Corporate Recruiter Cold Calls Suck

[silverstaff]

Okay, I'm in a job hunt mode (there is another thread about my prior employment, I'll update it when there's something I can disclose, for those following that saga).

About 6 or 7 months ago I put my resume up on one of those very large job search sites. Nothing came of it, as I really didn't find anything on the site that was suitable, it seemed like just retail, customer service and entry level sales jobs. . .the stuff I could get by going out and applying at a store or e-mailing a friend that works in a call center.

I had pretty much forgotten about my profile/resume there, but in the last 2 days I've received two cold calls from recruiters from different companies talking about my resume there, asking if I'm job hunting.

This is what one of those conversations went like:

"Yes, hello, is this Silverstaff?"

"Yes, who is this?"

"My name is NameHere, I'm a recruiter with CompanyName and I found your resume on JobWebsite and am calling to see if you're interested in a job, are you looking for a job"

"Yes, yes I am. I'm looking for a job that would further my career work along my existing career path"

"Excellent, we here at CompanyName have many job opportunities in a variety of fields and I can help you find your new job, I just have a few questions, first do you have a degree?"

"Yes, two B.A.'s, one in History, one in Political Science, an A.A.S. in Intelligence Operations, and I'm a graduate student in History and will be receiving my M.A. in History next fall, and I have a 3.83 GPA so far.

"Uh . . .what kind of work experience do you have, where have your last few jobs been?"

"Three years with PoliceDepartment as a sworn law enforcement officer, one year as an Agent of StateAgency, two years Active Duty in the US Army and 4 years in the National Guard."

"Oh. . . .uh really, what did you do in the Army?"

"Military Intelligence"

"Oh. Wow. Uh. Hmm. Well, uh, the reason I'm calling is would you like an entry level sales job? The uh, pay is, uh, entirely commission based."

"No, thank you."

"Yeah, uh, ah, okay, um, remember us at CompanyName if you are interested in starting in that field."
*hangs up*

If he'd even bothered to take a look at my resume/profile, things like my work history and education were on there (before anyone says anything, I didn't put my clearance on a publicly searchable site, there are rules about that and I follow them). It seemed like he just had a name and phone number, and maybe knew about roughly where I lived (as in within commuting distance of the job he was offering).

Then I got a similar call today, but it was with a different company, offering call center work (at a call center I worked for 6+ years ago, and it was when I had a different phone number, so they couldn't just be calling an old number, and the recruiter said it was about my profile on JobWebsite). Given that my job at that call center was bad enough I've actually put up a thread or two about it here. . .my conversation went pretty much the same as the other one.

Trawling through a job search site, digging out contact information from profiles that haven't been touched in 6+ months, making cold calls without even reviewing the resumes of those people? Two calls like that in two days?

What the heck?

[CyberLurch]

Don't. I fell for this TRICK once, years ago. Turned out to be a pyramid scheme allegedly run by CitiCorp (though I doubt it was true, and they turned cartwheels to convince us it wasn't a pyramid scheme despite the fact that it actually was). They set up an 'interview', which turned out to actually be a group presentation to get applicants suckers to sign up for their scheme scam. It had all the earmarks of your experience - entry level 'sales' position for which you are considerably overqualified for, cold call, no evidence that they even looked at your resume.

I went to this 'interview', and got up and left only about 20 minutes into it when they told me about how my participation would cost me a significant sum of money.

I also got another call, nearly identical, right down to the spiel, about a week later.

[RealUnimportant]

I guess they're banking on you being desperate to grasp at whatever they dangle, if you've been on the site longer than X time then you should be grateful yadda yadda...

[CyberLurch]

I guess they're banking on you being desperate to grasp at whatever they dangle, if you've been on the site longer than X time then you should be grateful yadda yadda...

You are dead correct. They prey on the unemployed by offering them a 'job' but it's almost always an attempt to pry open your wallet.

I've given up using those 'employment' web sites. The last time I posted my resume online, within a few hours I'd fielded four calls trying to coax me into some school or another. By the end of the next day, another person called me pretending to want to do a telephone interview, even asked a few seemingly-pertinent questions, then proceeded to try to hook me with a 'free' cell phone, and when I declined that, to coax me into yet another school, complete with 'guaranteed' approval for a student loan. What was interesting about this was, only about an hour later, he tried AGAIN!

Not to mention the mass spam and robo-calls I started getting immediately. Everything from work-from-home and 'free' cruises to aluminum siding and 'investment opportunities'.

[Rosco the Iroc]

I liked the scam were a Chinese tech Co was starting up in my area. Wanted to interview though text msgs only. The nice thing is I was hitting google at the same time and the endgame was they send a check for equip, but "send to much" and you have to send the difference back. Then the check goes *boing*. They got my contact off the state gov job site.

[XCashier]

You are dead correct. They prey on the unemployed by offering them a 'job' but it's almost always an attempt to pry open your wallet.

I know it's a very common scam, but it strikes me as insanely stupid. A person is looking for a job because they don't have any money. So why are these scammers trying to get money from someone who has none?! Like trying to get blood from a stone.

Granted, if they were intelligent, they'd have legitimate jobs instead of running scams, but still...

I've been through similar scenarios myself, that's why I never use Craigslist. What should've been a simple system for gaining employment has been ruined by scammers and thieves.

[RealUnimportant]

I know it's a very common scam, but it strikes me as insanely stupid. A person is looking for a job because they don't have any money. So why are these scammers trying to get money from someone who has none?! Like trying to get blood from a stone.

Like any scam, it has enough of a success rate to make it worth their while to run it. Some people are just too blind to the dangers, or too trusting, and because they themselves are trusted by friends or family (or still have a friend in the bank) they can find the money... Only to wave it goodbye as the "job offer" evaporates, leaving them in deeper debt than they already had

[mjr]

I actually have a great idea to combat what SilverStaff is talking about. But I don't think most recruiters (or a lot of employers) would go for it.

I have my resume up on ScaryCreature and another on JobMaker. It's got my phone number and my email, but not my address.

After recent contacts, I'm seriously considering removing my phone number, and operating strictly off of email.

I get calls every now and then from "recruiters" who seem to be, how do I put this..."outsourced", if you know what I mean. Sometimes I can't understand them on voicemail, so I never call them back.

I also get calls for short-term contract positions several hours from where I currently live. I'll also get phone calls for jobs completely out of state. At this point, the only way I'd take an out-of-state job is if it was a full-time remote position.

I've been in software engineering for over a decade and a half. I recently got an email from a guy at a car dealership asking me if I wanted a car sales job. Note that there's no sales experience anywhere on my resume. No, thanks. I don't want a high pressure sales job where I have to work 12 or more hours a day, six days a week.

[BlaqueKatt]

I know it's a very common scam, but it strikes me as insanely stupid. A person is looking for a job because they don't have any money. So why are these scammers trying to get money from someone who has none?! Like trying to get blood from a stone.

they work quite well, they tell you for a $500 initial investment you'll be making $50k a month without having to leave your house*. My partner's sister got pulled into one last year, while unemployed, that the company was just shut down by the FTC.

*and most people "stick with it because of the the "sunk cost fallacy" coupled with the near-cult like tactics of the "recruiters"

[mjr]

they work quite well, they tell you for a $500 initial investment you'll be making $50k a month without having to leave your house*. My partner's sister got pulled into one last year, while unemployed, that the company was just shut down by the FTC.

*and most people "stick with it because of the the "sunk cost fallacy" coupled with the near-cult like tactics of the "recruiters"

The "pink car" MLM is very much like that. There are also others I've seen floating around, like the "candle warmer" one.

My sister almost got roped into one of these things a few years back. It was, believe it or not, for selling fire extenguishers.

We looked up the place, found out who the "founder" was, looked him up, and hoooo boy...

[silverstaff]

The only time I ever got a call that I knew immediately had to be a scam, was the first time I was job hunting, back in '07, right after I graduated from college.

I was having trouble finding a job beyond retail/call center type work, and had my resume out there on the big waste-o-time job sites.

I got a call from someone saying they saw my resume and wanted to help me find a job. . .they just needed a $300 fee, because they work for an employment agency that helps people find jobs. You pay them money, they get you a job. They swore up and down that they only took clients they felt confident they could get jobs for, so just give them the $300 and they'll help me get a job. My alarm bells were going off about sales tactics: someone calls me up wanting $300 promising to get me a job. I asked if there was any kind of guarantee, they said no, but insisted that's only because they don't need one since they only take clients they know they can get a job for. . .which didn't make any sense at all.

. . .besides the fact that I didn't have $300 to spend like that even if I wanted to, that seemed so incredibly suspicious that I didn't call them back.

Out of curiosity I did search for the name of the employment agency that called me, and found they did have a web site and looked, superficially, like a real employment agency. I went back a few months later in a "whatever happened to. . ." sense and the site wasn't there anymore.

[CyberLurch]

We looked up the place, found out who the "founder" was, looked him up, and hoooo boy...

Would you care to provide details?

[Geek King]

Back in the early 00's I had to deal with Primerica calling constantly. These companies operate just outside the lines for a pyramid scheme by offering some pittance product. Primerica was technically an insurance broker, for instance. The real money was paid out for recruiting people to work under you, leading to incessant calls for weeks while I was on the job market...and for weeks after.

[mjr]

Would you care to provide details?

I could. Not sure if that is allowed, though. And I just tried to look up the info, I only found some stuff on RipoffReport.

PM me if you're curious.

[mjr]

One of the things I dislike about this "cold call" thing is that they probably have a copy of my resume. At least they give that indication with things like, "I came across your resume, and...".

So things like "How many years of experience do you have?" and "Do you have X skill?" are likely on my resume!

Asking me if I know X, when my resume doesn't say I know X, is kind of pointless.

And no, I don't need to meet with you. This is a waste of my time and yours. Your job is to get my info, and get me a job. Not "meet me" to see what kind of person I am. I guess they do that to see if someone is covered head to toe with tattoos. Perhaps they don't want to send someone for a job interview looking like this:



But honestly, I really don't need to meet with you for you to submit me to a job.