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Comment by devs1010 | Hacker News Reader

Has anyone else noticed a trend of getting a lot of calls from offshore recruiters? I don't mean to sound xenophobic but I seem to get this stream of calls now (often 1-2 per day) from "recruiters" who I can barely understand as they have very thick accents, that are using poor phone connections (obviously over VOIP). My solution is that I don't answer the phone unless I'm expecting a call, everything goes to voicemail for me to weed through later. I am fairly open about putting my phone number up on resumes publicly, as it has benefited me before, so I guess its a price to pay but I just find it odd and can't help but wonder if they are actually recruiting for a real position or just trying to scam me in some way.

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I've had a lot of this as well. I don't think it's a scam (though I wouldn't know since, like you, I just ignore those calls). The positions these people are recruiting for seem awful to me, which would explain why they're hard to fill (and why the company is using a seemingly cheap service to fill them).

Yeah, I agree.. well I have also gotten some emails (from seemingly similar types of "recruiters") who do some sketchy things such as asking me to fill out a form with SS#, etc, obviously these go right to my spam box.

Is your resume on careerbuilder?

I get on call/week from someone that found me on careerbuilder that matches your description. Most of the ones I get are 3-6 month consulting gigs at some crappy company in a different state/industry.

I think I have an old resume up there.. also, its definitely more than 1 person, although some do call repeatedly, its amazing how rude they can be, if you don't answer they call again in 20 minutes and keep doing this 3-4 times.

I'm not sure you understand which one of you is being rude. Calling back later is a perfectly acceptable thing to do when there is no answer.

You must be a recruiter. Acceptable is leaving a message and waiting for me to call back or calling back a couple of days later if there is no answer.

If you are calling me every 20 minutes: 1) you know me personally or 2) it's an emergency.

yes I do understand. Keep in mind this is someone I've never talked to before, they call me during working hours and have some expectation that I will answer and when I don't they just decide rather than leave a message and call back a day or two later they are just going to keep childishly calling me back, interrupting my work in the process. I can understand if its someone with whom I've already had contact and I agreed to make myself available but only a salesperson / recruiter would actually believe that I am the one being rude.

Yes, and I can't imagine anybody I would want to work for using such a service.

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