Tag Archives: job

10/9/10

Dear Google Recruiter

Dear Google Recruiter,

I’ve been contacted by a recruiter at Google every 3-6 months for the last 4+ years or so and I’ll tell you what I tell all of them:

I have no interest in interviewing with Google ever again. I expect to be treated professionally by companies and for them to be honest with me in their communication, but that did not happen when I went through your interview/hiring process. This is not negotiable and you only get one chance.

I also tell every recruiter at Google to please put a note in your HR database to not contact me any more. Obviously that never happens or doesn’t work, because you still contact me. Honestly, I’m not sure why this is so hard to accomplish for a company which specializes in storing and retrieving information, but I do find it rather annoying having to explain myself over and over again. Hence, I’ve decided to create this post so the GoogleBot will add it to your database for you.

Have a nice day,
Aaron

UPDATE: I posted this after being contacted by a Google recruiter and so I replied with this link. He replied back, was very apologetic and promised to update their records to indicate I did not wish to be contacted again and apparently that actually worked. Success!

09/19/06

No more head-hunters please.

Usually when I’m talking about head-hunters I’m either ranting or making fun of them… or in some cases both.

But this post isn’t about that. This post is about something simple. If your company is interested in me, then contact me yourself. Do not under any circumstances use a head-hunter. I won’t talk to them.

You’d be surprised how many head-hunters call me with statements like, “My client has specifically asked me to contact you about an opportunity with them. I can’t tell you who they are, but trust me they’re great. Please send me your resume so I can give it to them to start the process.”

Now occasionally (once) they’re being honest. But most of the time, they’re full of shit since this is one of the oldest ploys in the book to get your resume in their system so they can call you every 6 months about “great opportunites” which suck.

So instead of paying a head-hunter 30% to call me and setup an interview… just contact me yourself.

07/6/06

Headhunters!

Got a phone call from a headhunter yesterday. I’m not sure if this is really a rant or just funny watching the headhunter squirm, I’ll let you decide. Conversation went sorta like this:

Me: Hello?
HH: Hi, is this Aaron?
Me: Yes, who is this?
HH: Hi Aaron, this is ****** and I'm with Atlantis Partners.  I got your name from
someone who told me you're in charge of hiring for the engineering department. 
Is that true?
Me: Who exactly gave you my name?
HH: Who?
Me: Yes, who gave you my name as the hiring manager?
HH: Oh, I called the main number and the receptionist gave me your name.
Me: We don't have a receptionist.
HH: <silience>
Me: So where did you really get my name?
HH: Oh, I got it on the internet, I saw that your company had just recieved $10M 
in funding and I figured that ment you're probably hiring, is that true?
Me: Yes, we are hiring, but I don't work with people who lie to me.
HH: Excuse me?
Me: I said I don't work with people who lie to me.
HH: I didn't lie to you.
Me: You said you got my name from our receptionist, which we don't have. 
If that's not lying, please tell me what it is.
HH: Hello?
Me: Yes?
HH: I think we got off on the wrong start, how about we start over?
Me: No.
HH: Did I call at a bad time?
Me: No, your timing was perfect, I just don't work with people who lie to me.
HH: How about I call you tomorrow?
Me: I'd rather you didn't.
HH: I'll call you tomorrow.
Me: Ok

What I find amusing of course is that she lied for no reason whatsoever. Did she really think I was going to punish her for using Google? Anyways, still haven’t heard back from her, but the day is still young. The sad thing of course is that if she doesn’t call me back she that would be another lie… not the best way to start a business relationship!

[Update: Nope, she never called back.]