It’s 8:30 in the morning.
“I arrive at the office.
I turn on my computer, I check my email, my LinkedIn profile and I lay the phone on my desk – I’m in an openspace, btw. I check Eclipse, Github, Slack. I tell my colleagues that I have arrived. I walk to the utility room to get a coffee.
The phone rings, I pick it up. It’s a recruiter! From some random company I’ve never applied for. She wants to talk about a “challenge/opportunity/project”.
Editor’s Note: this article was originally published in [October, 2017] and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.
I’m at the utility room, drinking my coffee, listening to her. After two minutes, I tell her that I’m not interested. I go back to my everyday spot and I have two unread messages on LinkedIn and two other companies have sent me an email (yes, because one of the LinkedIn messages and the email come from the same company, although from different people).
I’m starting to wonder if I’m actually happy with my current job, if my role there is fulfilling me, if the stack really makes sense, and so on.
As I delve into all of that, I want to focus on my work, pay attention to my team, and also read a couple of interesting articles that are on my to-do list.
Near lunchtime, I get a new call. It’s yet another “recruiter/manager” from yet another company, also to talk about an “opportunity/challenge/project”. I just want to have lunch. I’m forced to be unpleasant and I actually hang up not that kindly.
At the end of the day, I get home, and I talk to my husband about this whole situation. Normally, I’m far from unfriendly, but this attention is starting to get on my nerves. It’s overwhelming!
I’m sure something like this has happened to you already, more than once – I’m sure.
Well, you probably have noticed by now, I’m talking about the Recruiter Infestation… ????
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On LinkedIn, I’ve felt some hatred towards these guys, this sometimes necessary form of evil: the recruiters, myself included. Those people who are often annoying, lacking the much-needed sensitivity or timeliness. They are out there to present you with opportunities, but they don’t always do it properly. And that’s precisely my point.
What would be the best approach to help you?
Bottom line, that’s our ultimate goal: to find projects and synergies that make sense to you.
As an example, I’ll use the one I’m most familiar with, and I’ll tell you a bit about my experience at KWAN.
We always opt for a casual approach in every situation. Also, a simple “Hello, how are you?” helps us break the ice on LinkedIn.
After that, if the person on the other side is interested in keeping the conversation going, the subject eventually narrows down to the next career step. We also promote several initiatives focused on the candidate.
Yeah yeah yeah, blah blah blah, that’s all cheap talk…
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More BS, you’re probably thinking…
As we speak, the stigma has caused so much damage that getting in touch with someone on LinkedIn is almost an upsetting task.
The other day, I stumbled upon a Google Sheet that blatantly – and transparently – wanted to have feedback on the errors made by recruiters during their online approach, so that they can improve on that field. I consider this insight valuable, take a look at it! 😉
One of the errors mentioned has to do with getting the names wrong. True.
How many times have you been called or typed the wrong name in a LinkedIn message?
I did it myself. When I pressed send, I just wanted to hide under the table. I even mistyped the customer’s name. We’re only human, you know. Even bots get bugs…????
I don’t want to find excuses for myself. It’s sucks when people get our name wrong and that has happened to me as well. Like when they say they have an interview scheduled with Ana instead of Sara, or they reply to my message calling me “Joana”. I’ve actually laughed with some of those replies.
At the end of the day, if I happen to call Pedro “Manuel”, but I get him his dream job, do you think Jorge will still care that I called him “António” when we first got in touch? (food for thought)
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That’s why we, at KWAN, make sure that we properly check the profile of the person we are contacting. We want to address that person’s needs.
We want to stand out positively. Of course, we also make mistakes, but we are keen on getting feedback in order to improve and this article has precisely that intention – CANI (Constant & Never-Ending Improvement).
So, Why KWAN? It makes sense to highlight some things we do with the purpose of fostering transparency and serving the community:
- We have a salary calculator that shows you how much the market is willing to pay on average for some positions;
- We work with associations that work towards gender equality in accessing tech careers, such as As Raparigas do Código, by sponsoring their tech workshops;
- We conduct a 360º evaluation of our teams. In other words, if you happen to be placed by me with an end client, you’ll get a Typeform to give your feedback about the recruitment process.
If, on the other hand, you are a KWAN collaborator, you’ll get that same Typeform to share your feedback on your colleagues, your Ambassador, our Director, and so on. Like I said before, CANI ???? - We do career counseling, so you can come and talk with us and we’ll give you our opinion regarding your next career step, even if that means that you should go to a company that doesn’t work with us or is actually a competitor.
Just to name a few…
Nevertheless, we know there’s a lot of room for improvement, and we’d like to know what you think we can do differently. Care to share your thoughts?
Let us know in the comment
