<p>I keep getting calls at work from recruiters/headhunters (especially since I joined LinkedIn). I’m in a good, secure job, and am happy with it, and don’t really appreciate these people calling me at the office. They’re never satisfied with “Thank you, but I’m not looking, and have no plans to do so in the near future.” The latest one (who called my officemate yesterday, as well) went on for ages about how important it is to have a long-term relationship with a recruiter.</p>
<p>Several months ago, one even went so far as to tell me that of course I was happy with my job so soon after getting it (I’ve been out of college a year), but that eventually I would want her services. That seems very presumptuous to me.</p>
<p>I don’t want to be rude, but I also want to make these people go away (making them not call me in the first place would be nice, but I don’t. Any suggestions?</p>
<p>I am a headhunter and I can’t imagine continuing to harass people after they tell me they are happy. I simply leave my contact info and move on. I’ll admit that I have been burned, so to speak, by doing this. I’ll read a month later in the paper that the person has moved to one of my clients. I don’t agree with the tactics used by the people calling you and they give the rest of us a bad name.</p>
<p>Have you told them directly to not call you any more frequently than x (perhaps every 6 months)? If you have and they don’t respect your direction just tell them flat out that you don’t want to work with them and to please no longer call you at all. You can be polite but firm. If they continue anyway, then if they work for a company complain to the head of that company. </p>
<p>If they still continue to call you then as soon as you hear who it is tell them you’re no longer accepting calls from them and just hang up without waiting for their response. I’d expect they’d give up at this point.</p>
<p>I work in the DC/Balto area. I only work with attorneys though and I am an attorney who used to get cold calls so maybe I am a bit more sensitive to the issue. I have found that hounding attorneys with unwanted calls is the way to get points.</p>
<p>Jessiehl, that’s where mine keep coming from, too-- LinkedIn. I have no idea how they found me, either, since my work number is NOT on there, and is NOT public. They’d have to be looking up my company and calling me through the receptionist, which I DO NOT appreciate. The last one to call actually got snippy with me when I kept saying I wasn’t interested. (I work in an open floor plan! I’m not gonna say, “Sure! What jobs have you got for me?” with my neighbors listening in, even if I <em>were</em> interested!!) Finally hung up on him.</p>
<p>I just put a curt-sounding note in my profile saying that I do not accept phone calls from recruiters, and so far, no further calls. I doubt that’ll last, but I don’t have a lot of other ideas.</p>
<p>and when the headhunter asks you for any names and numbers, please stop giving them my name and phone number :)</p>
<p>I politely tell them I am happy in my current position, I do not give referrals and say thank you for calling. If they proceed with the conversation, I hang up.</p>
<p>Another possible tactic - ask for their contact information and indicate you are not interested now, but if that changes you will contact them. And, indicate that you do not want to be contacted in the meantime.</p>
<p>You never know when good/secure job suddenly changes, and you may be interested in following up with a recruiter or two.</p>
<p>Be careful with some these calls - they are not necessarily always recruiters, but rather ominous interests positioning themselves as such. Sometimes these calls represent attempts at social engineering - sometimes it’s actually a competitive intelligence call where the intent is to gain trade secrets or other information about you, your employer, general business practices, etc. </p>
<p>The best thing to do is take the persons’s name and number, and tell them you’ll call them back if/when there may be an interest, or reason for dialog. I would NOT give them ANY information at all - not one piece of information of any kind whatsoever - I would NOT say that I am happy or not happy or anything else. I would just say “name and number, I’ll call you if I’m interested.” Then hang up.</p>