I first started getting casual emails “we’ve been looking over your GitHub and we are impressed” and it was validation for me. I enjoyed the attention. It made me feel powerful. I eventually realized that more than a few of those emails came from bots. It was algorithmic, robotic attention. But so what? It still felt good. Occasionally I would get an email from a startup CEO that was personalized beyond a doubt with calls out to specific things I had done. That felt better. Over the years though, these messages went from uplifting, to annoying. These recruiters wanted something from me, they wanted me. But what did I want?

For the last three years I’ve worked remotely for Heroku. I value not having to relocate. My employer also pays me to spend 100% of my time working on open source projects. I maintain the Heroku Ruby buildpack, and contribute to projects like Rails and Rack. I’ve also gotten a consistent salary. I value getting paid.

Since a recruiter couldn’t possibly offer me more remote time or more open source time, I decided to pick a number between 2-5, multiply my current salary and hit send.

Dear Recruiter,

Thanks for reaching out I’m interested in positions with no relocation. I need 100% Open Source time, and I need to make at least $<2-5x current salary>.

I don’t think it’s too crazy, these are the things I care about. A recruiter wants me. Now they know what I want. They care enough to send 2…3…4 followup emails:

“Maybe you missed my last email”

and

“This is your final chance”

and of course

“Don’t miss this amazing opportunity”

Response

So what happened when I started responding to these recruiters?

<silence>

They wanted me alright, but only when I was a docile unassuming programmer ready to work for pennies. Over the years I’ve sent out dozens upon dozens of responses. I’ve only ever gotten one reply. I got excited until I realized it was probably automated. Where I was once exalted to be the hottest commodity on the job market, now I wasn’t worth a reply.

No one even tried to talk me down on salary or ask “what is 100% open source time?”, just silence. In an instant, I went from wanted to an outcast. While I don’t want to leave Heroku, I was seriously surprised how quickly these “recruiters” thumbed their noses at me.

Sniping

An unexpected benefit of responding to recruiters, is they quit bugging you. Once they know how much it would cost to make you want their job offering, they leave you alone. Sure you could spend less effort ignoring emails or responding with “no thanks”, but if you never ask for what you want, how do you know what you could get?

Update: Conversations on Reddit. If you’re hung up on the salary portion of this post, then you missed the main point and it wasn’t written for you…sorry #notallrecruiters.

Follow @schneems for more on open source, remote life, and messing with recruiters’ heads.