Tutorial for HR representatives in IT – how to ruin your approach

Today i got a contact request on Linkedin and a message that was accompanying the request. The sender was a HR representative from an IT company in Cluj. I had no previous contact ever with this person or the company. The message sounded like this (I changed names obviously and didn’t translate the blatant grammar errors – not typos!)

Hi,

My name is John Doe, I’m a HR specialist at Example.com. I write you this e-mail because I’m happy to tell you that we’re increasing our team.

I’m waiting for your email.

Thank you,

John

My first reaction was like “You can wait forever …”. I mean what were you thinking when you wrote “I’m waiting for your email.” ???! What should I write in this email ? That i find this the most lazy message ever ?

First of all, I’m employed, you could see that from my Linkedin profile, secondly I’m happy where I am otherwise I would have written you the email and not vice-versa. So having these two facts at hand you should figure it out that in the first place it’s you who is interested in this contact. And if you’re interested in doing your job properly then “I’m waiting for your email” won’t do. Sorry. I have better things to do then write emails to complete strangers.

I have nothing against someone approaching me on Linkedin but if you do that then do it properly. First you need to establish if the person you’re trying to approach is interested in your job offer or not. To do that you should write a short and concise presentation of the company, you should present the job itself and then ask if the person is interested or not. If he is interested he will write you back, if not he might write you that he is not interested and you keep in touch for future opportunities or he might not write you at all (though that’s borderline rude).

If you find that procedure too complicated as a first step then please add me, without specifying anything / without any message. If I find your profile interesting I might add you back or not. But then you still have to go through the steps above presenting the company, the job and ask if the other party is interested.

But if you do it like this recruiter did it then you can wait for my email. For a long long time.

P.S.

A bonus advice for recruiters: If I say that I’m not interested in your offer then please don’t jump with the question that was asked be EVERY recruiter I have talked to:  “By chance don’t you know someone who’s interested ?”. No, I don’t know anyone, everyone in my circle is already employed. If you don’t live under a rock and you work in HR you know that in Cluj everyone who’s even slightly competent in IT already has a job. And I don’t do gossip to know who wants to leave or not. Even if I knew someone on lookout for a job I wouldn’t recommend him/her a job/company that I know nothing of.

So I’m doing my job, you’re doing yours. Please don’t ask me to do your job.