Like many technical people, I regularly get e-mails from FAANG (Facebook Amazon Apple Netflix Google) recruiters starting “Your experience as a developer combined with your educational background could help us tackle some of our tallest tasks…” Without fail, the gist of the message is that they have a job posting that they want me to apply for. This is a pointless activity that wastes everyone’s time and it should be abandoned.
ALL technical people realize that FAANG (and other companies) are hiring. We all understand that they have open positions. It’s a waste of resources to mass message developers telling them this is the case. The only people would respond to these are those who are too dim-witted to realize this or to understand that, despite the flattering tone, they’ve received a spam message – the same as penis enlargement pills. The fact that this approach is selecting the WORST developers should be reason enough to end it.
The fact that companies are still doing this disproves to me the idea that it’s hard to hire developers. If there was actually a need or shortage, a better approach to hiring would have materialized. The fact that this wasteful laziness endures tells us clearly that tech companies have more than enough developers on staff and to choose from as recruits.
A company that actually saw the value of making more, better hires could improve this process in a number of ways.
With the resource that could be saved from ending this practice, higher salaries could be offered to new hires. This would get these companies better people than they’re finding with spam techniques. Alternatively these resources could be used as signing bonuses with the same effect.
If a company DOES want to put money into recruiting, there are far more intelligent ways to do so than this. Instead of mass mailing, actually research a developer. Write them a message that connects their background to a specific position and makes a case that they’re uniquely capable of excelling in this role. Is this more work? WAY more work. Would this get a developer’s attention? You bet your ass it would.
The ultimate way to get the best developers would be to leverage the best people currently working at a company. Talk to them about the super stars they worked with or went to school with. With the help of that developer, reach out to them with an OFFER OF EMPLOYMENT. Every company is happy to invite you to apply / interview. Few companies are approaching developers saying “You’re a superstar. We know you’re a superstar. We’re ready to hire you.”
The strong developers I know work somewhere and ignore invitations to interview elsewhere. If they get to the point they want to move on (usually because the company they work for has pissed them off), they’ll talk to their friends or look at open positions at interesting places. I don’t know anyone who has actually gotten a job they’re happy with through recruiter spam. A genuine offer of employment WOULD get these people’s attention.
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