Was I rude to Computer People?

[javadude]

Like most people I get loads of calls from agents who are my best friend, listen carefully to my requirements for a contract say they will contact me when they have something relevant and then spam me with loads of irrelevant permanent jobs. Sometimes I just delete the emails, sometimes I reply and ask if they could correct the contract/permanent setting against the details they hold for me.

Today I got an email from an agent at Computer People with one web developer contract at the other end of the country and various permanent jobs for skills I don't have. I'm a java contractor and have had a few emails about permanent jobs from Computer People recently which I've deleted so I replied this time:

Hi Xxxx

I'm a Java contractor in Zzzzzz so no. Could you correct the Computer People database to show that I'm only interested in Java contracts please?

Thanks

The reply I got was:

Hi Yyyy,

Please bear in mind our system holds over 1 million candidates and I did carefully select who I emailed...

If you re read my email.... at the bottom it does state ALTERNATIVELY IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A ROLE THEN PLEASE GET IN TOUCH'

Regards

I should probably have left it there but as she had said she carefully selected the recipients I thought it worth pointing out that something might need fixing in their system:

Hi Xxxx

If you carefully selected "android", "permanent" etc and you get java contractors in your search results then it might be worth reporting a bug/improvement request to your system so that you get better matches. (I've no android experience and tell every agent I talk to that I'm only interested in hearing about contracts.)

I'm busy with a customer at the moment but if you have some Java contracts that you're aware of in February in the Zzzzzzz area then please let me know.

Thanks.

The reply sounded was a little less professional than I expected:

Hi Yyyyy,

Are you having a bad day???????

Can you read?????????

I asked for talented developers??????????? At the bottom of the email if again....... states alternatively if you are looking for a vacancy then please send your CV...

Do you intentionally want to be a pedantic creature all day?????????

We all have a job to do and for your information I have a java contract role and you won't be considered in future! (for being rude for no reason)

Regards

She'd not mentioned the java contract before. Anyway I didn't intend to be rude so:

Hi again

I'm sorry that you thought I was being rude. I'd just like to receive emails more targeted to my requirements.

Ok Yyyy,

I will let you off...

I would just like candidates to be a little nicer We help you guys
find work after all.

Regards

Very magnanimous. It's interesting to be reminded at the valued role agents provide.

Was I rude? Are my expectations of agents too high?

[northernladuk]

Can't believe you are making such a fuss over nothing, so they are sending a few roles that are slightly incorrect. WGAS. Rather get more mails than not enough and at least they are keeping you in the loop.

[administrator]

Personally I would have called her office and shouted at her and then signed her email address up to every nasty porn site I could find. Don't worry about most agents from the big companies, they are usually only there for six months or so before they move on to double glazing sales or whatever career path these people have.

[norrahe]

Dies anyone actually get roles with these people? Have never found cp any use or any good.

To the OP, move on and ignore this most of these agents are 12 year olds straight out of uni. They are really not worth wasting your time on.

[northernladuk]

Personally I would have called her office and shouted at her and then signed her email address up to every nasty porn site I could find. Don't worry about most agents from the big companies, they are usually only there for six months or so before they move on to double glazing sales or whatever career path these people have.

No need for the sarcasm.. reported and perma ban requested

[bobspud]

Personally I would have called her office and shouted at her and then signed her email address up to every nasty porn site I could find. Don't worry about most agents from the big companies, they are usually only there for six months or so before they move on to double glazing sales or whatever career path these people have.

+1

There's more than one twat at computer futures getting every possible type of spam mail imaginable thanks to crap search criteria and repeated attempts to tell them to feckless orf..

[TheFaQQer]

Was I rude? Are my expectations of agents too high?

You can't be too rude to Computer People.

I can't remember which agency it was, but I kept getting MS SQL Server jobs from them. In the end I wrote back and just said "Thanks, but I have none of the skills you are looking for". He sent me just a link to a training website...

[SteelyDan]

This made me smile I must say. It's not just CP, but I've received similar inappropriate emails from other agencies - no names, no pack drill. I think they must do 'blanket emails' or something.

Most days I either delete, or send a courteous email reply advising them that I don't do x,y, or z and can they update my details at their end?...which doesn't always have the desired effect in my experience, and you still get the same tulipe coming through, sometimes from the same agents.

I have been known to send, what might be considered, 'rude' replies to them. I nearly blew a gasket when one agent sent me something through for a "steam engineer" (I didn't know they existed anymore) to which I had apparently been 'closely matched'. How the hell the search engine came up with that had me nonplussed. The guy got lambasted. I was having a bad day...

[northernladuk]

You can't be too rude to Computer People.

I can't remember which agency it was, but I kept getting MS SQL Server jobs from them. In the end I wrote back and just said "Thanks, but I have none of the skills you are looking for". He sent me just a link to a training website...

LOL that made i larf!!...

[Wanderer]

Like most people I get loads of calls from agents who are my best friend, listen carefully to my requirements for a contract say they will contact me when they have something relevant and then spam me with loads of irrelevant permanent jobs.

Are my expectations of agents too high?

Yes, way too high. I don't see them as far removed from the people who knock on your door trying to get you to buy double glazing or switch your power/gas suppliers or the ones who phone you up to say you have been "awarded" a "free" holiday cruise.

I don't like them hassling me unless I'm touting for business, as you say most of them are just time wasters. I just get a pre-pay burner mobile phone sim and email address to use when looking for contracts and give them to the agencies. When I've got a contract I chuck the sim and email account away and they don't bother me any more. A small number of business associates get my real contact details and I make sure I keep in touch with them, I find that it's a much better way to do business.