Why I Hate Recruiters, Part 2

I received the following e-mail at my Evil HR Lady e-mail.

Dear Hiring Authority,

My name is [SPAMMER] and I am a Recruiter in Boston. I have several strong candidates who would be a great fit for your posted Administrative position and I would love to share their resumes with you.

Each has been pre-screened for communication, presentation and Computer Software skills and all are wonderful!

Because I represent a full service agency, please let me know of any other roles where my services would be of value.

I look forward to the possibility of partnering with your company in helping you with all of your hiring needs. Thank you!

[Spammer]
Career Consultant
[Headhunting Firm].

So, I responded:

[SPAMMER],

If you even bothered to read my blog, you would know I don't recruit, so therefore I have no admin positions available. I will, however, be blogging about this.

Happy New Year

Evil HR Lady

Well, I guess I put the evil in my name because I received a prompt response:

Dear Evil HR Lady,

I did just check out your blog and you are quite funny and creative...but I must ask...Why are you so evil? My apologies for including you in my mailing to HR professionals. It will never happen again-I promise. Please don't be too evil to this little recruiter...I'm feeling a little scared knowing that I crossed you. Have a wonderful New Year...may it be filled with many more funny and interesting stories to blog about.

Warmest Regards,

[REDEEMED SPAMMER]
Not Evil Yet Career Consultant :)
[Headhunting Firm]

Ahh, she redeemed herself. A very prompt apology--plus she said the magic words (that I am funny and creative, of course). Now, she just needs to read my blog every day and share it with all her co-workers and friends. And then, get SHRM to advertise on my site. Or better yet, find me a job that requires me to do nothing more than blog about HR that pays fabulously well. (I don't, by the way, need benefits, so that opens up a whole range of jobs for me!)

Finding the right person for a job is very, very hard work. And if she truly has qualified administrative people, that would make her valuable--if I were a recruiter, which I'm not. (Or, if by chance I were looking for a new admin for me, which I'm not, although I wish I were, which should probably be its own post.)

Our Spamming recruiter friend almost found something out the hard way--you need to know who you are contacting before contacting them. I absolutely wouldn't have minded if she'd sent an e-mail to me saying, "Dear Evil HR Lady, I've read your blog (and you're really funny), and wanted to introduce myself. I'm a recruiter who specializes in administrative support blah, blah, blah. If you know anyone who is looking for quality blah blah blah," I wouldn't have felt a strong desire to blog about it. The most important aspect of that letter would have been that she would have addressed it to ME. As it was I could tell I was blind copied which generally means she's sent it to every e-mail address she could possibly find.

And now, since I am only evil because I am in HR, I won't mention her name or her company. But other bloggers are not so nice. So, if you are going to send out mass e-mails, realize that once something hits cyberspace, you've lost control of it.