Q for engineers on this thread: would you be more open to a "recruiter reach-out" if that person _is_ an engineer themselves but independently also helps startups build teams as a recruiter?
The more you differentiate yourself, the more likely I am to listen. My priority is:
1. Internal recruiters. They have real pull.
2. External recruiters that give me real information and give me quality information before I get on a call and why I might be interested.
3. External recruiters that are working with a company that I have prior interest in.
Below this, I usually don't respond.
4. Recruiters that ask if I can "get on a call" to get me details.
5. Recruiters from big name firms. (Robert Half et. al)
6. Low quality recruiters that have no connection to what I do.
I'd rather talk to another eng, but the problem with recruiters isn't that they're recruiters, it's that their email wastes people's time; cf. the article, and the canned response the article recommends writing: what if… what if the recruiter just told us those things up front? Then I'd instantly know this is worth responding to! Instead, we have to waste a mostly-automated round trip asking for what ought to have been done up front.
Of course — the offer would need to be actually palatable.
