Even before the whole Microsoft thing, Yahoo! was a prime target for recruiters. A recruiter will find someone’s website or LinkedIn profile, discover that they work for Yahoo!, then call one of the main Yahoo! numbers and either drill through the directory to find the person’s extension or simply ask a receptionist to transfer them. The end result is that whenever my desk phone rings, there’s a 90% chance it’s a recruiter.
On the whole, I don’t mind being pinged by recruiters via email or on LinkedIn. If they’ve actually seen my résumé, then they know my cell number, which they’re welcome to call as well. But my work number isn’t published anywhere, so when I get recruiting calls there, it’s extra annoying and doesn’t do much to establish a feeling of trust.
So, to avoid these annoying interruptions, I’ve simply stopped answering calls from numbers I don’t recognize, and I’ve updated my outgoing voicemail greeting thusly:
Hi, this is Ryan. I’m not at my desk right now, but if you leave a message I’ll try to get back to you. If you’re a recruiter, please hang up now.
Even so, I still get voicemails from recruiters. The ones who actually hear the message usually say, “I know your message said to hang up, but…” Some of them stoop to really sketchy levels, like giving only their first name (to imply that I should know them) and saying that “some important papers” have recently come across their desk and that I should call them right away. One woman left several messages like this and I eventually had to call her back just to tell her to stop.
But none of these comes close to a voicemail I got a few weeks ago from a guy who appears to have seen this site and thought (correctly) that talking about pie would get my attention. Unfortunately, he made the mistake of talking about pie while sounding like a creepy-ass pedophile:
I didn’t call him back.
Comments
revenge
you should do what I do. just say, “can you hold on a second?”... then, you place the phone on hold or just leave it to the side.. and ignore them. the way I see it is: you waste my time, I waste yours.
I can be evil. especially when it comes to revenge.
Narcolepsy
The funniest idea I’ve ever heard for dealing with unwanted calls is to explain that you’re really interested in what they have to say, but you suffer from narcolepsy, and missed a dose (or your episodes are getting worse). Then set down the phone. Every so often, pick it back up and explain “Excuse me, I dozed off for a second.”
Either that or have your modem + text-to-speech leave them voicemails announcing the time, once per minute.
Recruiter
I wonder if you were in the round of layoffs. If so, I have very little sympathy.
We corporate recruiters call and offer jobs. We don’t sell snakewater, just let people know about a position that could potentially be of interest.
I can tell the difference between low-level employees and management on the phone. Low level employees have an attitude like the above. On the other hand a VP once told me his attitude on recruiters was “always listen”….
Re: Recruiter
Oh, come now. Be honest. When you cold-call someone at a number that doesn’t appear on their resume, you’re not offering a job to a qualified candidate; you’re going for quantity over quality and just trying to find people who vaguely fit a job description.
Read my blog post again. I made it very clear that I have nothing against recruiters who contact me at the email address or phone number that’s actually listed on my resume and my LinkedIn profile. I enjoy hearing from these kinds of recruiters, and I’m always polite to them. Even when I’m not interested, I thank them for calling or emailing and tell them that I’ll keep them in mind next time I’m looking for a job.
The recruiters I dislike (and am generally not polite to) are the ones who call me at an unlisted number or email me at an unlisted address. Quite often, these people don’t even know my name. Some of them leave misleading voicemails implying that they have urgent information for me and that I should call them back right away. I don’t trust recruiters who use sketchy tactics like this, and I would never accept career advice from someone I don’t trust.