Nothing irks me more than updating my resume on Monster, Career Builder, etc. only to be inundated with unsolicited emails from recruiters.

The idea behind recruiting I.T. people, I don’t mind. Heck, I don’t even care about the 10-20% off the top that they take for “finding” me. Whatever.

What I dislike is when the recruiters are essentially spamming anyone with a handful of keywords in their resume or profile — without even taking even the smallest amount of time to even feign respect for the person they are mailing.

It’s all about the law of averages, I guess. Send out enough mass-mailings and, eventually, it’s bound to work in your favor.

Just today, I received a message from a recruiter which addressed the message as “To Whom It May Concern”. You’ve got to be kidding me!

With the technology today (or the past decade or two), they could at least use something to extract the name of the person and use that name when addressing them. It’s not that hard.

Blatantly just lumping everyone with similar keywords together and assuming they all are equally qualified as potential employees is an insult.

I want someone to look at my resume, read it, and actually think about whether I’d be a good fit somewhere. And if they decide that my skills are what is needed, great, but then try and sell me on working for that company.

The recruiter needs me to take the job with their client a lot more than I need them to find me a company. But somehow it’s not viewed like that. I see comments from them about how, if I get hired, I will be given the opportunity to convert their client’s legacy system into something more modern. It’s not like there aren’t interesting aspects about doing that sort of work, but don’t pitch it like you’re wanting to introduce me to the exciting world of coal-mining. I’m not buying it.

Typically, I get recruiters who are more than happy to pass on their client’s mission-statement, a history of when it was founded, and an alphabet-soup of programming languages that are required. That’s fine. When I ask them to tell me about the company culture, what type of development staff is already there, how I.T. relates with the business, etc., I rarely hear back from them.

Why do I want to go out of my way to call a recruiter to check up on some mysterious offer at a company they won’t even tell me the name of and can’t really give me any details on?

For a while, I implemented an email-only policy with recruiters. I didn’t include a phone number on my resume and the only way I’d discuss possible job openings with them was in written format. That worked wonderfully for the most part. Not wonderfully in the way of, “I got a spectacular job out of it,” but more so that I just stopped getting contacted all together.

I keep an eye out still for small software development shops, start-ups, etc. I’m looking for a place where I can work on becoming better at what I do and have my work put to good use.

Development is something I just really enjoy. Sometimes a project is a pain or there are tedious tasks that need done, but it’s still rewarding overall.

If I wasn’t at work getting paid to make software or solve problems, I’d be at home doing it for free. I’m looking forward to finding a place where I can work with people who understand where I’m going with ideas and have the skills to help make those goals happen.

If you know of a place like that looking for someone with VB.NET/SQL skills and a love of development, feel free to comment and let me know. Or just find me on Monster. Just don’t start out the message with, “To whom it may concern”….