# Cold e-mails with completely out of the question job offers. How to respond? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 19, 2014, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-e-mails-with-completely-out-of-the-question-job-offers-how-to-respond/705031 "2014-11-19T02:06:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-e-mails-with-completely-out-of-the-question-job-offers-how-to-respond/705031/1 "2014-11-19T02:06:53Z")
In the last two days, I’ve gotten two cold e-mails from (apparently) recruiters offering me jobs — contract jobs thousands of miles away requiring experience and skills that are nothing (and I mean NOTHING) like anything reflected on my resume. I am tempted to reply unleashing all of my displeasure at their obvious lack of due diligence and for wasting the few seconds it took to open the e-mail, but then I thought, what if (by some distant miracle) they could actually help me in the future? I could also just ignore/delete the damn things, but given the suddenness with which this started, I’m wondering if that would just let a trend continue. What do you all think I should do? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-e-mails-with-completely-out-of-the-question-job-offers-how-to-respond/705031/2 "2014-11-19T02:08:23Z")
Report/mark as spam and delete. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-e-mails-with-completely-out-of-the-question-job-offers-how-to-respond/705031/3 "2014-11-19T02:16:06Z")
Ahh, spam — the possibility hadn’t occurred to me. What’s the point of it, though? ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-e-mails-with-completely-out-of-the-question-job-offers-how-to-respond/705031/4 "2014-11-19T03:10:40Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > Ahh, spam — the possibility hadn’t occurred to me. > > What’s the point of it, though? What’s the point of any spam? To either 1) sell you a product that may or may not be effective, ethical, or legal or 2) verify your e-mail address is valid so they can then sell that list to a vendor in category 1. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-e-mails-with-completely-out-of-the-question-job-offers-how-to-respond/705031/5 "2014-11-19T03:25:43Z")
You could Google the recruiter offices and see if something legit comes up. If so, maybe you could take note of them as a future resource. My bet is they’re not, and in that case, mark as spam and delete. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-e-mails-with-completely-out-of-the-question-job-offers-how-to-respond/705031/6 "2014-11-19T03:44:16Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > Ahh, spam — the possibility hadn’t occurred to me. > > What’s the point of it, though? Is your resume out on any of the job boards? If so, at best it’s typo - they were going to send you Job A, but instead put your email on Job B. Remember, sometimes the recruiter is where the company HQ is, not anywhere near the local-to-you office. Sometimes it’s a lazy recruiter, especially the ones that have, “if your not currently looking or not a fit for this but know someone who is…” Usually if I’m not interested, I delete w/o giving it a thought; remember that whole ‘burning bridges’ thing. However, one guy was sending me enough crap (& I do mean **crap** - the _closest_ job was only _two_ timezones away from me. :rolleyes:) that I sent him a blistering email back that he was nothing but a spammer & he should remove me from his list. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-e-mails-with-completely-out-of-the-question-job-offers-how-to-respond/705031/7 "2014-11-19T03:50:20Z")
I tried responding to a few of these: “This job is not suitable for my needs, but if you are willing to represent me, may I send you a list of my competencies and requirements?” They never answered, so I took to deleting them. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-e-mails-with-completely-out-of-the-question-job-offers-how-to-respond/705031/8 "2014-11-19T05:25:26Z")
I wonder if there might be some scam involved - oh, for a slight resume rewriting fee, we’ll get you a job. When we post jobs on our website, we get flooded with resumes that aren’t even close. If some legitimate recruiter sent out mass spam, and really wanted to look at the responses, he’d really get flooded. No one would ever do this twice. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-e-mails-with-completely-out-of-the-question-job-offers-how-to-respond/705031/9 "2014-11-19T16:41:07Z")
Emails with random jobs with no relevance to your skills located thousands of miles away fall into exactly the same category as v1agra and low mortgage rates – it’s pure spam. Maybe they got your address off a job board, maybe they used the random address generator. Don’t give it another thought. When I signed up on Monster it was like I had written “For a good time call Kunilou” on a bathroom wall. ---
**Author:** ![GoodOmens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@GoodOmens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GoodOmens)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-e-mails-with-completely-out-of-the-question-job-offers-how-to-respond/705031/10 "2014-11-19T16:58:04Z")
I would guess as well that some subset of those “job offers” will then involve requiring a $2000 training course, prepaid of course, with no refund. Make sure to mail your check with sufficient time to reach Nigeria. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-e-mails-with-completely-out-of-the-question-job-offers-how-to-respond/705031/11 "2014-11-19T17:08:39Z")
> [@Enderw24](#): > > What’s the point of any spam? To either 1) sell you a product that may or may not be effective, ethical, or legal or 2) verify your e-mail address is valid so they can then sell that list to a vendor in category 1. and 3) confirm that you are reading the emails and willing to open them up and reply to them. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-e-mails-with-completely-out-of-the-question-job-offers-how-to-respond/705031/12 "2014-11-21T14:27:00Z")
I get a lot of those, mostly for what appear to be sales positions. I can only assume that the job in question is somewhere on the list of Top 10 Absolutely Shittiest Jobs on Earth, if they need to recruit people via mass e-mail. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-e-mails-with-completely-out-of-the-question-job-offers-how-to-respond/705031/13 "2014-11-21T14:42:13Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > When I signed up on Monster it was like I had written “For a good time call Kunilou” on a bathroom wall. At least they got your name right. Nothing better than an email that says “We think your credentials would be Perfect for the job” followed by someone else’s first name. :smack: Then you have to guess if they actually looked at YOUR resume, or the guy whose name is on the email. Many times I’ve been tempted to reply back & get Their name wrong, but referring to Mohammed-Abdul as “Shlomo” just didn’t seem productive. ---
**Author:** ![yellowjacketcoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4bbf92/32.png) [@yellowjacketcoder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowjacketcoder)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-e-mails-with-completely-out-of-the-question-job-offers-how-to-respond/705031/14 "2014-11-21T14:55:47Z")
I get a few of these due to linkedin (sometimes the recruiter is diligent enough to dig up my email). I’m usually polite and mention that I’m not looking to change right now. I have responded to a few, and they turned into real offers, but I declined them. ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-e-mails-with-completely-out-of-the-question-job-offers-how-to-respond/705031/15 "2014-11-21T17:09:11Z")
Yeah, if you have ever signed on with Monster or any of the other job boards, you start to get “recruiting” spam after a while. They try to make it look like a real person is contacting you, but, as you noted, the jobs have little to do with your skills or location. I get the idea that they are just generated by some key word in your resume. I found that as time went on they got more and more random. I’ve never responded, so I don’t know what the game is. It could be just to get you back on the site. Other types of businesses prey on job hunters, too, like insurance and financial product salespeople. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-e-mails-with-completely-out-of-the-question-job-offers-how-to-respond/705031/16 "2014-11-21T17:52:11Z")
> [@yellowjacketcoder](#): > > I get a few of these due to linkedin (sometimes the recruiter is diligent enough to dig up my email). > > I’m usually polite and mention that I’m not looking to change right now. I have responded to a few, and they turned into real offers, but I declined them. The ones I get from LinkedIn are reasonably legitimate and connected to what I do. The recruiter I work with dug up some names and we went through them filtering out the irrelevant ones (or the ones already working for my company.) The problem as you found is that most people you come up with are not interested, and we moved to another site which has postings by people actually looking for jobs. It sounds like the one in the OP is not nearly so legitimate. I’ve never gotten any, but I would touch Monster with a ten-foot pole. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2014, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-e-mails-with-completely-out-of-the-question-job-offers-how-to-respond/705031/17 "2014-11-22T02:43:29Z")
> [@Count\_Blucher](#): > > At least they got your name right. Nothing better than an email that says “We think your credentials would be Perfect for the job” followed by someone else’s first name. :smack: Meh, that _could_ be a typo/ cut & paste error. The top line on my resume is my name & some initials. (think ‘Peter Parker, MD’ or ‘Peter Parker, MBA’). Do you know how often I get ‘Dear Mba’ (where they decided to change the capitalization, too)? :smack: Usually, I can read the first line of an email before opening it. If I see ‘Dear Md’, I don’t even bother to open it before deleting it. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2014, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-e-mails-with-completely-out-of-the-question-job-offers-how-to-respond/705031/18 "2014-11-22T15:53:16Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > Meh, that _could_ be a typo/ cut & paste error. The top line on my resume is my name & some initials. (think ‘Peter Parker, MD’ or ‘Peter Parker, MBA’). Do you know how often I get ‘Dear Mba’ (where they decided to change the capitalization, too)? :smack: > Usually, I can read the first line of an email before opening it. If I see ‘Dear Md’, I don’t even bother to open it before deleting it. Good point, but what if it was addressed to Matt Murdock, JD? Or Jessica Campbell Jones? Or Dr Bruce Banner? (Good luck trying to forward mail to THAT guy…) ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2014, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-e-mails-with-completely-out-of-the-question-job-offers-how-to-respond/705031/19 "2014-11-22T16:04:36Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > Ahh, spam — the possibility hadn’t occurred to me. > > What’s the point of it, though? There would probably be an ‘application fee’.