Online Headhunters - the most optimistic optimists out there

Every now and then I get an email from some random headhunter at Linkedin, claiming to have the perfect job opening for someone with my skills.

Very often the job being offered requires re-locating to Amsterdam, Barcelona, Sydney, or someplace in the general area of [very far from Sweden]. I’m sure all of those cities are great, but I’m not too fond of the idea of shipping everything I own to some far off city, just because someone have sent me an email containing 2 rows of obvious copy->paste text.

But somehow, at least some people must respond to those offers. Otherwise the headhunters would starve to death and stop spamming everyone with a decent profile, right?

I usually tell them to sod off, in a polite manner. You know, “Sorry, I’m not interested in moving to [city] far, far away”.

But sometimes that doesn’t help. Instead of getting a message saying something like “Okay, let me know if you change your mind”, they keep telling me how perfect I’d be for the job (which is funny, given that they have no idea whether my profile is real or not).

What I usually respond to such persistent bastards/people is something like “Sure, that sounds interesting. Let me buy you a cup of coffee and we’ll talk about it. How about my home town, next Tuesday?” Which usually result in the “Okay, let me know if you change your mind” message mentioned above.

Of course, they still want to connect - so that they can keep me updated on other great job opportunities in their area.

To which I reply: NO.

On the other hand, I’ve gotten some interesting messages from headhunters located in my area. Those messages usually contain much more information about the job being offered - and the headhunter often offers coffee/lunch on them - if I want to know more about the position. I like those headhunters, not only because I think free food/coffee is a neat idea - but because they offer something in return for my time. They obviously get paid for finding good candidates - but that doesn’t mean that I automatically want to take some time off from my current job (something that actually costs me money) in order to listen to what they have to offer, without getting any compensation.

When I apply for a job, I’m already interested in that position and committed to spend time on trying to present myself further. When someone else want me to spend my time (and money), in order for them to get paid - it’s a completely different story.