Trust me, if EVERY candidate told you where they were from you’d be bored out of your mind anyway. That’s the price for taking a job in which you read EVERY personal advertisement out there in order to fulfill it. Perhaps you should improve your method of screening e-mails; that’s what search-engines are for.

“They do not want to waste their time applying to a job that don’t meet their criteria…”- K.K.

No kidding! You wouldn’t waste your time recruiting someone who didn’t meet your criteria either now would you? Especially in this economy!

“Dear Job Seeker, please explain how the 20 minutes it took you to find me, get me on the telephone and tell me all of this, was a better investment of your time, versus hitting attaching and sending me your resume to the address already posted on the listed job?”- K.K.

It’s the same reason why telemarketers seek your number, then seemingly waste their time calling you; because it pays. Really, the world of job-seeking is not dynamically different from any other business venture. They both are subject to the laws of supply and demand. Sooner or later, you’ll find job-seekers using automated machines to advertise their services, the same way you see everyone else advertise their services.

Lindsay Olson’s “Sort-cut Introduction” is by far my biggest peeve as well. The bigger problem however, is not only the frequency of these emails (I get 3-5 a day now), but how vague they truly are. Unlike Lindsay (I’m almost envious!) most job seekers refuse to even tell me where they are from, hoping that their one-liner “Looking for job oppertunity (SIC)” is enough to entice me to click on their linkedin url. Please, if you are a job seeker, and you are reading this, please, follow Lindsay’s advice (see above).

Another great peeve, that astounds me as much as it does irritate me is the job seeker, that goes through the yellow pages, or googles my name to find my office telephone number, only to call me and ask me for more details about the job before they submit their resume. The single (not even top, but SINGLE) reason cited for the request? They do not want to waste their time applying to a job that don’t meet their criteria…
Dear Job Seeker, please explain how the 20 minutes it took you to find me, get me on the telephone and tell me all of this, was a better investment of your time, versus hitting attaching and sending me your resume to the address already posted on the listed job?

It is a tough time being a recruiter these days. Passive candidates are loath to find a new role, and active job seekers are hyper aggressive and numerous, good luck to everyone who is either still in business, or kept their job, it’s a crazy world out there.