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As someone on the receiving end of these emails, the point about demonstrating some knowledge of who I am or what I've done in the opening of the email is essen

As someone on the receiving end of these emails, the point about demonstrating some knowledge of who I am or what I've done in the opening of the email is essential. It's almost guaranteed a reply, even if the opportunity doesn't seem immediately interesting. It's amazing how virtually none of the recruiting emails I've received do that.

jonny_eh 12y ago
Indeed. Anyone who even mentions an open-source project that I've created automatically gets a personal reply.
- pkinsky 12y ago
  This is true. Even the recruiter who emailed me to tell me that an SBT skeleton project I cloned for convenience was 'very interesting' got a personal reply.
mootothemax 12y ago
Seconded. The number of emails i receive that make the least effort possible for something alleged to be so important is truly staggering. It can feel rather insulting. Is it really too much to ask for 15 minutes of your time if you genuinely find me so important?
- wildpeaks 12y ago
  I suspect it's intentional: if they find someone that bites despite they put no effort into it, that means he will be easier to control and will work for cheaper without needing to spend as much on salary or good working environment; the same way spam doesn't work on most people, but when it finds a sucker, they bleed it dry.
Silhouette 12y ago
The inverse also applies: if I get recruiting mail from someone who demonstrates no special knowledge about me that a Google search or similar wouldn't instantly turn up, it tends to go in the circular file without a second thought. And never refuse to tell me how you found me in the rare event that I'm still interested enough to ask anyway, at least not if you expect any further interaction...
baddox 12y ago
Out of curiosity, why do you tend to reply to recruiting emails when they demonstrate some knowledge of who you are? Although most recruiters don't do that, it's still fairly well-known (at least around here) that recruiters should do that at the bare minimum. So it seems to me that a mention of some fact about my life or work just means their recruiting team is more well-managed or -staffed. Maybe they tell their recruiters to spend 5 minutes on each person looking for a GitHub or Twitter account. Unless there's a positive correlation between the quality of a recruiting team and the desirability of the job being offered (which I doubt), I don't see why you would reply to these sorts of recruiting emails.
- amirmc 12y ago
  I suspect it's somewhat like spam filtering. So many recruiters don't do this that it's an easy way to differentiate yourself and get through (as the recruiter). When everyone starts doing this -- having mined info from all your public profiles and auto-generated an optimised mail -- then it all becomes noise again. The cycle behind anew.
- oddevan 12y ago
  I would imagine it has to do with the level of respect afforded. If I suspect that someone is just cold-emailing everyone who fits [x] query, then I'm going to treat that email with as much time as they gave it (in other words, enough time to file and ignore it). On the other hand, if it's obvious that someone spent even 5 minutes looking at my GitHub or my blog, then I can certainly give them at least 5 minutes in return (a quick "not interested" or "can you tell me some more").
- itafroma 12y ago
  oddevan and amirmc both point out parts of why I'd afford a reply, but it's also a signal to me that the person is at least asserting they believe something about the opportunity, having researched me ahead of time, is worth my time, even if I don't immediately see it from the initial email. It also helps me to form a what will hopefully be a useful reply, having at least partially understood where they're coming from. Most of the time, I get emails from recruiters for things that are nowhere close to my areas of expertise or what I've publicly talked about, and they could've saved both of us the time if they did just spend 5 minutes looking me up. It boggles my mind sometimes how they thought I'd be interested or even qualified. I used to reply back to those recruiters as well asking how they came across me, and usually received nothing back. So it may just be a gimmicky tactic, but it's one that works, at least with people like me. I should be so lucky to have every recruiting email demonstrating some knowledge about me or what I've done.
tempestn 12y ago
The reverse of this is also true by the way. When applying for a job, include a real cover letter that shows you actually know something about the company you're applying for. It doesn't have to be long, but there's nothing that moves a resume to the bottom of the stack faster than a cover letter that obviously just has the company name and maybe a couple other fields swapped in. (Or in some cases even forgotten, so you get a cover letter where someone tells you how much they'd love to work for some other company!)

jonny_eh 12y ago

Indeed. Anyone who even mentions an open-source project that I've created automatically gets a personal reply.

pkinsky 12y ago
This is true. Even the recruiter who emailed me to tell me that an SBT skeleton project I cloned for convenience was 'very interesting' got a personal reply.

mootothemax 12y ago

Seconded. The number of emails i receive that make the least effort possible for something alleged to be so important is truly staggering. It can feel rather insulting. Is it really too much to ask for 15 minutes of your time if you genuinely find me so important?

wildpeaks 12y ago
I suspect it's intentional: if they find someone that bites despite they put no effort into it, that means he will be easier to control and will work for cheaper without needing to spend as much on salary or good working environment; the same way spam doesn't work on most people, but when it finds a sucker, they bleed it dry.

Silhouette 12y ago

The inverse also applies: if I get recruiting mail from someone who demonstrates no special knowledge about me that a Google search or similar wouldn't instantly turn up, it tends to go in the circular file without a second thought. And never refuse to tell me how you found me in the rare event that I'm still interested enough to ask anyway, at least not if you expect any further interaction...

baddox 12y ago

Out of curiosity, why do you tend to reply to recruiting emails when they demonstrate some knowledge of who you are? Although most recruiters don't do that, it's still fairly well-known (at least around here) that recruiters should do that at the bare minimum. So it seems to me that a mention of some fact about my life or work just means their recruiting team is more well-managed or -staffed. Maybe they tell their recruiters to spend 5 minutes on each person looking for a GitHub or Twitter account. Unless there's a positive correlation between the quality of a recruiting team and the desirability of the job being offered (which I doubt), I don't see why you would reply to these sorts of recruiting emails.

amirmc 12y ago
I suspect it's somewhat like spam filtering. So many recruiters don't do this that it's an easy way to differentiate yourself and get through (as the recruiter). When everyone starts doing this -- having mined info from all your public profiles and auto-generated an optimised mail -- then it all becomes noise again. The cycle behind anew.
oddevan 12y ago
I would imagine it has to do with the level of respect afforded. If I suspect that someone is just cold-emailing everyone who fits [x] query, then I'm going to treat that email with as much time as they gave it (in other words, enough time to file and ignore it). On the other hand, if it's obvious that someone spent even 5 minutes looking at my GitHub or my blog, then I can certainly give them at least 5 minutes in return (a quick "not interested" or "can you tell me some more").
itafroma 12y ago
oddevan and amirmc both point out parts of why I'd afford a reply, but it's also a signal to me that the person is at least asserting they believe something about the opportunity, having researched me ahead of time, is worth my time, even if I don't immediately see it from the initial email. It also helps me to form a what will hopefully be a useful reply, having at least partially understood where they're coming from. Most of the time, I get emails from recruiters for things that are nowhere close to my areas of expertise or what I've publicly talked about, and they could've saved both of us the time if they did just spend 5 minutes looking me up. It boggles my mind sometimes how they thought I'd be interested or even qualified. I used to reply back to those recruiters as well asking how they came across me, and usually received nothing back. So it may just be a gimmicky tactic, but it's one that works, at least with people like me. I should be so lucky to have every recruiting email demonstrating some knowledge about me or what I've done.

tempestn 12y ago

The reverse of this is also true by the way. When applying for a job, include a real cover letter that shows you actually know something about the company you're applying for. It doesn't have to be long, but there's nothing that moves a resume to the bottom of the stack faster than a cover letter that obviously just has the company name and maybe a couple other fields swapped in. (Or in some cases even forgotten, so you get a cover letter where someone tells you how much they'd love to work for some other company!)