For years, recruiters have cold-contacted me for roles that don’t match my background no matter how hard you try to spin it, sometimes so disconnected with reality that a hiring manager should guffaw as she immediately fires the recruiter. So disconnected with reality that I’m convinced recruiters are now paid by emails sent instead of candidates placed.
Now the script has flipped, and candidates are cold-contacting me via LinkedIn direct messages. See any red flags below?
How about:
- I don’t know you and have never worked with you;
- I have no idea of your qualifications and abilities for any software engineering roles;
- You have no idea what my role is and the value I provide (or don’t) to my employer;
- I don’t know you and have never worked with you.
In most organizations, it is you vouching for the candidate, that you have confidence in their ability to do the job: it’s your reputation on the line and that would be negatively impacted if the candidate is hired and then shows no ability/capacity for the job.
I only refer people when I have directly worked with them and understand their strengths and weaknesses, know what drives them, and how they might be successful in a new role. Often I’ll discuss the multiple roles with her/him and together determine good or bad fit, or what clarifying questions to ask of the hiring manager. The worst outcome – for both employer and employee – is figuring out after hiring someone and get them onboarded is then determine that a mistake was made. Absolute worse-case scenario is the newly-hired to leave soon after starting, wasting everyone’s time and effort (not to mention the costs involved).
My former son-in-law once applied for a position at my then-current company, but I would not provide a referral because – other than he being family – I had never worked with him. I was honest with the hiring manager and said she needed to make her own evaluation. I also declined a request to refer a friend who applied for a sales position: he and I had worked together as technologists, but had no clue whether he’d be able to sell software solutions.
So yes, I understand that the job market is tough, and yes, you’re getting desperate with an expiring visa, but I can’t – won’t – help you. Use your existing network, interview recruiters, apply for jobs, but cold-calling me is not going to work. And hopefully you haven’t waited until just a month prior to panick!
