Exactly one year ago, I wrote an open letter to technology staffing agencies, imploring them to heed the preferences of my Monster profile. The letter was more for me to vent than for anyone to read, but now I have to reconsider.
Shortly after writing that letter, I changed my profile to remove any trace of a phone number, stating instead to e-mail me first. I'm not sure how Monster works for employers, but many agencies have kept my number. And they still call, some using an alternate number (my cellphone) which I should have never divulged.
Has the demand for developers really gotten that tight? I'm getting contacted by totally random people for positions that don't even reflect the preferences I selected on Monster.
A few weeks back, I made a slight change to my Monster profile — I removed Austin as a location in which I'm interested for opportunities. (Yes, folks, that's my passive-aggressive way of finding a way out of this city.) In the past, I would re-activate my profile to indicate to employers I want to be found. This time, I did not reactivate the profile — I wanted to see if I would attract attention with that slight edit. It seems I have.
Two recruiters wanted to pitch me jobs in Houston. Another wanted to pitch a job in Utah. I don't even list Austin as a preferred city. How much less for Houston, let alone Utah?
One recruiter thought I was qualified for a VB.Net job, and I've never worked with .Net. (I worked with ASP 6 years ago.) Another recruiter pitched me a job involving JSP, and I've never worked with that either. Two recruiters sent me user-interface positions, but I say in my profile I would rather work on the server side. One of those position was a senior position, and I say in my profile I am not interested in a senior position.
Don't get me started on the recruiters who pitch me contract jobs, when I specifically say I am not interested in contract jobs.
Yes, the ability to read from and write to a database through a web interface employs similar principles regardless of platform — PHP, ASP, JSP, Ruby on Rails. But c'mon — how is it I'm getting pitched jobs with acronyms not remotely listed in my profile?
The fact these agencies contact me makes me think:
- There's more demand than supply as far as web developers go.
- These agencies are really scraping bottom to get in touch with me.
- These recruiters don't know how to read.
I haven't followed up with any of them, especially the ones who just say, "I have something for you, so send me your resume!" I was told never to accept candy from strangers.
The only e-mail I did return was from the CTO of a media company. If he was willing to bypass the staffing agencies — some who have questionable judgment about my abilities — he probably saw something in my job history to catch his attention.
But that case was the exception. More often, staffing agencies want to hook me up with jobs that I wouldn't even apply for myself.