In the last couple of weeks I've received 4 blind call from recruiters... at work.

I haven't had a recruiter call me at work in years. Never mind call blind and just as for the "top quality manager".

Is the market drying up for them? Is this a good time to be marketing oneself?

In the last couple of weeks I've received 4 blind call from recruiters... at work.

I haven't had a recruiter call me at work in years. Never mind call blind and just as for the "top quality manager".

Is the market drying up for them? Is this a good time to be marketing oneself?

Hello ScottK,

I believe that it is always a good time to market yourself. However, not many are prepared to do so and find themselves missing out on great job opportunities. Preparation and keeping skills sharp is the key. Tom Peters talks about "Brand U". Interesting stuff. Check it out.

Stijloor.

In the last couple of weeks I've received 4 blind call from recruiters... at work.

I haven't had a recruiter call me at work in years. Never mind call blind and just as for the "top quality manager".

Is the market drying up for them? Is this a good time to be marketing oneself?
I don't mean to scare you, but . . .
it is always good to ask yourself, "Why am I so lucky"

I caution folks not to get into giving away personal information or even indicating you would consider a change until YOU find out what attracted the caller to you.

I can think of dozens of nefarious reasons for calling a potential candidate "blind" (versus in response to a specific inquiry you have sent out.)

The only legitimate reasons for a blind call can be

a personal reference or
in response to a publication you may have made or
an award you may have achieved.The first words out of your mouth should be "Why me?" If it's a reference, the guy should give up the identity. If it is because of some achievement, he should be able to tell you how he feels that achievement will fit with his opening.

If you can't think of nefarious reasons, start a new thread and we'll explore the dozens of ways the "candidate" can be the victim instead of the winner in such an exchange.

A recruiter from Oxford called me today, actually, but about using the forum for jobs for posting. He emailed me through the 'blind' email system here. Note that Oxford is a contract firm. I said it is OK if they post specific jobs in Wes' Job Openings forum. I have done work through Oxford in the past, but it has been probably more than 10 years ago and liked them.

Anyway, they're crying for Pharma and Medical Device people, especially for west coast jobs. Automotive, not so much. Not much demand. So - If you're experienced in Pharma and/or Medical Devices it looks like there's a heavy demand.

A recruiter from Oxford called me today, actually, but about using the forum for jobs for posting. He emailed me through the 'blind' email system here. Note that Oxford is a contract firm. I said it is OK if they post specific jobs in Wes' Job Openings forum. I have done work through Oxford in the past, but it has been probably more than 10 years ago and liked them.

Anyway, they're crying for Pharma and Medical Device people, especially for west coast jobs. Automotive, not so much. Not much demand. So - If you're experienced in Pharma and/or Medical Devices it looks like there's a heavy demand.Yep. Lots of jobs, even some in the so-called rust belt manufacturing companies. Even when organizations are laying off folks with one hand, they're hiring "some" replacements with the other hand. It's beyond the scope of this thread "Why?" but suffice to say, organizations sometimes want to rid themselves of old loyalties and start fresh when they are "belt tightening" or want to dump high paid folks for lower paid ones.

I particularly want to repeat the roll call admonition from Hill Street Blues,
"Hey! Be careful out there!"

Getting a new job is a job all by itself. Don't let things "happen" to you, make them happen by being proactive in your job search.

I definetely have to say that recruiters are getting very agressive these days. I have constantly been getting e-mail and telephone calls as a result of my Monster and Careerbuilder posting.

What annoys me is that many of the callers and e-mails are asking if I am interesting in a position that is not in my field.

Artemis

For some reason my boss thought it was necessary to put the names of department heads on our website along with their titles. Ever since this has happened I am getting all kinds of offers. I dismiss all of them as spam, but wonder if anyone else has this problem.

Doug

I don't mean to scare you, but . . .
it is always good to ask yourself, "Why am I so lucky"

I caution folks not to get into giving away personal information or even indicating you would consider a change until YOU find out what attracted the caller to you.

I can think of dozens of nefarious reasons for calling a potential candidate "blind" (versus in response to a specific inquiry you have sent out.)

The only legitimate reasons for a blind call can be

a personal reference or
in response to a publication you may have made or
an award you may have achieved.The first words out of your mouth should be "Why me?" If it's a reference, the guy should give up the identity. If it is because of some achievement, he should be able to tell you how he feels that achievement will fit with his opening.

If you can't think of nefarious reasons, start a new thread and we'll explore the dozens of ways the "candidate" can be the victim instead of the winner in such an exchange.

I'm more annoyed than considering myself lucky.

The "why me" is that they're not looking for ScottK. They're looking for the "top QA manager".

Back in the 70's, a big tactic of some fringe employment agencies was to "recruit" job candidates for other jobs into "straight commission" employee/recruiters who would come into the office each day and make outgoing marketing calls to potential job candidates to provide cannon fodder for throwing at employers. It was all a numbers game with these fringe agencies - folks manning phones for free and paid only if a candidate actually got hired. Employers were bedazzled by the sheer numbers of candidate resumes such an agency could supply. Candidates were flattered by the attention. The recruiters were paid a cash bonus for every person they could recruit into a position with the agency as a straight commission agent. That way each candidate ALWAYS got at least one "legitimate" job offer. You can imagine the smarmy pitches those desperate recruiters would concoct to get that instant cash bonus for getting a new recruiter.

Everything depended on the proven fact that telemarketing (like spam) works because it is a numbers game. If the agency owners could reduce their expense on outgoing calls by keeping all employees on straight commission, their gross and thus net would go up as more and more calls were made.

We continuously get calls from recruiters at work. They call the receptionist and give her some story to get to speak to us.

Example: (recruiter talking to receptionist) I'm working on a Engineering project with John and I need some additional information from him. What? You don't have a John in Engineering. I must have heard his name incorrectly. He is a Quality Engineer / or Manufacturing Engineer, etc. working at your facility. This is the phone number he gave me.

Over the course of a few days, they will eventually speak to everyone in the department. They will convince you to answer a couple questions and eventually build theirselves a pretty good file detailing our internal structure.

This has been going on for the last couple years.

The "why me" is that they're not looking for ScottK. They're looking for the "top QA manager".

:biglaugh::biglaugh::biglaugh:

We continuously get calls from recruiters at work. They call the receptionist and give her some story to get to speak to us.

Example: (recruiter talking to receptionist) I'm working on a Engineering project with John and I need some additional information from him. What? You don't have a John in Engineering. I must have heard his name incorrectly. He is a Quality Engineer / or Manufacturing Engineer, etc. working at your facility. This is the phone number he gave me.

Over the course of a few days, they will eventually speak to everyone in the department. They will convince you to answer a couple questions and eventually build theirselves a pretty good file detailing our internal structure.

This has been going on for the last couple years.

This can be a very scary thing for the top management of an organization as well as for the troops on the ground who get these calls.

From my own experience, as the caller, the recipient, and the top manager, let me explain the "scary" part:


As a caller, I have made these calls for the following reasons, none of which had to do with me, personally, trying to employ these folks getting the calls or to help them get jobs elsewhere.
On behalf of my employment/recruiting agency (which I ending up controlling as a result of an investment), I was doing intelligence gathering to have ammunition when we approached top management about placing some of our own candidates, maybe even to replace the recipients of our calls. (To a recruiter, a good employer client is worth 100 candidates!)
On behalf of my investment bank, we placed these calls to target companies of our [takeovers or IPOs or mergers] AND to the competitors of those companies. Depending on how "loose-lipped" some call recipients were, we might recommend our target fire them or use the info to the detriment of a competitor of our target. We were very experienced and glib in "social engineering" info from the recipients who probably never suspected the true purpose of our call.
As a recipient of such calls, my first task was to get a full name, company name, and telephone number to call back. Without those, the call was over before it began. [when WE made the outgoing call, we always had "cutout phone" to use which would be answered by a pleasant young woman with the fictitious company we used as a pretext] I would engage in a lot of questioning of my own to try to learn the true purpose of the call without giving up any damaging info of my own. If the caller was a true recruiter looking at me, I would simply say, "Now you know who I am, record my name with the client to protect your commission and give up the name of the hiring company so I can decide if I want to pursue this further." (l NEVER work 'in the blind.') If the caller was unwilling to give up the name, the call was over. If he said, "OK, I'll call back after I register your name." I didn't hold my breath waiting for the call.
If the caller obviously was just fishing for info with no specific job to offer, the call was similarly over. Specific job means just that - specific - please don't fall for the BS, "my client has lots of openings, I want to see where you might fit." YOU SHOULD BE THE ONE TO DETERMINE WHAT JOB YOU WANT TO APPLY FOR - IF NOT, YOU ARE MAKING YOURSELF A "COMMODITY" INSTEAD OF AN INDIVIDUAL. The tricky part here was determining if it was just a bumbling recruiter or someone like me with a more ulterior motive.
Viewpoint from an employer of the recipient - my first worry is if someone is trying to "romance" my employees to get trade or marketing secrets. My second worry is losing employees and thus having to go through an expensive and time-consuming ordeal to replace a valued employee. (my employee should worry if I have someone doing a "loyalty survey") My last worry is whether I have a stable workforce or if I have a lot of "rats" jumping ship - if so, then I have a whole new situation - Did I hire rats or am I responsible for turning them into rats? What do I need to change?Above all - be very suspicious of a "cold call" where the caller does not have your name in advance. If he has your name and says you were "referred," do not continue until you learn who referred you - it could be your fellow "cube inmate" looking to get you removed as a rival or your boss doing a loyalty check!

We continuously get calls from recruiters at work. They call the receptionist and give her some story to get to speak to us.

Example: (recruiter talking to receptionist) I'm working on a Engineering project with John and I need some additional information from him. What? You don't have a John in Engineering. I must have heard his name incorrectly. He is a Quality Engineer / or Manufacturing Engineer, etc. working at your facility. This is the phone number he gave me.

Over the course of a few days, they will eventually speak to everyone in the department. They will convince you to answer a couple questions and eventually build theirselves a pretty good file detailing our internal structure.

This has been going on for the last couple years.

My wife sends those calls to the HR Manager "by accident". The recruiters get an earful and rarely (never) call back a second time. :lol:

My wife sends those calls to the HR Manager "by accident". The recruiters get an earful and rarely (never) call back a second time. :lol:

I like that. It's like forwarding a prank call to the police.:applause: