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This is so true. When I first moved to the Bay Area after finishing college, I was astounded by the amount of recruiter spam I got, but at the time I didn't recognize it as such. To someone who's never seen these before, the initial impression when you see these types of messages is, "Wow, look at all these different companies that want to hire me." Of course you know it's not an actual job offer, but you sort of think in your head, maybe I'll just have to come into the office and have a brief chat with some of the engineers, and then they'll hand me a formal job offer. Because clearly they already recognize your technical aptitude, since they're reaching out to you!

In actuality, once you decide to respond to one of them, you quickly realize that you're not fast-tracked in the application process in any way. Really, the only step that was skipped was that you didn't have to manually apply on the company website. In fact, the application process is usually longer and more difficult in Bay Area companies than elsewhere (at least in my experience), where it's typical to have to do

1. Initial phone call with recruiter 2. One or two algorithm interviews on the phone with an engineer 3. "Take home coding challenge" which they claim only takes an hour or two but often ends up taking you 4 or 5 hours because you don't want to submit subpar code 4. "On-site" interview that can take 4 or 5 hours

Meanwhile the recruiter has no problem lying through their teeth about the details of the role. Like, I've had a number of applications where I tell the recruiter I'm looking for a role that's math/ML focused, only to find out once I get to the final onsite that, no this is just a pure engineering role. They don't care how well your experience or interests fits with the role; all they want is for you to do the interview so their numbers look better.

That's still not the complete picture.

My first job was at a company with no visibility to mainstream tech firms, doing relatively uninteresting stuff, getting paid far less. I had to do hours of LinkedIn homework and cold-applying to get any single interview, and that's still no guarantee of a job either.

Now I'm at somewhere with a recognizable name and I get recruiter emails quite frequently. I could set up an interview with a five minute phone call in response. Sure, any of those jobs may still be a bad fit, or I could fail the interview, but it's about 50x easier to even get to that stage now.

So if you're complaining about getting recruiter contacts, don't be surprised when the people not in that world have little sympathy.

(Amazon does seem particularly messy and disorganized, though. I get quite a few contacts from them from various departments in locations I've told them before (for other positions) that I'm not interested in...)

My company is not recognizable, and I get Amazon and IBM emails like clockwork.

Do you by any chance do web/cloud stuff? The company I work for is fairly recognizable and I've been there for 10 years but the few recruitment calls I get are for a one line entry in my resume that said that I did one small web related project.

Yeah, my job is java on the backend, JS on the frontend, though it's ExtJS which is neither hip nor good.

I'm not contacted more often than my friends working at completely unknown shops. A recognizable name sure helps, but unless it is clearly above the pack (and in the eyes of Amazon, there aren't that many companies), it really looks like it depends mostly on keywords and location.

So this is how girls on Tinder feel.

No, Tinder matches first.

This is how girls on OkCupid feel.

At least recruiters don't send unsolicited jpegs of veiny erect cocks (yet).

You were downvoted, but yes it is and if you want to use this analogy for dating then this is the most important point in your parent comment:

>Sure if companies were contacting me with better jobs that I currently have or jobs that I'm a shoe-in for (ie. they've done their research on me and they want ME not just someone who has certain keywords on their LinkedIn profile) then I'd be super happy

is exactly right. (The following is from the perspective of a woman, though I'm not one.) If a better man you're more interested in and who really is a match for you and interested in you, does the same same thing it is not creepy anymore. You can take this analogy very far. Whether you're bothering a girl or she's happy to hear from you depends on how great you are, not what exactly you do to reach out to her. You can really learn a lot from the parent comment, and your insight shouldn't be downvoted.

> "You're lucky to get recruiter emails"

If people actually want these emails just create a linkedin profile with development keywords in it.

i doubt thats the case, I never get any except from Philadeplhia companies (I am in Philadelphia)

I'm not sure why this is a problem

The thing is, back when I was looking for a good job, I would have killed for getting recruiter mails from Amazon. Today, they arrive every three months and I don't consider them any more. It's when companies like Atlassian who don't spam write that I take note.

But I can fully understand those who are at a different point in their carrier get angry about posts like this.