It seems to be the peak of the hiring season. Every one is back from holidays and the budgets are approved. I am getting contacted more than average by recruiters these days.
One annoying phenomenon is recruiters who refuse to mention the company they are hiring for before having a call. To me this is one of the dumbest things even though I understand the incentive of not wanting candidates to bypass the recruiter. It is still a big turn off.
If I am hiring a third party recruiter I won’t let them do that. They have to excite the candidate about my company and not send some generic info that can fit on any company.
Another interesting phenomenon is London. I think half of the world’s recruiters are based in London. Even those hiring for Berlin are based in London. Why?
A friend asked me how do you reject without closing the door? Here is the typical response I use (I don’t copy paste, and it gets adapted, this is just an idea)
Hi X,
Thank you for your message. I am not looking to change jobs at the moment. If anything changes I will let you know.
I wish you all the best finding the right candidate.
Best regards,
Mostafa
The first paragraph politely rejects without closing the door. The second one is to show sympathy. I try to put myself in the recruiters shoes, it must be daunting to keep getting rejections from candidates and companies so I am trying to be nice.