Shouting into the Void: A Small Rant on Recruiters

These are two articles that I posted on LinkedIn over time, concatenated here as one post.

Being on the receiving end of clumsy recruitment messages can feel like catching scattershot from a blunderbuss - not ultimately fatal, but it's annoying and it stings. ^^

A NOTE to all recruiters about contacting individuals about jobs

Consider this a PSA (Public Service Announcement). I shouldn't have to point this out, and I blame all recruiting trainers, because apparently it's an endemic problem. It's a pity that it's -this- that I'm posting about here and not something cool and security related, but... It needs saying.

Recruiters: If you're going to reach out to me or to anyone regarding a job, please provide the minimum information (my definition of "minimum information" included in a bullet list below; MMV (Mileage May Vary). Please do not just drop a note that vaguely alludes to a "position" with a "top-tier" company in some unspecified place, that's not intriguing - It's annoying.

So I have this generic, anonymous, and most importantly, meaningless message in my inbox. How much attention do you think that's going to get?

Now, I am just the kind of person who actually will reach back out and say, "Hey, recruiter person, I'd love to help you out, but you told me diddly about this." Others won't bother. It irritates me that I have to spend my valuable time reaching back out to you to get clarification for something that YOU need done.

That. Makes. No. Sense.

So, in short, if you're going to reach out to someone and ask them to help you either A) fill a position with themselves; or B) fill a position by referring someone else, please don't make it harder for them to help you.

Include the following:

1) Type of work (not just job title, that means nothing these days, especially in InfoSec)

2) Minimum expected qualifications (Need a BS? A CISSP? A PhD? 10 years experience..?)

3) Anticipated pay range (I know that's a touchy one, but hey, YOU are asking ME if I'm willing to leave my current FTE position or ask others if they'd be interested in working for you, and the cold reality is that we work to pay the bills. It's a waste of everyone's time to not include the pay range.)

4) LOCATION and if the job can be REMOTE (This is beginning to be a touchy one for me. I am frankly astonished at how many people apparently are simply not capable of reading the location listed on my LI page. Why in the world would I want to go to work in Ohio/Kansas/New York/BFE, especially since you haven't bothered to include pay range and responsibilities..? Please don't waste my time.)

4a) If the position is geographically outside of my area, is relocation required and is the company paying for it? (Regardless of where you are in your career, that's important. It doesn't necessarily make the job a no-go, but it is an important factor for everyone)

Just as a reminder, this is LinkedIn. It is (or at least -was-) intended to be a professional platform. Please behave accordingly, thank you.

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An Addendum to Recruiters - Public "Looking to Hire" Posts

An ADDENDUM to my prior article, "A NOTE to all recruiters about contacting individuals about jobs" regarding how I wish recruiters would interact with me, that may or may not be echoed by the majority of professionals on LinkedIn. ;) As a bonus, I've included a brief list of ways that this can benefit the recruiters!

In a way, I feel a bit bad, like I'm picking on recruiters. It's nothing personal. Honestly, many of them are great people and I've had many wonderful interactions with recruiters. What they do is complicated and difficult, and I get that. Maybe publicly speaking out about how some of the common interactions appear to the people on the receiving end can help the good ones do an even better job. With that, let me get on with it.

I keep seeing these "Recruitment messages" on LinkedIn, indicating that X or Y is looking for 'the best and the brightest' for position or another, sometimes with a location, and sometimes without. I see them posted for the UK pretty often, and various places in the United States, and occasionally other countries. What is notably missing is "We only want locals" or "We'll help you relocate to another country". Maybe I'm just cranky because I'd -love- a good opportunity to relocate to another country for a while, just for the personal 'rounding' experience.

So, a general update about the state of the world today... We are now a global economy.

If you post publicly for a job listing in Dublin, or Ontario (Canada), or Portland (Oregon? Maine?), or London.... Please, include the following information (especially for IT jobs which are often done remotely):

- Will this job require relocating to the listed place?

- Is the company recruiting globally, or just locally?

- If locally, is "local" the area within 50 miles or the area within the country?

- If relocation, is there relocation assistance?

- Is this job remote work?

Here's the bonus bit - Spending the three seconds to do this will net many returns, including:

A) Not having to answer the questions individually;

B) Not having to weed out resumes that don't match due to location;

C) Not having to weed out candidates because they don't want to pay for the relocation;

D) In general, having a more focused group of resume returns.

Truly, I hope that calling these items out will help both recruiters and candidates to make connections faster and more accurately to the benefit of both parties, especially in the field of CyberSecurity. There are so many gaps and the potential to impact so many individuals, either positively or negatively, that getting the right people in the right places really matters right now. Thanks for taking a couple minutes to read!

#career #recruiters #recruiting #jobsearch