Last week, we asked what annoyed you most about how recruiters reached out about jobs. An overwhelming number of you responded, and it’s official: tech pros hate cold calls. Around 32 percent of respondents say recruiter cold calls are the worst thing about being recruited. Unfortunately, this is also a widely-used strategy for recruiters who want to get developers and engineers into their funnel quickly. The allure of a cold call is that, if you answer, the recruiter can quickly spin an introduction into a ‘first interview.’ With step one complete, they can move you along to step two in the process. Video call invitations also irk tech pros: 26 percent say this is the worst way recruiters reach out, and we can’t argue with that one. Whether you’re at work or home, there’s almost never a time for an impromptu professional video conference, even if some recruiting firms really like a face-to-face chat right away. Texting checked in third with 20 percent of the vote, and probably serves as a delineation point of sorts for these results. Calling, video calls, and texting are direct, intimate methods of interaction. We’d venture most respondents are just too introverted (and/or busy) to want to hop on a video chat or phone call with someone they don’t know and have never interacted with. Other methods attracted somewhat less hate. Social media messages pulled in 16 percent of the vote. We’ve heard of (and experienced) recruiters using Twitter Direct Messaging as well as other forms of communication (such as Facebook Messenger and Snapchat) to reach out to potential hires. We know recruiters and hiring managers will sleuth your social presence, but shooting you a DM out of the blue can prove alarming for some tech pros. Nonetheless, a query on social media can easily be ignored, making it somewhat less-invasive than a phone call. Emails, which may be the most normalized method for recruiters to reach out to tech pros, is also the least-hated; only six percent think this is the most obnoxious method for recruitment. Here, we should consider context; this six percent is probably more annoyed with the volume of tech recruitment emails, not the actual practice itself. We’re hard pressed to think of a less-invasive method of recruitment. Recruiting tech pros is expensive. One study shows companies pay as much as $60,000 just to hire an engineer or developer. This factors in third-party recruiters, who cost a healthy premium over in-house recruiting. These recruiters are often paid (at least in part) on commission; the faster they fill roles, the more they make. This is part of the reason ignoring some social norms is becoming common practice for recruiters. The more tech pros placed in front of hiring managers, the better the chances of a hire (and a fat recruiting paycheck). It’s not always hiring, either; some companies just want a recruiter to forward along a certain number of high-potential candidates for possible future use. Knowing how the sausage is made is rarely pleasant, but it’s important to know why a recruiter uses the methods they do. Unfortunately, their shortcuts can become annoying if you're barraged constantly with unsolicited texts, calls, and social-media messages.