Laser Hair Removal Technician Spam

Being an IT guy (with heavy web development under my belt) I rarely venture out to other fields. However, my personal life brings insights to totally different fields.

As my girlfriend is looking for a aesthetician / laser hair removal tech positionwe constantly check craigslist. Yesterday we stumbled on pretty decent ad that promised (obviously exaggerating a bit) a nice spot for someone with similar background. Naturally, we responded to the ad.

Next day there was an answer laying in my girlfriend's mailbox, stating that in order to proceed she needs to fill out some form on the web. While such practice is not uncommon for really large companies, going through same routine to get a job at a local doctor's office or spa smelled fishy to me. The link -  quickstrikecareers.com?(numbers) - added to pile of suspicions. I checked whois for this domain (I'm a techie, remember?) and the pile of suspicion (domain uses anonymizing service from Network Solutions, not a reputable organization by itself) got so big I couldn't see the reason to continue investigation behind it. I did, however, google search for this domain. Out of six search results four were clearly stating that this domain is involved in some sort of scam that gathers applicant's data and then annoys them with unsolicited calls about various career-related services.

While this bait-and-switch technique isn't right all by itself, playing people, who (due to recent economy evens) may be desperate trying to get a job and pay their bills is pure thievery all by itself. By the way, the ad has already been taken down by craigslist. Good job.

More Job-Related Spam

If you think those guys have stopped - think again. Latest trend for job-related spam runs with totally new and improved subjects: "There's a <insert job position here> you might qualify for!".

Of course, there's an old URL that is giving this junk away - the cmanager2.aspx?em= followed by your e-mail. Funny as it is, the Spam Assassin already learned to catch this as a spam, so these arrive in my inbox already labeled as SPAM.

Be warned.

The Word On Spam

If you think the job searcher niche lacks spam - think again! Just think of it - while most of the places are dying to pry at least an e-mail address from your hands, in job market you are freely giving it away. With addition to other means to contact you (usually a phone number and address) and full job history. No wonder spammers are eager to exploit such fruitful market.

Personally, I observe two major sources of spam. I am not sure about the origins, but there is a sure way to identifiy either source.

First source - I call it "stupid enough" - is sending out legit-looking e-mails originating from something.industrywebhostingNNN.com, where NNN is usually a three or four digit number. Few years ago (yep, it's that old) I did a little research on who these domain names belong to and didn't find any kind of result sufficient enough to furnish them a copy of my resume. Luckily, any anti-spam filter, given proper training, easily spots these messages and filter them out.

Second source - I call it "not sneaky enough"- comes from various domains and "users" (I don't believe these users are actually exist). What gives it away is the URL for resume submission, it ends with cmanager.aspx?email= following your e-mail and some other information. Personally, I haven't clicked on that link lately, so I don't know what awaits you on the other side, but from my perspective it's not worth the risk and it's not worth the time. A simple search on Google yields plenty of reasons to stay away from this link. Most of them seem to be associated with "powerjobapp" site or service.

More then just that, there are some rogue recruiters who turn into spammers trying to solicit their services to candidates. One of today's doses of spam came from JobServe, titled "You're missing out on thousands of new job opportunities". Attached was a list of 50 jobs covering everything from web development to administration to tech support. Of course I don't want to dig through this pile of nonsense to figure out if there's anything interesting.

What surprises me is how little do these guys are willing to do in order to get their money.They throw you a piece of garbage and expect you to jump on it and start acting like it's the best opportunity in town. Luckily, the overall number of recruiters far supercedes the actual number one would need. All you have to do is stay away from spam.

My Book Of Grievances

As I am promoting this web site, I see a lot of recruiters ranting and bragging how they are so cool and good, and how their clients are all bad and making plenty of mistakes. Even if only half of this is true, I still don't get how come I still get:

• people with bad English skills, guys who can't even spell out simple 4-letter word VLAD that happens to be my name. This is not to mention guys calling directly from India and trying to fix me up with some job in New York
• recruiters, who are trying to lure me into sending my resume to them with some made up position that only partially matches my skills, but promising good things in the future. Usually, I never hear from them again...
• no work on if and when my resume have been submitted (I had to go through 4 recruiters who solicited a job to me, and only 4th had actually submitted my resume. Or so I hope.)
• no feedback after phone interview
• no feedback after face-to-face interview
• mass e-mails that have little or no relevancy to my skills, sometimes - sent 2 or 3 times
• attempts to tailor my skills to what your client wants
• attempts to forbid me from soliciting other job opportunities and services of other recruiters while at the same time doing little or nothing for my job search;

and last but not least - calling me at 8:01am. If you are on some kind of Prozak, heavy caffeine energy drink or some other substance - doesn't mean I share your addiction. Call me around lunch time. If you don't think I am important enough for you to call around lunch time - don't call me at all, you're not the only recruiter in town.

Feel free to add more!