way uncool

As someone with a lot of experience in a high-demand field, I get a large number of cold emails from recruiters. Depending on how interesting the email looks, I either delete them or file them, but I rarely reply. On June 23, I received an email from Emily at a firm called Vettery. From her email, it looked as if she'd emailed me before, which is entirely possible. Her email read:

Hi Mimi, 

Hope you’re doing well. I’m following up to see if you have any questions. 

At Vettery, we run weekly showcases where we feature some of the best tech candidates in the area who are interested in exploring opportunities (both passively and actively). As a candidate you have the ability to accept or decline each interview request you receive from our clients, so it is super low commitment, and a great way to just see what's on the market. 

Are you available for a quick call sometime over the next couple of days? 

Best, Emily

As I'm not in the market for a job at this point, I just filed the email. However, on June 27, she emailed me again:

Hi Mimi, Just wanted to follow up and see if you were available. We'd love to tell you more about Vettery and learn about your background. Would you have a few minutes for a quick call sometime this week?

OKAY FINE. I responded, none too enthusiastically:

Hello Emily, I haven't responded because I'm really not in the market right now. That said, I'm always willing to talk. The best time to call me is any Monday between 1 and 5 pm. My phone # is xxx-xxx-xxxx.

Emily apparently felt that Monday would not do; this wasn't entirely unreasonable of her, given that July 4, which is Tuesday, is a holiday, and most people (including me) have Monday off as well. So finally I agreed to take her call this morning at 10 and just try to slip into a meeting room for privacy. 10am came with no call. Sighing, I checked my mail to see what was up, only to read the following:

Hey Mimi -- Thanks for getting back, I really appreciate it! After looking further into your profile, I spoke with my team and think it would be best for us to reconnect in the future as it seems that we don't have any open positions that fit your background right now. We'd still love to stay in touch with you for future opportunities. You can check out our website and create a profile there to stay connected. We'll be sure to reach back out to you when something opens up. 

Thanks, and hope to stay in touch! 

Best, Emily

So, Emily, let me get this straight. Your company - which I've never heard of before this exchange, but which is apparently fairly well known to jobseekers in the finance world (in its previous incarnation as Street of Walls) - is apparently trying to entice high level tech candidates to join the site in order to market them to clients looking to employ them. You stumbled across me somewhere, maybe on LinkedIn, and somehow got the idea that I'd be a fit for one or more of your clients, and pushed me hard to commit to talking to you outside of my stated comfort zone. Aaaand then something (either that you didn't actually read my background, which is very well documented on LinkedIn, or some other issue about me that you suddenly had) made you drop me on my ass less than an hour before our scheduled conversation. And don't think I don't know you dropped me. Regardless of having any current positions that fit me, you could have spared the ten minutes out of your day to talk to me, especially since you'd pushed me when I'd stated my preferences. You made it very clear that it's not about helping your candidates, it's just about whether or not you can make any money off them.

 (And okay, sure, I wasn't born yesterday. I know it's about the money. But most recruiters try not to make it quite so obvious.)

 So, uh, no, while Vettery seems like an interesting hiring model, I will not be creating a profile there. And I wouldn't advise anyone else to, either. That was just way uncool.