25 Jan 2011 @ 12:16 PM 

Here we go. It was not enough have to deal with completely unskilled recruiters. The new trend is letting Indians do recruiting. By Indians I don’t mean Native Americans, but Indians from India. I am sick of these Indian recruiters.

In my experience searching for a job, I had to deal with a plethora of so called recruiters. They are totally unskilled, they ask you for a resume and they disappear immediately thereafter. I call them keyword searchers. Yes they search for keywords on job boards and they find your resume. This is fine to sift through tons of resumes, but after that, you may think they start reading; think again, they are not able to read.

The new trend in this nightmare, is called Indian recruiters. Not really a scam, but close. They buy an American phone number (an easy task with VOIP), then they start bombing you with the most absurd jobs. I live in NC and they propose me crap such as a 3 month assignments in Oregon. Now, do they know a little about geography? Why a person not totally insane would move from NC to OR (probably more than 3,000 miles) for a shabby job?

Last call I received, I asked who eventually would pay for a face to face interview in Oregon. His answer was: the company will interview you only over the phone. Would you like to work for a company you never met one of their officials? Or your future boss? Are we insane here?

Besides their terrible accent (sometimes I don’t understand a word of what they are saying) why don’t they write me an email, so I can delete it immediately wasting only a second of  my time?

The proof they don’t read a resume, relies on what they search for. I give you an example; let say that your resume has, somewhere, that you have knowledge of Windows XP. A skill that probably 90% of people can claim (being an expert is another story). They will contact you for a position as Senior Windows Server administrator. Why? Because searching for keywords only, your resume pops up in their search.

Working in this way they waste time for the hiring company (assuming that the proposed job is not fake and I suspect 90% of those job does not exist), your own time and ultimately theirs (not that I care about them wasting their own time).

One of the best request I got was: “I saw your resume on xxxxxxx (a job board), would you be interested in this job? If yes, can you please send me your resume?” Now if they found my resume somewhere, why do they need my resume? It is like asking for my phone number during a phone call they placed to me. Pathetic, idiotic, stupid, moronic (I need a dictionary to find more appropriate adjectives).

One important thing. Never give out your resume to people less than serious. One big red flag is that they never tell you the name of the company they are recruiting for. What is that, secret services? You are not supposed to know the name of the company you will eventually work for? Talk of insanity. Second big red flag? Addresses and recruiting firm they put in their signature (when they write emails) are not existent or taken from a phone book, so are jobs they propose.

So, why do they need your resume? Something I can infer from my experience:

  • they collect resumes in order to reach their weekly quota. In a few discussion groups I had confirmation of my suspicion;
  • they are going to harass companies you worked for, in order to get some business; you better avoid that, if you want to use those companies as reference;
  • they might even try to steal your identity

I decided to publish on my blog some of their stupid requests, with name and all details provided by them. Emails don’t give them expectation of privacy, as my signature’s disclaimer says.

Recruiting is the new crooks’ frontier. Beware of recruiters, especially if from India!

Posted By: admin
Last Edit: 29 Aug 2011 @ 08:22 AM

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Responses to this post » (128 Total)

 
  1. Wulfeman says:

    Two months ago I interviewed for a job, was selected, and even have a signed contract for this job. After three guaranteed “start dates” came and went I am still not working for them despite the signed contract that is not worth the paper it is written on.
    However, in just the last week I have had approximately10 of these Indian (aka “Desi”) Companies call me again (Saturday’s & Sunday’s included) to offer me the same job for which that I already had a signed contract and expired start date. All these Companies were all recruiting for a Company called Infosys who would then further rent my services out to the end client. The hourly rate ranges from $45.00 per hour to $80.00 per hour after everyone has taken a cut of my hourly wage. Here is the kicker. All these ridiculous “hole in the wall” Companies want your personal information to run a background check on you!!!! They want you’re your SSN/DOB and if possible a copy of your Visa Documentation if you are not a citizen! It’s a ridiculous scam! You just cannot make this up! When I ask if they would return the favor and give me their personal information so that I could run a background check on them, before I release my personal information to them, there is never a reply. Here are some questions that I have started asking:
    1. Why does my Caller Id display “Unknown Caller” instead of your Company name?
    2. What is your company registration status (LLC, Partnership, etc?)
    3. In which State is your Company Registered?
    4. Current number of Employees
    5. List of some existing clients with permission to verify
    6. Your Visa Status & Your Work Permit Documentation

    They will not give you any of this information as it will bring them a step closer to deportation.
    It should be noted that the Mexicans are not the only illegal undocumented workers in the US. It seems that most of these scavengers who are just ruining the IT job market are here on Expired H1/Tourist /Hotel visas and cannot legally work in the US. We also have a huge amount of their Indian/Pakistani counterparts providing cheap labor in the world of IT. I can’t wait for E-Verify to be completely implemented!
    A group of actual desperate job seekers are so frustrated with these losers that we are about to form an association to disclose the names of these people on our Website to warn others who are not yet aware of these scams. We already have a growing list of these Company names and people who work in them. I have been complaining to my Congressman about this rampant scam and the damage it is doing to the economy and genuine job seekers.

  2. Chris says:

    The hojjies are driving me crazy with call carpet bombing. I actually called an HR manager at a company months ago after these two heenas said they were recruiting for J&J at a specific plant. The HR manager didn’t know anything about them and said they (J&J) only recruit from within their own offices. Apparently the Indians are data-scraping web sites and playing percentages by bombing potential employers with our C.V.s and submittals. After all, if someone in India gets a single placement for an American at an American employer, he’s just hit the Powerball. An Indian can live on $5000.00 like a king for life. Agreed, it’s a pauper king that poops in his own kitchen, but king none the less.

  3. Keith Glass says:

    I’ve been swarmed by these idiots lately: sometimes, 5-6 times a day. They email and then call, often before I’ve seen the email.

    However, this HAS allowed me to develop a useful filter. These Recruit-via-VOIP idiots always have a website, generally a 4-5 pager. I simply look at their business address in Google Street View. If, as usual, it’s either a Mailboxes Etc/UPS Store, an apartment complex, or a single house in the suburbs, they are immediately filed to /dev/null. . .

    Not perfect, but a fairly quick discriminator. . .

  4. Mike says:

    When I was looking for work a few years ago, I got an interview using an Indian recruiter. He sent me to the wrong address for the interview! Eventually I got the interview but I could tell the interviewers were not impressed with someone sent by these guys.

    Now that I am looking for work again, I am getting calls from Indian recruiters again. I actually tried to work with one of them but could not understand a thing she was saying!

    I talked to an IT friend of mine and he said he set up a recruiting call center in India. He said they moved people from the Help center to the Recruiting center. They give them a script and go. That’s why they don’t seem to know what they are talking about because they don’t.

    I have gotten to the point that if I answer the phone and it is a recruiter with an Indian accent, I may ask a few questions but most of the time I immediately hang up the phone.

  5. Wes says:

    There is another problem with these guys. A couple of years ago, I got a contract through FCS Ltd/Puresoft. They were consistenly late in paying me. They ended up owing me $30,000 in arrears and had to threaten a lawsuit to get my money. They eventually paid me but it took six months when the terms were supposed to be NET 30.

    FCS still sends me on interviews. I take the interviews at ridiculously low rates so that I can inform whoever is hiring me that FCS has a habit of not paying their employees. I have cost them thousands in lost revenues and they still send me on interviews. They are incompetent, unprofessional, and unethical.

    If there is ever a campaign to raise awareness of these scumbags, I’ll be supporting it.

  6. Paul says:

    (please decline previous post, there was a spelling error–thank you :))
    I, too, have been bombarded by these annoying Indians for at least a year. It’s definitely a new trend. Every once in BIG while, I get an email from an “Ashley” or “Stephanie” about a job. I call her right away!! When it’s an American, they’re usually in my area, emailing about a job in my area and I can understand him/her, of course.

    I used to just delete any emails that came from an Indian name. Lately, I’ve been so annoyed that I’ve been replying with the line “I’m sorry! I don’t deal with Indian recruiters!”. I hope I don’t blacklist myself with any reputable staffing companies or contracting houses by doing this. Do u think it’s okay to keep doing it?

  7. Sceptic says:

    There is a company with Portsmouth, NH phone numbers, GTTIT, numbers 603-319-49*. Got bombed with emails by them, all American names, then an Indian accent over a bad connection. I don’t mind they are Indian, nor that they work from India if they bring results. But I am disgusted about being lied to. Yes, they tried to get my SSN and DOB as well. Four people called me about the same job. Among them, one has been serious and maintained contact about the job. We shall see. Next time any of those dorks comes to me with a fake American name, I shall give a fake resume.

  8. Dan says:

    I recently was contacted by an Indian recruiter who set me up with an interview. First time that has happened. The phone interview went well and the hiring mgr told me he was bringing me in for a face to face in a couple of days. Never heard back because 1. I had been double submitted by one or more Indian recruiters from the same company and 2. Sent in an hourly rate that was way over what the client was going to pay. Extremely frustrating and cost me a job. They often use an American name like Andy Jones, call from an out of state number and leave a callback local number that goes to a generic voice mail. The job market is tough enough without this plague of indians mucking it up even more.

  9. ITDude says:

    Avoid these people at all costs. If you don’t recognize the phone number calling you, don’t answer it.

  10. Jim says:

    I work in the IT market in Dallas/For Worth. I would estimate that 80 to 90% of all contacts I get from recruiters are Indian. In a process where communication is particularly critical, a language barrier doesn’t help. I have acutally hung up on a couple during a phone interview because I just couldn’t understand what they were saying! I have always suspected that these are HiV folks who come here for work, lose their job (which they must have to remain in the states) and take these commission recruiting jobs because it allows them to be “employed”. In any given day, I’ll get carpet bombed by 4 or 5 with the same job posting that they’ve pulled off Careerbuilder, so some place.

  11. Beatrice says:

    I’ve been SPAM/call bombed 30 times yesterday, more than 30 e-mails yesterday & > 10 for both today…… by these RUDE, idiot Indians! I am so sick of it. I just tried “Wulfeman’s” suggestion and asked for their FEIN. The recruiter was stumped, said she’d research that and hung up. Indeed I think they get into USA with the H1B visa and the LIE that they are going to be doing “low talent” job, then they are doing this recruiting crap. I even had one e-mail where the sender’s name sounded suspiciously, “American.” When I called it, it was an Indian who lied & lied & lied. They are forceful, rude, lie. They want your Social Security number. If they catch a “live e-mail” or telephone number, they share it with the other Indian recruiter firms. Argh!!!!! Go away! Stop stealing jobs from Americans!

  12. Gino says:

    I found a contract position with one of the large Indian outsources through one agency ran by these idiots. From what it seems like is an Indian couple in Texas and their operation is in India. Getting paid every month takes few emails and some threatening. I told them that I don’t care if they are operating from planet Mars but if they are doing business in this country they need to obey the business rules and ethics of the US. I have no idea how far this will get with Indians and IT in this country. Typical Indian IT guy looks like a gypsy, dressed in a cheap dark suit and wearing white socks. Some minimal education and experience in IT and speaks and behaves like a gypsy. Completely chaotic in terms of organizational skills and Fortune 500 companies see him as their solution to transform the company from a fat slow moving bureaucratic organization to a lean and mean money making machine producing the growth of the 90s. In the meantime, American IT professionals are left without a job while Corporations lobby for more cheap labor H1 visas. Similar thing happened to US construction workers in the 80s but no idea how the masters of this mess expect to apply the same concept to high skilled white collar jobs. Granted that IT did not invent much in the last decade that will give corporations a competitive edge (like ERP, e-commerce, etc.) so as far as the business are concerned, they just want to lower the cost rather than run it effectively so they just pass it on to the Indians just like manufacturing went to the Chinese. I guess they are looking for the easy way out rather than the smart way out of this. I think US IT professionals should get organized and fight back. Create the equivalent of BBB to control the situation with the Indian recruiters and agencies, have our own lobby in DC to ensure some control in the H1B visas. The politicians are only trying to control the situation only to help the US outsourcers gain a competitive edge over Indian outsourcers but still screw the US IT professionals.

  13. Jay Zabinsky says:

    I’ve been trying figure out these pariah for a few years. They have destroyed our industry. They took over one of the companies I was working at and laid off most of the Americans. Most of the development went off-shore, where the workers are poorly trained. They play a merry-go-round game. The send in some off-shore people to be trained. Then they send them back to India and bring over the next batch. Last month I got a contract through an American recruiter. Everything went smooth. I got to the place of work and there the seats were first come first serve. There were no desks. I had no laptop or the required software to do my job. I was surrounded by 70 Indians and 4 Americans. I was supposed to provide development support. Yet I could not understand a word anyone was saying. I looking at the environment as psychotic and quit after one week. Another American took may place and quit after 2 days. These Indian firms seem to infiltrate American companies with promises of cheap labor and end up destroying them.

  14. Bob Campbell says:

    Very Interesting piece and so accurate comments. I am a Sr. Recruiter, both Corporate and Technical and am looking for my next role – 10+ years experience. I have experienced many of the same things that all of you have written about. It is not just some recruiters from India that are lacking in profesionalism… Basically what has happened during this economic crisis is that companys eliminated their highly experienced and highly paid Sr. level recruiters and have replaced them with young Jr. level recruiters who have great skills on Twitter and Facebook but have not received any training, coaching, development or mentoring focused on core recruiting skills, candidate relationship management, internal client relationship management, project management and sales skills.
    90 % of all the recruiters that have called me are unprofessional, unprepared, and unable to communicate.

    Companys are using this period of high unemployment to cut recruiting costs to the bone… it is quite funny because the major push that companys are working on today is employment branding… who cares if your career website has great features suach as video and great UX… when an untrained recruiter gets on the phone with you all that “good stuff” goes out the window.

    Please know that there are alot of good, experienced and professioanl recruiters out there like me… dont paint us all with the same brush, please.
    We really like what we do and are passionate about doing a very professional job.

    I hope that things change for the better in the recruiting profession soon, because right now, things are not looking to bright.

  15. American IT Recruiter says:

    My industry has been hijacked…my career has been bastardized, my family is paying, and my life is no longer the same..all in conjunction with the growth of Indian recruiters. I have so much to say, but will keep it at that. I am “overqualified” for most of the recruiting jobs I apply for now, because I have been replaced by cheap, lying, incoherent labor from India. Call your representatives, the increases in FAKE credentials to garner h-1’s is at an all time high, while good, hardworking, intelligent American recruiters still struggle to even find positions. I am a contract recruiter, which means I worked in numerous corporations and consulting firms to learn the business of IT and hiring IT professionals inside out. This is no longer a valuable commodity, as it has been replaced by Indian “cousins” working for Indian “firms” to fill American jobs so that these companies can save a buck. gone is the conversation about someone’s family, working to negotiate the best deal for your candidate, servicing your client personally with questions about the environment and candidate growth and why someone would work there. No longer is there value to what I do because my entire industry has been hijacked by Indian recruiters and their “firms”. Not only in recruiting, but by the comments, this is an open sore in the entire IT industry…filling high tech positions with “bodies”, while the REAL programmers, and IT professionals clean up the mess. It’s disgusting, I can’t even find a long term contract as I did in the past working for corporations for 1 to 2 years, now it’s 1 to 2 months. This subject effects me and my family personally. I love recruiting, I love what I do and don’t want to stop….I’m being forced out; by crooked Indians.

  16. Karl says:

    ‘Concur, i’m sick of it… the lame propositions based on mere keyword hits, in particular.

    Ever notice how pretty much every such proposition is an Urgent Requirement? Urgent, my ass.

    Thanks for the tip about requesting their coordinates & credentials, Wulfeman. I’ll employ that! If we could get the word spread around sufficiently far-n-wide, maybe we can get them to bug-off.

    Moderator/owner / admin, please don’t put me on any mailing lists, thanks.

  17. Russ says:

    This trend has been increasing since 2008/2009. I remember when maybe 10% of my calls were indian. Now it is about 80%. I get about 10 calls a day from these guys and it is almost harassing in nature.

    I can already tell who they are because they are from virginia, or new jersey not from atlanta.

    Best thing to do is tell them to “fuck off” and that you would rather be homeless. No habeeb will be taken seriously representing you.

  18. Ken says:

    Just tried Wulfeman’s “five questions” after receiving the sixth call today for a crappy job at J&J. Absolutely flabbergasted the young Indian caller! I too am sick and tired of what my regular agency calls the “infestation” of Indian recruiters. I’ve been a professional IT consultant since 1992 and have never seen anything like what’s happening in the staffing industry now. It’s definitely time to get our government off their butts and start deporting these bottom feeding scavengers, who are ruining the job market for experienced consultants and honest agencies (the few that remain). My take is that they come to the US for temporary programming jobs, then get stuck on the phones after the job ends. They don’t want to go back to India because it’s a dump. Hey, I like the Indian people, but what’s happening right now is too much and there needs to be legal action. They are no better than email scammers from Africa.

  19. BanIndianRecruiters says:

    How do I prevent Indian recruiters that have taken my resume off a job site from submitting my resume without my permission and ruining my chances as I have already been submitted by a legitemate and trustworthy US company.

  20. Reshune says:

    I am almost depressed by dealing with Indian recruiters. They have even gotten savvy enough to use American names. I can barely understand what they are saying over the phone and their emails almost always use incorrect grammar. They are heartless, hate American’s and only want money or the right to stay in this Country. I’m not sure how they are benefiting, but I get calls every week, none of which has gotten me one interview. I have begun requesting they remove my email and phone number from their contact list — as I only deal with local, American, recruiting firms. I have been getting the same thing from jobs in London…..I really wish the government could do something about this. It is so hard looking for a job without having to deal with these scams. End of the year, I have kids and the job market is nada. I do hope things pick up the first of the year. Right now, my new PMP certification isn’t doing a thing for me 🙁

  21. IgnoreIndianRecruiters says:

    In response to BanIndianRecruiters question, recruiters can’t pull your resume from a job site like indeed, etc, and submit it without your permisssion – no reputable company will take resumes from recruiters like that. Whenever you legitimately submit a resume to a recruiter, include a statement in the email that it is for use only for that specific job, and not for further distribution, and that they are to contact you to submit to any other jobs . Legitimate and reputable recruiters will accept this. If an recruiter submitted your resume to a company without your approval, contact that company and let them know. The recruiter would then have to prove that you emailed them your resume for that job, which they won’t be able to do.

  22. IgnoreIndianRecruiters says:

    I’ve been harassed by Indian recruiters for the past 3 months, and ignore them or tell them remove me from their database and not contact me again. I report the emails as spam if they send me a second email, or if the first email is for a non-relevant job. I think they are either looking for dirt cheap labor, looking to block you from the job (if you submit to them, you can’t submit to the same job thru anyone else, or direct), or as others posted above looking to scam you (I would never give my SSN or DOB out interviews). They are easy to recognize because:
    * they both call and email within seconds
    * they don’t speak clear English. Any legitimate recruiter for US companies is going to speak clear English, might be an accent but you would be able to understand them.
    * sometimes you can hear the call center chatter in the background. Legitimate recruiters don’t work in call centers, they have an office.
    * their emails are standard form letters, and often ask you to email them back a lot of info. Some actually wanted me to fill out a long series of essay questions.
    * they work at an IT consulting company that you’ve probably never heard of with a US address, but if you trace the company name you find they are actually based in India.
    * they won’t tell you the rate range. Legitimate recruiters will tell you the rate range if you ask, they don’t want to waste their time or your time.
    * their LinkedIn account has no or only a few connections (i.e. they make up different names, sometimes they use English names). Legitimate recruiters have hundreds of connections.

    Sadly, I’ve resorted to not answering my phone and letting everything go to voice mail if I don’t recognize the number. But I like Wulfeman’s questions and may try those on the next one!

  23. Beatrice says:

    To Answer BanIndianRecruiters, if you give your MMDD birthday and/or your Social Security number just one time, for one submittal, they’ve “got you.” They keep that information in their database, sell it to other agencies scums. Each time any job opens up with your skill set, they automatically submit you to the position. Thus all other agencies/recruiters are blocked from submitting you. To be clear, this is IDENTITY FRAUD. If it happened to me, I’d file a claim at all of the following: ICE website, Social Security Admin, Experian & credit agencies, and my State Attorney General’s office. BTW, have you checked your credit lately.

  24. These Indian recruiters are not based in the US. They are working night shift in India, mostly are college graduates who have not landed in a good job themselves, and are doing this for the sake of making some money. Now, you can’t entirely blame them, it’s companies registered in the US, that hire these people, assign western names to them and have them call you based on what they source out of the career websites. They don’t have a clue on the US geography, could care less, and all they are concerned about is to make the quota and get paid for it. They are not bad people, but they are completely unaware of the dynamics and ethics of the US. Most of them speak basic english, and are told to fake their accent, which they try.. and of course that is not easy, and so they suck at it. The bottomline is, it’s not their fault, blame it on the US registered agencies who make a commission by using the cheap labor, and then – none of them really get you the interview call. They disappear after they have contacted you 15 times, and notice that you are not getting them any business.

  25. Insanity says:

    It’s a pandemic. Pretty much EVERY single post on Dice is an Indian recruiter. Seriously, like 95%. When I look at the company websites, and the contacts, all have Indian names and an office in India.

    The entire IT industry has been completely obliterated by these guys. They put under qualified folks at a fraction of the salary on jobs, destroying good jobs, and pushing rates to the point it makes no sense being in IT. The smart folks saw this coming and moved into another field.

    The IT field is now dominated by Indians and cheap labor.

  26. Chrispy says:

    Thank you for all the information. I have tried to work with Indian recruiters a few times but they always disapear and I never hear from them again. They either send me jobs that are totally rediculous (2 months 2 states away!), or send me ones that look legit and when I try to respond they always disapear. Tahnkfully I havn’t given out too much personal information so I think I’m ok there. One or 2 have been decent and kept in touch with me about jobs I’ve aplied for but didn’t work out. On a whole, through my own experience and after reading these posts, I don’t think I will be responding to anymore Indian recruiters. Thanks for the info.

  27. […] Indian Recruiters – What Is Wrong With This Country? […]

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