Monster.com has been making some changes lately. Mostly I am not liking them. Please note, I am not actively seeking a job but I have my resume out there (as I have for >6 years) in the chance that someone says, hey that is the guy we need and has some really good offer to send my way. I always look at all opportunities, I may not look long but I will at least look. It is silly for any employee any where to do anything else. The unfortunate story in the tech world is that you generally have to jump companies to get a decent pay raise so if you aren’t keeping your eyes out and haven’t moved positions in more than a few years, you are very likely underpaid next to the new folks that walked in the door recently.
Anyway, first change is that Monster has gotten all “spammy” with their emails. It used to be a simple list of matches on your search agents and now they are all pretty html with advertising, etc. Quite annoying. If I want to see that, I can always go to their site for it. I tried to turn on simply text and then what happened is I got a single email that said, one or more of your search agents had a match, log in to see…. Utterly worthless.
Next I have suddenly started getting pounded by head hunters who are offering me positions that have NOTHING to do with ANYTHING I do or ever wanted to do. One of the emails from today was for a financial advisor… I can assure you, there is nothing I have on that resume anywhere that says anything about me wanting to be a financial advisor. The only thing I can think of is that my resume lists my experience I had at Ford Credit back in the 90’s… My guess is that that was part of a mass broadcast to hundreds or more likely thousands or tens or even hundreds of thousands of folks with their resume posted who matches a very high level keyword search. I don’t think Monster should allow that… People should have to actually LOOK at the resumes that come back from keyword searches and then individually contact the folks. Otherwise, this just becomes another source of spam for me and monster.com is effectively worthless.
I would say previously, I was getting pinged on average about 4-5 times a week by headhunters with focused needs that at least sort of fit what I am looking for. I respond to each one and say I need more info, usually financial info, or just say thanks, but that isn’t something I am looking for. Then of the couple that I ask for more info, maybe one will be in the right salary range and I will ask for further info and usually find something I am not thrilled about and then thank those folks. This week *so far*, I have received many more than the average and most of them are way off… Quite annoying.
What are my top complaints concerning headhunters who are normally pinging me through monster? Hmmm… Not in any particular order
- A headhunter who says they have a perfect position for you, could you send them an up to date resume… How do you know it is perfect for me and why are you assuming my monster.com resume isn’t current…
- A headhunter who calls me. I clearly list that my preferred mechanism for communication is email. If they can’t follow that simple direction, it is unlikely I will speak with them unless they also sent me an email. Nothing worse than sitting there at work or at customer’s site on the customer’s dime and some headhunter calls you on your cell phone. Hello McFly! Well there is one better but it isn’t related to monster.com… Someone finds that they like you so much but they only know your name and the company you work for and they call the main line for the company and ask for the call to be redirected to you… That is a beauty.
- Headhunters who really try hard to get you involved and don’t want to give you financial info or try to skate by and say, salary is limited only by experience. With these folks I say, what is the financial scoop, seriously. There is some upper limit, what is it? I am not going to go through a bunch of stuff to find out the customer thinks they can get someone with mad experience in every product known to man for $50k a year.
- A headhunter who tells me to go to their website and look at the postings… I can do that on my own, why do I need you? I post on Monster so people who are looking for me can find me not so people can tell me to look at their website to see if there is anything I think that fits me.
joe
Have noticed the same phenomenon with the mass blasted emails (and telephone calls from recruiters in India too).
Do you ever worry that your current employer will see that your resume is active on Monster and make a big deal of it? The last place I worked at they did that. Then the managers would start leaking rumors “ohoh so and so is leaving because they just activated their resume”. It was petty BS, like you said you have to test the waters and see what is out there.
Hi Mike, sorry for the delay in responding. Busy busy.
I have no fear of my current employer seeing my resume. Actually I think it is good that my employer knows that I have my resume out there, maybe it makes them a little more involved in trying to keep me happy and staying versus being shocked and trying to respond when I actually hand in a resignation. Once I decide to resign, it would be very difficult for me to change my mind back to stay regardless of what the company comes back with. I have to make a mental break from a company in order to accept something somewhere else. I think that is because I invest myself heavily in any company I work for. I much rather companies take care of me up front than just try to respond to me when I decide to leave.