Hacker News Reader

Comment by pmlnr | Hacker News Reader

I had to do this recruiters myself, because even after explicitly telling them I'm not interested in the position any more, they kept calling/texting me.

On another occasion I told the recruiter I'm not actively looking, but I'll hear them out, with one condition: not during 9-5, because I'm in my current office. I got 5 calls from them in 2 days, of course between 9-5.

Recruiters: there are 2 type of people out there. One has a current position and you're after them; the other doesn't have a current job and they're after you. You need to treat them differently.

View on HN

That's not ghosting though. You turned them down and closed the conversation. They were being rude by hounding you.

I use a separate phone number and email when looking for work for this reason. Some agencies and recruiters will not stop.

> On another occasion I told the recruiter I'm not actively looking, but I'll hear them out, with one condition: not during 9-5, because I'm in my current office. I got 5 calls from them in 2 days, of course between 9-5.

No offense, but I think you're being too picky on this point. Recruiting is their 9-5 job, so IMO it's reasonable that they'd call during that time. Assuming they call your personal phone, it's no different than any other personal call.

Pmlnr told the recruiter up front that they were only willing to talk outside of 9-5. If the recruiter's schedule makes that impossible, the respectful thing to do is say so and end the engagement if necessary, not ignore pmlnr's terms.

> You need to treat them differently.

Really? Why?

If someone has a job, as the recruiter you have to be more respectful of asking for time out of their day. They may not want to talk ad-how in the middle of the day, and have lots of work commitments to work around. You can’t just ask them to show up on short notice. Someone without a job is thrilled to interview somewhere in short noticed and is happy to field calls in the middle of the day.

> you have to be more respectful of asking for time out of their day

You have to be respectful always, right? Not only when you have a leverage?

> You can’t just ask them to show up on short notice.

Someone without job can have other things to worry about. You can always ask, of course, but you shouldn't just assume and proceed from that.

Yes respectful always. Just that it means different things for different people. The are calls and requests that may thrill the unemployed also annoy the employed.

Not sure I agree. As a candidate you can simply decline calls and call back when convenient. If asked for an in-person on short notice you can simply state you need more lead time.

I would much rather have the recruiter be aggressive, giving me the chance to slow it down or keep the pace up.

The one with job has job during working hours. Has meetings and deadlines, cant answer any time. Want to proceed more slowly and respect current job commitments. The one without job has time during working hours and is available. Likely prefers more intensive contact and want proceed faster as job search is his priority.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com