Adventures in recruiterland: A counterpoint of sorts

I have, in three previous posts written about recruiters, good and bad (though, let’s face it, I’ve mostly spoken about the bad). As most of the recruiters I’ve talked about have fallen squarely in the “bad” category, here’s a counterpoint of sorts. Though not bad, it’s certanly not good either. The initial contact looked like this:

The good sides first; the role title is relevant, and the opportunity in question is located where I am located. These are both good things. Why, then, is this “not good”? This is an invitation to connect, not a message. The difference is that, with a message, I’m not added to the contact pool of the recruiter in question. Conversely, the only way I can to this message is to accept their invitation to connect.

Now, there are plenty of open networkers on LinkedIn – so much so that there’s an acronym for them; LION – LinkedIn Open Networker. There’s certainly nothing wrong with that, it’s just not how I prefer to have interactions with people on LinkedIn. My contact list consists of people with whom I have worked, studied, or had some other interaction.