When a recruiter offers to talk to you, it's not necessarily a threat that you will be recruited. Some of us are real life human beings, capable of having a co

When a recruiter offers to talk to you, it's not necessarily a threat that you will be recruited. Some of us are real life human beings, capable of having a conversation without the need to try and push a job or my clients on the other person. I talk to lots of people about their career, give tips, etc. without the thought of possibility of recruiting them. Most of these people are more junior and certainly not as well-known as Steve, but I get requests for career advice often based on my writing. My business focus is geographic at this point, so unless Steve wanted to move to where my clients are I probably wouldn't have a job for him. My mention of 'probably not have a job for you' could have been clarified as 'I'm quite confident that I won't have any relevant jobs to discuss'. But based on his mention of only having spoken to one recruiter, my offer to discuss his career with him remains open.