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> I don't understand why it bothers people so much to be contacted by recruiters. It likely depends on how big your online footprint is. I've been on the Inte

> I don't understand why it bothers people so much to be contacted by recruiters. It likely depends on how big your online footprint is. I've been on the Internet publicly since 1989 and hence you can find me all over. That also means recruiters do. I have no problems with the ones who are good at their jobs, but about half are below average, working on commission, and their tactics are the same as spammers (spread yourself indiscriminately far and wide). Many are downright scammers such as taking resumes off the net and then pretending to represent those people, or scraping job postings off websites and then pretending to represent those companies. At the top of my resume I put a "note to recruiters" that makes it clear what I am good for. It is very clear then which recruiters have made even that miniscule effort, versus just started spamming right away. I'd say I see about one good recruiter for every 20 spammers. And that is what is bothering. Even worse the lack of response or saying no doesn't deter the spammers so you have to do something about it. I made a blocklist in the end. http://rogerbinns.com/recruiters.html http://rogerbinns.com/recruiters.html

d23 13y ago
> but about half are below average > I'd say I see about one good recruiter for every 20 spammers These two seem contradictory, but the second statement strikes me as much more true than the first. Recruiters in this industry seem to be more parasitic and less knowledgeable than even real estate agents, and I say that with great hesitation. Any job where the attracting principle is "ooh money, and I don't even need to know anything!" is probably not usually a service that's worth a damn.
- larksimian 13y ago
  Statement 1 is tautologically true.
  - aaronem 13y ago
    No. Consider the sequence (2, 2, 2, 10).
    - pyduan 13y ago
      The "average" is not a technical term in statistics. It's a shortcut in everyday speak for some measure of centrality. What you're referring to is (probably) the arithmetic mean, but the average can be any other measure (for example, when you talk about "average speed" you're not using the arithmetic mean, but the geometric one), including the median. Also, in this case the mean and the median are probably close to the same thing since recruiter skill is likely to be normally distributed, but that's a different story. </nitpick>
- rogerbinns 13y ago
  I make it clear I am only interested in small companies and startups (and detail why). Consequently a good recruiter for a medium/large company won't contact me at all. OTOH the spammers depend on volume.

d23 13y ago

> but about half are below average > I'd say I see about one good recruiter for every 20 spammers These two seem contradictory, but the second statement strikes me as much more true than the first. Recruiters in this industry seem to be more parasitic and less knowledgeable than even real estate agents, and I say that with great hesitation. Any job where the attracting principle is "ooh money, and I don't even need to know anything!" is probably not usually a service that's worth a damn.

larksimian 13y ago
Statement 1 is tautologically true.
- aaronem 13y ago
  No. Consider the sequence (2, 2, 2, 10).
  - pyduan 13y ago
    The "average" is not a technical term in statistics. It's a shortcut in everyday speak for some measure of centrality. What you're referring to is (probably) the arithmetic mean, but the average can be any other measure (for example, when you talk about "average speed" you're not using the arithmetic mean, but the geometric one), including the median. Also, in this case the mean and the median are probably close to the same thing since recruiter skill is likely to be normally distributed, but that's a different story. </nitpick>
rogerbinns 13y ago
I make it clear I am only interested in small companies and startups (and detail why). Consequently a good recruiter for a medium/large company won't contact me at all. OTOH the spammers depend on volume.