in Checking In

May I ask why?

I had a job recruiter call me yesterday. I get about one of these calls a week, often from different recruiters pitching the same job. These recruiters are often young people just starting out. Frequently they don’t know much about the industry. This call was different though.

“Hello?”

“Hi, may I speak to Mark Turner?”

“This is he.”

“I’m Ashley from Blah Inc. recruiting. Is this a good time?”

“Sure,” I said.

“I have this great opportunity for a sysadmin position and think you’d be a perfect fit!”

“Thanks, but I’m actually pretty happy with my current job.”

There was a pause. Normally this would be the time the recruiter would cheerfully ask if I could pass this on to my friends. Instead, I got a question I didn’t expect.

“May I ask why?” Ashley asked.

“Excuse me?”

“May I ask why?” she repeated.

I was confused. “Why … what? Why I’m happy with my job?”

“Yes.”

I rolled my eyes. Newbie! I gave her a bunch of reasons why my job is awesome, which seemed to satisfy her. I told her I’d pass on her job opportunity to my geek friends and we wrapped up the call.

Not all recruiters are this bad but I’ve never had one ask me such a dumb question before.

  1. I’ve started answering those calls with this :

    Hi! Let me save both of us some time, and say that I am happy where I’m at, and I don’t know anyone looking at this time.

    That usually gets a thank-you and end of call. If it’s a company I know I never, ever, ever want to work with again, I add a “Please remove me from your list” and boom, done.

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