Deflecting Job Solicitations
Even though I haven't had an active resume on the job boards for well over a year, I still receive a fair number of job solicitations and calls from recruiters. This week, I counted five emails and several phone calls. Three were for the same exact job down in Georgia.
So I decided to change up and revise the standard "I'm on a contract" email to be a mini-marketing pitch for my new consultancy.
Here is my new email template responding to unsolicited job solicitations:
Thank you for contacting me about the position. Unfortunately, I am not currently looking for any direct W2 employment right now; I am only considering corp-to-corp arrangements.
Last year, I founded Agave Mountain (http://www.agavemountain.com/), a consultancy / microISV created to provide customized software development, provide hourly software development services, and to showcase my primary focused skill areas: C/C++, STL, Boost, Linux, Windows, embedded driver and applications development.
I am more than happy to discuss what I can do for your client.
My corporation incorporated in Delaware, registered to do business in Minnesota, and fully insured.
Thanks.
So far, it is working well. I send the canned reply, label the email and archive it. It is out of my email with little or no effort, yet I remain with a clean email inbox.
Simple, quick, and professional.
So why even respond to the flesh peddlers?
I remember a tip given to me from a salesman, who did very well for himself (and founded several successful companies). One of the things I noticed is that he would sometimes shift the conversation back to him or his product. He always took the opportunity to market himself and his product.
I thought I would start doing the same.
