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This demonstrates the outrageous entitlement of tech workers these days. It's absurd that the way you treat people who offer you opportunity and employment is b

This demonstrates the outrageous entitlement of tech workers these days. It's absurd that the way you treat people who offer you opportunity and employment is by mocking them and embarrassing them! At best, you can be flattered and find an amazing place to work, and at worst, you trash an email without a response. Act like global citizens and realize how truly amazing it is that you have a job let alone many offers, and instead of spending time spewing derision and cruelty, spend it building something great.

psychboo 12y ago
I disagree. Humour is a method of dealing with frustration. Having unsolicited recruiters contact you with vague terms, simply to meet a quota is frustrating. The recruiters who are doing a good job are not speaking in cliches, or mass soliciting, and so they won't appear on this website.
JeremyMorgan 12y ago
That's one way of looking at it, sure. While tech workers might be entitled, we're also a hot commodity and work hard to be so. These slimy recruiters are like the family that pops up when you win the lottery. Opportunists who lie and manipulate to try and get their chunk of the tech money. Not all recruiters are this way, but the good ones aren't the ones being made fun of. The ones who went straight from a used car lot to becoming a tech recruiter "because there's money there" are the ones being targeted here. Do you really expect hard working intelligent people to respect slimy smooth talkers?
jusben1369 12y ago
I think the unfortunate logical outcome of your theory is "You have no right to criticize the practice's employed by recruiters but rather you should just be completely thankful you're wanted" Not what you're probably after but the natural outcome of trying to create only black and white vs a shade of grey on issues.
650REDHAIR 12y ago
Most of these demonstrate the outrageous lack of homework the recruiters do on the position, the person they're spamming, or the required skillset.
- johnward 12y ago
  This is the major thing. The bad ones don't do any homeworks and basically just spam based on keywords. The good ones at the least look at my profile/resume and can articulate why I would be a good fit for position X based on my history. I'm always polite but some of these people clearly have no idea about the positions they are recruiting for, especially the differences in technology. Then you have the pushy ones. "How much are you making now? Well this position pays 20% less I want to submit you for it", no thanks.
noarchy 12y ago
I think you have a point about the entitlement that tech workers have. This is a problem that many would kill to have. We should keep that in mind. As years pass, though, it is easy to get snarky about the nonsense that passes for recruiting. I'm always polite to anyone contacting me, even thanking them for reaching out, but I can't suppress shaking my head at some of the things I've seen.
smackfu 12y ago
Are you kidding? Do you love getting calls from telemarketers too?
lvs 12y ago
Head hunters are the real estate agents of employment. If you think their motives have anything to do with altruism, you're definitely sucking what they're blowing.
UweSchmidt 12y ago
I think overall those recruiters get off lightly. Most graduates don't realize what's going on at the beginning and take those interviews seriously, and later won't call them out on their BS. Do I have skills in "Server"? Took me a little to realize they meant "SQL Server", but I can see how you could glance over these weird letters and just read that one familiar word "server"... Of course you have to play the game, and if they are the gatekeepers to the job you want do that course with certificate so they can tick off that box and let you in...
ugh123 12y ago
Harry, I don't think you've been around long enough to work with enough recruiters.
Scuds 12y ago
How many years experience do you have in cloud? I have excellent opportunity in a place two thousand miles away for a 3 month contract with possibility of extension $45/hr C2C.
wtracy 12y ago
Five years in the industry here and I've gone through about that many jobs, too. Not once, ever, have I had a conversation with a third-party recruiter lead to a job offer. Every job I've gotten, I've had to do the legwork myself. Meanwhile, all that these recruiters do is waste the time that I could have spent doing actual job hunting.
dkrich 12y ago
I disagree. The cost isn't always just "trashing an email without a response." Many times recruiters will mislead you and waste your time with downright deceptive practices. I once had a recruiter contact me about a product management job with a fairly well known company in New York City. After a couple of emails and a phone conversation it came to light that he wasn't actually recruiting for the PM position he contacted me for, but rather a junior programming position in their office in Utah. When I laughed and said I was only (possibly) interested in the position that he had originally contacted me for, he went so far as to try to explain to me why I was unqualified for a PM job and that I should seriously consider a job which, quite frankly, I was rather overqualified for and for which they would not have been able to afford my services. Besides being insulting, he wasted my time by intentionally misleading me, which angered me more than anything. Stories like these are the reason the recruiting profession has a bad name. I know of and have worked with some very high-quality recruiters who were earnest and upfront and understood the position for which they were recruiting very well. I think that the few horrible recruiters who waste everyone's time destroy the reputation of the occupation.
logfromblammo 12y ago
The recruiters are not the ones offering the opportunity and employment. Most of the time, they are actually forcefully interposing themselves between me and that opportunity. My "outrageous entitlement" stems from the fact that I have a specialist skill that is relatively rare, yet also highly in demand, at least for today. That combination allows me to charge more for my skill than most other workers can charge for theirs. This means that companies may have difficulty renting that skill as a price low enough to justify the expense, as they can be outbid by other businesses. Those high-bidding businesses do not need recruiters. They publicly advertise, and get enough responses to filter their own candidate pool. The recruiter offers a company a more directed advertisement, aimed at folks who might not necessarily be looking for a particular opportunity, but might be willing to pursue it anyway. Recruiting is advertising and sales. We are not mocking the company offering the opportunity. If they are embarrassed, it would only be because sleazy, inept, and ignorant people, operating under the color of agency, spread the word about it. This situation is very much like a person that offers to do all my Amazon shopping for me, who helpfully takes several hours of my time to figure out what I want, then ignores all that and buys for me everything listed in his own store, with the occasional outside purchase completed through an affiliate program. In all cases, I would be better served by declining the offer and doing my own shopping.
j_baker 12y ago
Recruiters aren't here to offer anyone opportunity or employment. They're here to make a big commission off of hiring a high-salary techie, and can be very pushy in achieving that goal. "Hey, I realize you're not probably looking for a job, but I'd really love to connect with you to talk about finding a new job! We are an early-stage startup that's funded by <name dropping goes here>." "You still haven't responded to my email. Just wanted to make sure you saw it! We have a super-great culture and are working on big problems using fancy technologies and you should feel privileged just to be hearing from us. You know, if you aren't looking for a job, you can also give me contact information for your friends so I can hassle them as well." "Ok, you still haven't responded to me. I hope you don't think I'm spamming you because I'm not. I understand that you're probably happy at <current employer>, but could you please just give us a chance? We really need you." I should add that it's not just recruiters doing this stuff. In fact, startup executives do much the same thing, but also add an "I'm the CEO and I chose you personally! Don't you feel lucky?"
danielweber 12y ago
> who offer you opportunity and employment If they were actually offering me employment, this would be rude. Most of them aren't offering me employment. They are offering to have me do a bunch of work for a position I might have no chance of getting or is otherwise completely inappropriate for me. Lottery salesman aren't offering me a million dollars.

psychboo 12y ago

I disagree. Humour is a method of dealing with frustration. Having unsolicited recruiters contact you with vague terms, simply to meet a quota is frustrating. The recruiters who are doing a good job are not speaking in cliches, or mass soliciting, and so they won't appear on this website.

JeremyMorgan 12y ago

That's one way of looking at it, sure. While tech workers might be entitled, we're also a hot commodity and work hard to be so. These slimy recruiters are like the family that pops up when you win the lottery. Opportunists who lie and manipulate to try and get their chunk of the tech money. Not all recruiters are this way, but the good ones aren't the ones being made fun of. The ones who went straight from a used car lot to becoming a tech recruiter "because there's money there" are the ones being targeted here. Do you really expect hard working intelligent people to respect slimy smooth talkers?

jusben1369 12y ago

I think the unfortunate logical outcome of your theory is "You have no right to criticize the practice's employed by recruiters but rather you should just be completely thankful you're wanted" Not what you're probably after but the natural outcome of trying to create only black and white vs a shade of grey on issues.

650REDHAIR 12y ago

Most of these demonstrate the outrageous lack of homework the recruiters do on the position, the person they're spamming, or the required skillset.

johnward 12y ago
This is the major thing. The bad ones don't do any homeworks and basically just spam based on keywords. The good ones at the least look at my profile/resume and can articulate why I would be a good fit for position X based on my history. I'm always polite but some of these people clearly have no idea about the positions they are recruiting for, especially the differences in technology. Then you have the pushy ones. "How much are you making now? Well this position pays 20% less I want to submit you for it", no thanks.

noarchy 12y ago

I think you have a point about the entitlement that tech workers have. This is a problem that many would kill to have. We should keep that in mind. As years pass, though, it is easy to get snarky about the nonsense that passes for recruiting. I'm always polite to anyone contacting me, even thanking them for reaching out, but I can't suppress shaking my head at some of the things I've seen.

smackfu 12y ago

Are you kidding? Do you love getting calls from telemarketers too?

lvs 12y ago

Head hunters are the real estate agents of employment. If you think their motives have anything to do with altruism, you're definitely sucking what they're blowing.

UweSchmidt 12y ago

I think overall those recruiters get off lightly. Most graduates don't realize what's going on at the beginning and take those interviews seriously, and later won't call them out on their BS. Do I have skills in "Server"? Took me a little to realize they meant "SQL Server", but I can see how you could glance over these weird letters and just read that one familiar word "server"... Of course you have to play the game, and if they are the gatekeepers to the job you want do that course with certificate so they can tick off that box and let you in...

ugh123 12y ago

Harry, I don't think you've been around long enough to work with enough recruiters.

Scuds 12y ago

How many years experience do you have in cloud? I have excellent opportunity in a place two thousand miles away for a 3 month contract with possibility of extension $45/hr C2C.

wtracy 12y ago

Five years in the industry here and I've gone through about that many jobs, too. Not once, ever, have I had a conversation with a third-party recruiter lead to a job offer. Every job I've gotten, I've had to do the legwork myself. Meanwhile, all that these recruiters do is waste the time that I could have spent doing actual job hunting.

dkrich 12y ago

I disagree. The cost isn't always just "trashing an email without a response." Many times recruiters will mislead you and waste your time with downright deceptive practices. I once had a recruiter contact me about a product management job with a fairly well known company in New York City. After a couple of emails and a phone conversation it came to light that he wasn't actually recruiting for the PM position he contacted me for, but rather a junior programming position in their office in Utah. When I laughed and said I was only (possibly) interested in the position that he had originally contacted me for, he went so far as to try to explain to me why I was unqualified for a PM job and that I should seriously consider a job which, quite frankly, I was rather overqualified for and for which they would not have been able to afford my services. Besides being insulting, he wasted my time by intentionally misleading me, which angered me more than anything. Stories like these are the reason the recruiting profession has a bad name. I know of and have worked with some very high-quality recruiters who were earnest and upfront and understood the position for which they were recruiting very well. I think that the few horrible recruiters who waste everyone's time destroy the reputation of the occupation.

logfromblammo 12y ago

The recruiters are not the ones offering the opportunity and employment. Most of the time, they are actually forcefully interposing themselves between me and that opportunity. My "outrageous entitlement" stems from the fact that I have a specialist skill that is relatively rare, yet also highly in demand, at least for today. That combination allows me to charge more for my skill than most other workers can charge for theirs. This means that companies may have difficulty renting that skill as a price low enough to justify the expense, as they can be outbid by other businesses. Those high-bidding businesses do not need recruiters. They publicly advertise, and get enough responses to filter their own candidate pool. The recruiter offers a company a more directed advertisement, aimed at folks who might not necessarily be looking for a particular opportunity, but might be willing to pursue it anyway. Recruiting is advertising and sales. We are not mocking the company offering the opportunity. If they are embarrassed, it would only be because sleazy, inept, and ignorant people, operating under the color of agency, spread the word about it. This situation is very much like a person that offers to do all my Amazon shopping for me, who helpfully takes several hours of my time to figure out what I want, then ignores all that and buys for me everything listed in his own store, with the occasional outside purchase completed through an affiliate program. In all cases, I would be better served by declining the offer and doing my own shopping.

j_baker 12y ago

Recruiters aren't here to offer anyone opportunity or employment. They're here to make a big commission off of hiring a high-salary techie, and can be very pushy in achieving that goal. "Hey, I realize you're not probably looking for a job, but I'd really love to connect with you to talk about finding a new job! We are an early-stage startup that's funded by <name dropping goes here>." "You still haven't responded to my email. Just wanted to make sure you saw it! We have a super-great culture and are working on big problems using fancy technologies and you should feel privileged just to be hearing from us. You know, if you aren't looking for a job, you can also give me contact information for your friends so I can hassle them as well." "Ok, you still haven't responded to me. I hope you don't think I'm spamming you because I'm not. I understand that you're probably happy at <current employer>, but could you please just give us a chance? We really need you." I should add that it's not just recruiters doing this stuff. In fact, startup executives do much the same thing, but also add an "I'm the CEO and I chose you personally! Don't you feel lucky?"

danielweber 12y ago

> who offer you opportunity and employment If they were actually offering me employment, this would be rude. Most of them aren't offering me employment. They are offering to have me do a bunch of work for a position I might have no chance of getting or is otherwise completely inappropriate for me. Lottery salesman aren't offering me a million dollars.