All of the contract work I've taken on was via female recruiters. I hate gender generalizations, but this one seems to ring true. Male recruiters just don't know how to communicate.
I get several e-mail messages every week from recruiters. If it's someone I've never talked to, I tell them, "Hi, I'm not looking, but in the future I need to know the company, the rate and length of the contract so I know which leads are a good match for me." The volume is high enough, even when I was looking, that I'm not going to screw around with mystery blind solicitations only to find out it's crappy work. That's pretty reasonable, right?
So this dude cold e-mails me the usual crap about an "excellent opportunity with a great company," just like every other solicitation. So I reply with the sentence above, and he comes back with this...
Sometimes you need to take a chance. If you want help finding a new opportunity give me a call if you don't that's fine to.
He obviously never went to charm school. But this is typical of the responses from male recruiters. If it had been a female, they'd sell their firm, tell me what I want to know and maybe even kiss up a little (which I could do without, but they stand more to gain than I do).
In my experience the male recruiters tend to have a Frat Boy attitude and that is a complete turn off to me.
I know that there is a large part of the educated and available workforce out there that feels comfortable with that group. Not me.
About a year ago I was considering a leap and the recruiter refused to answer my basic questions (like Jeff's) and I stopped talking to the guy. He called and left me a really nasty voice mail telling me that I would never move beyond my current (at the time) pathetic position, and sarcastically wished me luck.
Yet, just a few months later I got offered my dream job with my current company and just this week got the significant promotion (tied to my Q1-08 results) to go along with the job.
That's what annoys me the most. They think they're really offering something special. Fuckers. They don't get that they're one of dozens of people who'd love to get that commission. When you have skills that people want, you have the upper hand. That guy simply doesn't get paid, and we move on to the next.