Low-skill recruiting requires dishonesty

Some time ago, I wrote about how low-skill recruiting is spam – an assertion I stand by wholeheartedly. Among the expectations I have for any recruiter contacting me is that they actually read my profile, and evaluate whether it appears my skill set is applicable to the proposed position. For your edification and entertainment, I offer you Ghulam:

Not overly promising, but let’s string Ghulam along and see what he has to offer, why don’t we?

Now, why would he need my email address? I’m requesting relatively basic information about an assignment, and I honestly think he ought to be able to answer these questions promptly. Let’s try again:

OK, I’ll bite. I’ll generate a new email address, just for Ghulam to use, which I can kill later on:

I get the feeling that he isn’t as keen anymore, but I’ll give him another chance. This time I actually get an email. It gives a lot of irrelevant details about the firm, before getting on to the actual request:

Scrolling down, we get to the proposed payment:

Well, aren’t I the lucky one? Not only do I need to provide several thousands of dollars of equipment, I also get to do a job at an impressively low rate. I’m sure this must be a mistake, so I ask him to confirm:

It appears it isn’t a mistake. Curiouser and curiouser. While he is happy to repeat the hourly rate, he won’t answer my questions. At this point, I rejected him and wished him and his company every lack of success in their future endeavours. For everyone following along, here’s why this isn’t just a very badly paid gig (well, for Norway at any rate), but is also quite honestly offensive:

The base rate for a qualified technician is around US$ 25 per hour. That is to say, someone who just completed their apprenticeship can expect to earn that much. I completed my apprenticeship over fifteen years ago. Furthermore, this is the base rate for an employee, while Ghulam here wants me to work on a contractor basis. As a contractor, I would need to cover my overhead (including, but not limited to, taxes, insurance, tools etc.) out of my fees. A quick estimate indicates that Ghulam is underpaying by at least 60%.

As for the dishonesty, well; while I have indeed, at one point or another, done everything Ghulam outlines in the brief, none of it is part of my core competencies, nor do I list doing such work in any of my recent jobs. What’s more, here’s the opening line of his email:

That is certainly an interesting assertion when they are asking me to perform work so far outside of my present core skill set and experience within the past fifteen years. Oh well, nevermind, another recruiter has been roundly, and deservedly, rejected.

Postscript: another good indicator that these recruiters never even bothered to check my profile is that I keep getting these requests, despite my mercilessly mocking them here on the blog – remember that all of my blog posts are posted to my LinkedIn profile, so the evidence is there for them to read…