Tell recruiters politely “no” with a simple link(no-thank-you.de)
no-thank-you.de
Tell recruiters politely “no” with a simple link
https://no-thank-you.de/
52 comments
I am torn on this, devs are currently in a very fortunate position (if you live in a tech hotspot) to be able to just ignore these requests or be impolite by sending a link like this. However I believe you should still be grateful to be in a position like this and treat people with respect. Sending a link saying "no, stop contacting me and gtfo" is pretty rude. I have well educated friends that work in different industries or live in less populated areas who would be grateful for any HR inquiry.
I am not torn on this at all. You are 100% right. If you send a link like this as a reply, it's super rude and unnecessary. I feel super grateful to be in a position where jobs hunt me instead of the typical bs in every other field of having to send 100 CVS out and to never hear back from anyone or to hear back half a year later.
Author here.
Well, in my experience the people asking me if I am interested are rather rude. I politely explain to them that I am not interested and a lot of follow-up questions come flying in. Why is that?
That is why created the page, I answer now:
> Thank you very much for your message.
> I am not interested, before you answer me again please have a look at https://no-thank-you.de/.
> Best, <name>
Well, in my experience the people asking me if I am interested are rather rude. I politely explain to them that I am not interested and a lot of follow-up questions come flying in. Why is that?
That is why created the page, I answer now:
> Thank you very much for your message.
> I am not interested, before you answer me again please have a look at https://no-thank-you.de/.
> Best, <name>
Why even answer? I always say : no answer on the internet is a no.
And then they continue, “Well do you know someone? We pay a $500 referral fee if you give me their name and we end up placing them.”
You looking at this from your own perspective not from recruiter’s POV. They don’t care whether you are grateful or not; it’s just a job to them (nothing wrong in that). At the end of the month you just a number in column “converted” or as they probably called “placed”.
Of course some people with tons of skills will be easier to place than others, hence recruiters will push harder.
Of course some people with tons of skills will be easier to place than others, hence recruiters will push harder.
I would engage them if they'd have a guarantee that I'd be hired by whoever is trying to hire me. If they don't, then there's a high chance I'll be wasting time.
I love getting a lot of attention.
I wish LinkedIn would let recruiters realize that I'm only willing to work within specified geographical areas. Probably 80% of my LinkedIn recruiter spam is for jobs that require moving to SV or NYC. It's a waste of everybody's time.
Even better would be a mechanism that cost recruiters actual $$$ for spamming people whose profiles clearly indicate they're unsuited for the job or unwilling to relocate to the job's location.
Even better would be a mechanism that cost recruiters actual $$$ for spamming people whose profiles clearly indicate they're unsuited for the job or unwilling to relocate to the job's location.
Not sure if that's still the case but LinkedIn used to have a service called the Inmail Response Guarantee [1]. The simplest way to ensure the recruiter does cost money is to respond to your inmail.
[1]: https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/blog/2009/09/...
[1]: https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/blog/2009/09/...
They must have some mechanism like that still in place because when you switch your profile to "I am looking", you start getting nag reminders from LinkedIn to respond to recruiters or else your switch will slide back to off.
But u can actually right ?
I wouldn't find recruiters so annoying if they at least took 15 minutes to figure out who I was and what I'm interested in.
I have only once—once!—received a cold-call (well, email) from a recruiter that was in any way relevant to me as a person and a professional. And I still didn't want it. That's a pretty shitty track record.
I have only once—once!—received a cold-call (well, email) from a recruiter that was in any way relevant to me as a person and a professional. And I still didn't want it. That's a pretty shitty track record.
Think of their track record - they call 100 people, get one that is a match to their opening. Statistically we should expect only 1 in 100 recruiter calls to be useful. It makes sense.
Recruiters can be annoying, but they're also just doing their jobs. I think it would be better if you collected some templates for politely copy & paste point out why you're not interested on the website. If people don't back off, you can still send something that's worded more strongly.
“Just doing their job” is never an excuse.
The recruiters that annoy me are the ones who blatantly send me copy and pasted messages while clearly just having done a keyword search (and certainly not reading the parts about what I’m not interested in), who go quiet as soon as I ask for specific information (or make it clear that I expect a sufficiently large benefits package over what I have to make it worth my while), who don’t pay attention to my location but require me to work on site. Basically the ones who are wasting my time and are rude to me. Those people can go f themselves.
I have had a few, rare, great interactions with recruiters who seemed to genuinely care about placing good candidates in good companies in positions that the candidate is well suited to. Unfortunately for every one of those I’ve interacted with, I get 50 messages from the ”hey I have a lowish paying role doing something you specifically said you didn’t want to do” recruiters.
The recruiters that annoy me are the ones who blatantly send me copy and pasted messages while clearly just having done a keyword search (and certainly not reading the parts about what I’m not interested in), who go quiet as soon as I ask for specific information (or make it clear that I expect a sufficiently large benefits package over what I have to make it worth my while), who don’t pay attention to my location but require me to work on site. Basically the ones who are wasting my time and are rude to me. Those people can go f themselves.
I have had a few, rare, great interactions with recruiters who seemed to genuinely care about placing good candidates in good companies in positions that the candidate is well suited to. Unfortunately for every one of those I’ve interacted with, I get 50 messages from the ”hey I have a lowish paying role doing something you specifically said you didn’t want to do” recruiters.
Agreed. While I'm a fan of being terse when justified, these folks aren't telemarketers peddling medical back braces or whatever. They're trying to do right by many others. And while we might be gainfully employed now, burning a bridge isn't necessary nor wise.
Somehow I always want to be pleasant with recruiters. Firstly because some of my friends are recruiters so I wouldn't treat someone in a way I would want my friends to be treated. Secondly because I kinda get "karma is a switch" feeling and don't want to be on the receiving end of that kind ("no, buzz off") of behaviour if I look for a job in a less then favourable state on the job market one day. I just like to personally reply, maybe even ask a few questions about the company, maybe there is an interesting idea or insight on it.
On the flipside I feel so blessed that we literally have people offering us jobs left and right. Count your blessings and don't be rude to these people who are just trying to make a living.
Much like many posters here, I have some preset responses that I send to recruiters. In particular, it’s a “I’m not looking right now, but I’ll save your info and let you know if my situation changes!”. This worked really well when my startup fell apart, and I was able to “scramble the jets” and get interviews set up within a week at a ton of companies. I think that the author confused “polite” with “passive aggressive” (or maybe it’s a cultural difference between my country and Germany).
I always try to leave recruiters with a positive impression, so as to not burn future bridges.
...except Herman Search. Every single recruiter has approached me flashing large salary numbers for boring, stressful sounding financial tech jobs, and being pushy/downright aggressive when I don’t show interest. I’ve asked every recruiter to put me on their do not contact list, but still, every couple of months, I get another generic male white frat bro recruiter, new to the company, reaching out again with the exact same tact. It toes the line between unprofessional and confrontational. With all due respect, which is none, fuck Herman Search.
I always try to leave recruiters with a positive impression, so as to not burn future bridges.
...except Herman Search. Every single recruiter has approached me flashing large salary numbers for boring, stressful sounding financial tech jobs, and being pushy/downright aggressive when I don’t show interest. I’ve asked every recruiter to put me on their do not contact list, but still, every couple of months, I get another generic male white frat bro recruiter, new to the company, reaching out again with the exact same tact. It toes the line between unprofessional and confrontational. With all due respect, which is none, fuck Herman Search.
Maybe it is a cultural difference, because here in Germany we are highly protected by employment laws. My contract has 3 month notice time. So I never felt the need to save the contact details of recruiting agents. But then I am just at the start of my career...
The hypocrisy is hating on recruiters until you need a job or need to employ someone, then respect.
We are the only industry complaining about getting job offers while the rest of the country is literally falling apart with no opportunities. Please don't take things for granted.
I made this to scratch my own itch. I wan't to be able to tell recruiters that I am not interested, but instead of repeating myself, I now can drop the link.
I'll also add the link to my social media profiles (linked.in and xing).
It is a rather simple page, you are welcome to contribute translations [0].
[0]: https://gitlab.com/leipert-projects/no-thank-you
I'll also add the link to my social media profiles (linked.in and xing).
It is a rather simple page, you are welcome to contribute translations [0].
[0]: https://gitlab.com/leipert-projects/no-thank-you
What's really shocking is that I've never once had an acceptable experience with a recruiter that has reached out to me. I've taken over 40 interviews this year in a variety of fields.
I've had a much better experience and indeed received offers when applying to an ad or application posted on Indeed, Linkedin, Angel.co or the company website.
I've had a much better experience and indeed received offers when applying to an ad or application posted on Indeed, Linkedin, Angel.co or the company website.
Speaking as an employer, thanks for this. Recruiters really are a scourge on our industry and their fees come straight out of your salary. If only more people were proactive about job hunting.
So true. If the fee was reasonable then "whatever", but it isn't reasonable.
And what is worse is that if an employee isn't motivated enough to spend maybe 30 minutes per day sending out some targeted info about themselves to companies that really could use their labor, then I don't think that employee is going to be motivated enough to do a really good job once they're in the seat.
A corporation can afford to pay 125-150k per year plus lots of capex/opex benefits. Maybe the employee is motivated and is a "rockstar" and does a great job, too.
But a startup hiring 10-15 people per year really needs to get it right every single time, and more often than not, motivation is more important than raw skill.
Just my opinions :)
And what is worse is that if an employee isn't motivated enough to spend maybe 30 minutes per day sending out some targeted info about themselves to companies that really could use their labor, then I don't think that employee is going to be motivated enough to do a really good job once they're in the seat.
A corporation can afford to pay 125-150k per year plus lots of capex/opex benefits. Maybe the employee is motivated and is a "rockstar" and does a great job, too.
But a startup hiring 10-15 people per year really needs to get it right every single time, and more often than not, motivation is more important than raw skill.
Just my opinions :)
What is the general bad experience that you have? I've engaged with one recruiter that made a good first impression, it took a bit of convincing to have him find me jobs with a suitable market rate (they probably like lower salaries because it increases their chance of success and this payout) but then he actually offered me a couple jobs that I think I would have had a hard time finding myself. I never acted on any of his offers, so maybe I haven't encountered his bad side yet, so I'm curious.
This goes for internal and external recruiters, in my opinion:
The phone screen always goes just peachy. "Wow, this is great. Awesome experience. You sound great on the phone. We would love to have you come in."
Then you either get rejected after the first round, ghosted after the third round, or shockingly they give you an offer and then after the first month "it isn't working out".
Interviewers are either way too candy-coated or way too curt.
Maybe this is just my experience, but I have over 8 years of legitimate professional experience in this industry and have been employed at megacorps and 20 person companies alike.
I got so sick of the charade that I currently work for an oil company!! Go figure.
The phone screen always goes just peachy. "Wow, this is great. Awesome experience. You sound great on the phone. We would love to have you come in."
Then you either get rejected after the first round, ghosted after the third round, or shockingly they give you an offer and then after the first month "it isn't working out".
Interviewers are either way too candy-coated or way too curt.
Maybe this is just my experience, but I have over 8 years of legitimate professional experience in this industry and have been employed at megacorps and 20 person companies alike.
I got so sick of the charade that I currently work for an oil company!! Go figure.
they probably like lower salaries because it increases their chance of success and this payout
From my experience it’s the opposite. Recruiters try to get you the highest salary they can because then they get a bigger cut. More than one of them has told me this.
There have been a couple times when I’ve told them my desired salary and they’ve upped it by 40% or more.
Yes, there are scummy recruiters out there, but for the most part I think recruiters are great. It’s like having an agent!
People in other fields don’t get this experience and they have to work harder to find a job. I’m not talking about technical interviews, but just getting your foot in the door.
From my experience it’s the opposite. Recruiters try to get you the highest salary they can because then they get a bigger cut. More than one of them has told me this.
There have been a couple times when I’ve told them my desired salary and they’ve upped it by 40% or more.
Yes, there are scummy recruiters out there, but for the most part I think recruiters are great. It’s like having an agent!
People in other fields don’t get this experience and they have to work harder to find a job. I’m not talking about technical interviews, but just getting your foot in the door.
I'm in The Netherlands so this might be a little different than SF where everyone capitalizes on the value of good developers. He opened with a salary that I'd consider average to slightly above average for a regular senior developer, in The Netherlands. I felt a bit cocky and thought if he's worth anything, he should be getting me jobs that pay more than I could get myself, so I countered him 50% above that. He was really hesitant and tried to talk me down, saying it would be difficult to find a job that pays that, saying my CV wasn't that impressive, I held on saying that a good hiring manager would see the value in my skills. Over ~3 months he came up with three leads, one of which ticked all three of my professional expertise boxes (ruby, devops and product ownership) and sounded really interesting to me, but I was pursuing other things at the time so turned it down.
I do agree that it very much feels like having an agent. I tell him what I can do, and what I want to make, and he goes out and find a job for me. I don't mind him taking a cut, if he finds jobs that I wouldn't find because I just go starry eyed from startup to startup.
I do agree that it very much feels like having an agent. I tell him what I can do, and what I want to make, and he goes out and find a job for me. I don't mind him taking a cut, if he finds jobs that I wouldn't find because I just go starry eyed from startup to startup.
[deleted]
> “I wan't to be able to tell recruiters that I am not interested”
That’s how they get you
That’s how they get you
The big red "No Soliciting" seems a tad unnecessary to me. Yes, recruiters can be annoying, but they're just people trying to make a living.
I don't have this problem with recruiters, but I do have it with people seeking investments. I just have a stock reply: "Thank you for the opportunity, but I'm not doing any investing at the moment."
I don't have this problem with recruiters, but I do have it with people seeking investments. I just have a stock reply: "Thank you for the opportunity, but I'm not doing any investing at the moment."
I prefer my brother's post "How to handle recruiter calls" which is 5 years old and every bit as relevant as when he wrote it.
https://david.weekly.org/how-to-handle-recruiter-calls/
https://david.weekly.org/how-to-handle-recruiter-calls/
Since the GDPR came in, the amount of recruitment spam has dropped dramatically for me
I respond to any recruitment spam with a GDPR request for all of the data they have on me, and a request to delete it after they've sent it. This has worked very well so far.
Interestingly someone pointed me to this company recently https://aevy.com/about/dataprotection who scrape public data and resell it to recruiters.
I downloaded the JSON document they had on me and it was pretty accurate. Again, public information so nothing surprising.
I opted out anyway
I downloaded the JSON document they had on me and it was pretty accurate. Again, public information so nothing surprising.
I opted out anyway
Do you know where I can find guidelines or a template on writing a GDPR request or do you (almost) literally just say hey please send me all the data you have, GDPR requires you do so if I ask and I’m asking thanks? (I’m in the EU)
Me too.
Can we please call this a 'recruiting canary'?
that's the best I've seen since the invention of tabbed-browsing multi-container tabs.
suggestion for potential area of improvement: please provide detailed installation instructions (or a docker image)
suggestion for potential area of improvement: please provide detailed installation instructions (or a docker image)