More on recruiters (say it fast)

Ai is currently hiring a user experience lead to add to its UXD resources. (We're hiring a freelance IA, too... email me if you know anyone for either position. But I digress.)

I have gotten an unsettling amount of recruiter contacts in the days since we posted the job ad. Most of them are polite enough, and I turn them down, politely. This is nothing new; Loren and I have a long history of frustration with muscle-in tactics.

But I occasionally get inquiries that just blow my mind. Consider this, which came to me via LinkedIn, which is usually a good place for targeted communication:

While Linked In is a great resource, it cannot give you access to the most elite talent in the Internet arena. We can. Our difference is that we aggressively call directly into your top competitors and leading firms in your field to source candidates who are among the top 10% in your industry.

Holy smokes! Here I am, trying to wisely use networking to extend the reach of my job ad. And I get a networking reply that suggests I use them to cold-call the competition until they unearth some good candidates.

Underneath the letter was some marketing copy, equally flabbergasting:

* Aggressive cold call recruiting.
Our recruiters make 150 or more calls per day. We directly call into your competitors to recruit the top 10% in North America.

The company promises quantity and quality! I was still working on the math behind that one as I read the last bullet:

* We work exclusively for you.
The candidates we recruit are exclusively yours, and we will never send someone we recruit on your behalf to any other company.

Somehow it's hard to believe that a recruiter with hard-nose tactics like these won't be sharing what little bits of successful entry it finds with every client it recruits.

I suppose there are employers out there who employ, and enjoy, these tactics. But I'm not on that list. (I wonder if I'm on the call list, though....)