Why great engineers ignore recruiter messages, and what we do differently

Ask any experienced engineer about recruiter messages and you will usually get a tired smile. Many receive several a week. Most are copy-pasted, many are for roles that have nothing to do with their background, and some do not even get their name right.

So they stop reading. That is a problem for companies, because the people they most want to hire are often the ones who are not actively looking.

Why the messages get ignored

• They are generic. "I came across your impressive profile" tells the reader nobody actually looked at it.
• They hide the important parts. No company name, no salary range, no description of the work.
• They are mismatched. A backend engineer with ten years of Go receives an offer for a junior frontend role.
• They ask for too much, too soon. "Send me your updated CV" before saying anything useful.

What we do instead

We were on the receiving end of those messages ourselves for years, so we try to write the message we would have wanted to receive.

We only contact people who genuinely fit. We read the profile, the projects and the public work before writing. If we cannot explain in one sentence why this person fits this role, we do not send the message.

We say what the role is. The problem, the team and the stack, in plain words. Where the client allows it, we share the salary range in the first message.

We keep it short. A few lines, written by a person, with a clear and easy question: "Would you be open to a short call?"

We accept "no" gracefully. Timing matters. Someone who is happy today may be looking in a year. A polite "not now" is the start of a relationship, not the end of one.

We are discreet. We never share a candidate's name with a client without their explicit permission, and we never contact someone at their current employer in a way that could put them in a difficult position.

What this means for companies

Reaching passive candidates takes more time per person, but the conversations are far better. People reply because the message was relevant, not because they were worn down. And they arrive at the first interview already understanding what the role is about.

What this means for candidates

If you receive a message from us, it is because we think the role could genuinely interest you. If it does not, just tell us what would. We will remember, and we will only come back when we have something that matches.