Recent grads/students reaching out for help to get in

Posted by Stubbby@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 15 comments

I receive a lot of messages from students/recent grads. I usually respond, I am happy to help if there is something I can do but more often then not, the way they communicate is plain rude and simply ignoring them is already charitable on my end.

Since I have seen these issues play out so many times, I am starting to wonder perhaps I misinterpret them. Here are a few scenarios I see repeating:

Asking for a recommendation. How can I personally vouch to hire someone I have never met before? That sounds insane to me. Does anybody give glowing hiring recommendations to people they never met or spoke to? Wouldn't that be quite unethical to start with? I find it off-putting when someone asks for me to be somewhat deceitful to help them get a job at my company (where I would have to live with the consequences of bad hire).
Inviting me to a meeting where I can help them decide if the role is right for them. It goes something like, hi I found your job post I would like to know if I am a good fit, here is my calendly and you can schedule a meeting to help me decide. What is that? Why would I waste my time to read a job description and go over the company website?
Looking for alternative ways to reach the hiring manager. If someone asks me for a hiring manager for a role, when it's not me, I am often kind enough to let them know the name of the person. Nothing crazy here, however, they usually come back to me saying that they either cant find him/her on LinkedIn or that they didnt respond to him her on LI and they demand direct contact to the person. They generally let go when I explain that reaching out through personal channels is never a good idea and none of the hiring managers would appreciate it, but I have seen people who start arguing and insisting they want their personal information.

Most of the time I just ignore them when it seems rude or inappropriate. How do you handle these requests? Do you assist them, ignore them, or mark down their applications when they act inappropriately?

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Instigated-@reddit

Put yourself in their shoes for a minute.

The job market is shit for job seekers, and is 100 times worse for those seeking their first job.

If getting a job was as straight forward as applying through the standard channels to a job you’re qualified to do, no one would feel a need to take a non standard path.

Amongst advice given to job seekers is reaching out on LinkedIn, show initiative, try to get a referral (people who work there get $ if someone they referred gets hired), direct your application to the hiring manager, blah blah blah.

Are these candidates worse because they put the effort in to follow that advice?

They probably mean an internal referral. You don’t have to lie to put in a referral, it can mean as little as you add their cv and details and a note that they reached out to you on LinkedIn. I’d want to do a virtual meet first, have a chat, make sure they seem a decent person, and share my first impressions with the referral. The recruiters will still be the ones that evaluate the application. However I would just as easily say “a referral won’t benefit you when I don’t really know you”, and asking me to do it means they add the risk that I might forget or mess up and not actually submit it, whereas if they submit through the right channel they know it will be considered.
Honestly I have done this before myself when I was looking for my first software engineering job (but worded better). In my case it was about trying to understand what the company is like to work at (culture fit) from a person who works there and is not part of the hiring cycle. I’m a career changer and know the culture can make or break the experience, and it’s not something you can tell by reading the job description or looking at the website. I would expect people from marginalised groups or career changers to be the most cautious about culture fit.
Advice given to job seekers is to find out the hiring managers name so the application cover letter can be addressed to them rather than generic “to whom it may concern”, and then after submitting their application to follow up with a call or message to make sure they got it. It’s about going the extra mile to stand out.

When you say that some “argue” with you when you say it isn’t a good idea, are they really arguing, or just explaining what they believe to be true (based on advice given to them) & reason why they want the contact?

In all cases, it is fine to ignore, say “no”, or provide polite feedback, if you don’t want to comply with their request.

I would not “mark down” their applications, however if concerned you could screenshot the conversation and share that - let the recruiters decide for themselves if they think it is a good or bad thing. Their opinion might be different to yours.

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Stubbby@reddit (OP)

Thank you. That gives me a perspective and restores some faith.

ExperiencedDevs-ModTeam@reddit

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nutrecht@reddit

I receive a lot of messages from students/recent grads. I usually respond

I don't. When I did it always boiled down to "I need a job please do all the heavy lifting for me".

fork_yuu@reddit

Number 2 is kinda insane NGL. Holy hell, people actually asks you to put some time on their calendar to walk them through if they should apply for that job?

I have seen 3 of these. Not sure what kind of advice they get from TikTok :)

Electrical-Ask847@reddit

OP are you indian ?

this is happening to me to me in india.

This is US, Silicon Valley.

Exact_Calligrapher_9@reddit

My company posted two SWE positions two days ago and two people two timezones away messaged me on LinkedIn for a referral.

The going is rough for new grads, but I remember the days of applying for anything in the country and I ended up moving as well. I think landing a good white collar job is hard and it takes all the creativity one can muster.

coworker@reddit

As someone else mentioned, you or the candidate are almost certainly confusing a request for a referral with one for a recommendation. That would explain your first issue

PragmaticBoredom@reddit

These are all bad job search "hacks" that get promoted on social media.

Don't waste too much time on anyone who is clearly just fishing for a way to bypass the normal hiring queue.

Definitely do not put in a referral for a random person who contacts you. Referrals are for people you know and recommend, not someone who asked for one.

ryuzaki49@reddit

Just go in there and shake the ExperienceDev's hand. That will get you the job.

NotYourMom132@reddit

These kids are getting real desperate

ReticulatedSpline78@reddit

This is one reason why I’ve basically shut my linked in profile down. It’s there for connections I know, but otherwise pretty sparse in terms of details.

4InchesOfury@reddit

The only ones I entertain are asking for referrals if they send the actual job they're applying for, but at my org referrals are a black box and we're incentivized to refer via referral bonus. I'll still do a basic resume check to make sure they're somewhat qualified.