3 ms·

I get 10-15 recruiter mails every month. Much worse, IMO, than being recruited, is the fucking useless recruiters who spam me about recruiting for me (which ha

by rdl 13y ago

I get 10-15 recruiter mails every month. Much worse, IMO, than being recruited, is the fucking useless recruiters who spam me about recruiting for me (which happens once you list CEO on LinkedIn, or get any press). And the shitty contract-dev houses, mainly in India. I'd categorically never use a recruiter who contacted me like this, nor a contract-dev house.

endianswap 13y ago
Most recruiters are terrible (as far as spam mails go) but every once in a while I get a well written email, actually applicable to my skills, with some personal touch, and most importantly explains the job I'd be doing and which company they're recruiting for. When I get a "good" one like that I like to reply and thank them for not being a shitty recruiter and that I appreciate them sharing enough details for me to understand the role they're trying to fill. But, that's like 1 in 100 at most, a majority of the messages I get are "We're looking for an iPhone/Android/Xbox developer for a new secret project at a secret company!"
mcphilip 13y ago
I've had a highly successful career so far (though I'm only in my mid 30's) without maintaining any significant online presence. My HN profile is probably the only place where you'd find my email address listed. No LinkedIn, no Twitter, and a Github account that is only mentioned if someone wants to vet my work remotely. Granted, it could lead to trouble down the road if I ever seriously wanted to leave Austin, but just keeping good meatspace contacts in the Austin VC community along with a good track record of delivering quality output has allowed me to comfortably enjoy my career and take interesting jobs on my time schedule. Maybe I'm just lucky, but I'd love to think that the bullshit associated with meticulously grooming some social media facade is by no means a prerequisite for a career in software engineering. Obviously being a CEO requires a completely different degree of public visibility, so it's not a comparison to your situation.
- rdl 13y ago
  I've found being online to be really helpful -- it caused me to meet most of the people I've ever worked on projects with, and I've picked up some really high dollar and/or interesting consulting work (which allowed me to work without a salary on various other projects) for most of the past 15y. It especially helped while I was spending a large amount of time outside of major tech centers (Caribbean 1998-1999, Sealand 2000-2002, Iraq/Afghanistan/Kuwait/etc. 2003-2007 2008-2010.)

by rdl 13y ago

endianswap 13y ago

Most recruiters are terrible (as far as spam mails go) but every once in a while I get a well written email, actually applicable to my skills, with some personal touch, and most importantly explains the job I'd be doing and which company they're recruiting for. When I get a "good" one like that I like to reply and thank them for not being a shitty recruiter and that I appreciate them sharing enough details for me to understand the role they're trying to fill. But, that's like 1 in 100 at most, a majority of the messages I get are "We're looking for an iPhone/Android/Xbox developer for a new secret project at a secret company!"

mcphilip 13y ago

I've had a highly successful career so far (though I'm only in my mid 30's) without maintaining any significant online presence. My HN profile is probably the only place where you'd find my email address listed. No LinkedIn, no Twitter, and a Github account that is only mentioned if someone wants to vet my work remotely. Granted, it could lead to trouble down the road if I ever seriously wanted to leave Austin, but just keeping good meatspace contacts in the Austin VC community along with a good track record of delivering quality output has allowed me to comfortably enjoy my career and take interesting jobs on my time schedule. Maybe I'm just lucky, but I'd love to think that the bullshit associated with meticulously grooming some social media facade is by no means a prerequisite for a career in software engineering. Obviously being a CEO requires a completely different degree of public visibility, so it's not a comparison to your situation.

rdl 13y ago
I've found being online to be really helpful -- it caused me to meet most of the people I've ever worked on projects with, and I've picked up some really high dollar and/or interesting consulting work (which allowed me to work without a salary on various other projects) for most of the past 15y. It especially helped while I was spending a large amount of time outside of major tech centers (Caribbean 1998-1999, Sealand 2000-2002, Iraq/Afghanistan/Kuwait/etc. 2003-2007 2008-2010.)