Five types of recruiters

Monday, December 12, 2016

Nowadays the internet is the fastest and easiest way to get in touch with people for different reasons. The email replaced the plain old handwritten letter and the IM group chats replaced the pleasant gatherings with friends. And then the social media appeared on the scene ... . Multi-purpose networks have developed, mixing concerns and putting people in contact with more people. Everyone is a friend of everyone, proving an old saying that "a friend to all is a friend to none". But this is another topic. One of these networks is LinkedIn which has been hijacked by this guild of individuals engaged in hunting people in order to reach a target and get their slice of the pie. They are the recruiters, and I have identified five different species based on their strategy of approaching people.

Polar bear

This guys adopts a humble attitude and tells you how sorry he is for disturbing you. Also, he emphasises that this might not be the best way to approach you but "desperate times require desperate measures". He starts his message like this:

Hello,
I hope you don't mind my informal and direct message, I know this is not the best way to approach people but let's get straight to business.
I am currently working with the world's biggest ...

Bison

The bison is the type that doesn't really care about your profile. Not so aggressive as his African cousin - the buffalo, described below - he is very relaxed and sends emails to all his contacts. Probably even his grandma received a job spec for a Python developer in Shoreditch. Sometimes you might wonder if he has ever seen your LinkedIn profile. The last email I received from a bison was for a DevOps engineer in Manchester. Not even close ...

Buffalo

In his madness, the roles are reversed. He thinks that the candidates are chasing the recruiters not the other way around. He has a sense of aggressiveness and his motto is "less is better". His emails are very concise:

Hi,
I have a Java developer role. Give me a call if you are interested.

Hi,
Thanks for connecting with me. Let me know if I can help you.

Cougar

He is a laid-back kind of guy who doesn't bother too much about the candidates. Probably he doesn't care too much about his clients either. He offers you the opportunity of reading someone else's mailbox.

Hi Mohamed,
Could you please forward to me you most recent CV to my email. Best regards

Hyena

The hyena is ruthless. He calls you straight on your work number or sends emails to your work inbox. "I just joined the company two months ago ! How did he get my phone number ?!". Or even worse, he knows what is going to happen in your company. Check this out :

Hi,
I am aware that company_X have invested heavily in their new office in country_Y, and as a result of that the politics in the London office have changed heavily. I also know there is an announcement due to come out this week which could result in a number of people being let go, I already know that several projects have been shut down. If you are going to be affected by this or just tired of the changes at company_X please let me know.

At the end of the day, the recruiters are a necessary evil that is part of the business and cannot be avoided and we all need to deal with it. Preferably as little as possible.

Happy hunting!