Missed opportunity. If they came back with a humorous response (e.g. "oops! That's our mistake, but let us tell you about something else...") I might have continued to work with them. Instead, I just added to my block list.

jwestbury 3y ago

I have a canned response for most recruiters when I'm not looking. But when a recruiter makes it clear they've actually paid attention -- a recent one was someone who said they realised I probably wasn't ready to move on yet, having only been at my current job for ten months -- then I write a personal response and thank them for actually taking time, and send them a connection request. They'll be my first stops for job searches in the future.