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Expert sourcing strategy from http://aces.arbita.net/shally/

Clueless Email from Accolo follow this blog post

posted by on April 12, 2007
I got the funniest spam email from Accolo today! Let me tell you about it because this is the perfect example of what NOT to do when contacting candidates.
 
Now... I normally get tons of spam and in fact I've talked about this before, and before that, which is why I totally recommend SpamArrest (click for a 30 day free trial). But this message made it through my first level of protection and got caught in one of my other filters. However, it was so funny I thought I would share it with my friends.
 
Note that I took out the name of the company because I don't want to embarass Accolo's client on account of their RPO's mistake...
 
SUBJECT: Regional Field Analyst job with [Company Name Withheld]
 
Shally - [at least they got my name right]

We at [Company Name Withheld] are looking to find the right person to fill a Regional Field Analyst role at our company's Atlanta, GA office. [and they got my location right too] Based on your experience with technical support and business machines, we believe this may be of interest to you or someone you know.

 
[technical support??? business machines???]
[who, me???]

A brief description follows. If you are interested or know someone who might be, you can give us more details about your experience or refer someone at [hyperlink withheld]. At [hyperlink withheld], you will also find a more detailed job description.

Regards,

The [Company Name Withheld] Recruiting Team
The very generic and unappetizing job description followed. Despite the fact that they totally got my background all wrong (come on - tech support?) - I would say they at least targeted the right geography, and the did get my name right... but that's the end of the plus side.
 
On the minus side we have the fact that the sender is using a false name. Unless they can produce an employee named Phil Jobs (a.k.a. Fill Jobs get it?) then this is fraud plain and simple. Oh - and yeah it violates the CAN-SPAM act, by the way. It doesn't matter that I have an opt out - as soon as the senders identity is falsified, it becomes an illegal message:
 
"It bans false or misleading header information. Your email's "From," "To," and routing information ? including the originating domain name and email address ? must be accurate and identify the person who initiated the email. "
Well, enough fun for the day, I have to go back to preparing for the big event at ERE next week.
 
Oh - and [Company Name Withheld] if you know who you are maybe its time to get an RPO that's not using illegal tactics :)
 
Cheers,
Shally  LinkedIn | Bio | MSN | Skype
 
P.S. Flag me down at the ERE and I'll give you a free Pocket CheatSheet!
| 17 comments | flag

17 comments

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  • 1 point 2 years ago

    Enjoyed reading this you guys! =)

    I DO think it's amazing how much time it feels like is spent via email and blog, explaining where we were really coming from, or what it is we really meant. Sometimes, I don't think all of this virtual communication really speeds up the real communication process at all... heheh... And...I'm a video-game playing, movie camera loving, computer tech...so it's not like I don't respect the power of technology. It just seems like people assume so much about people's tone, and it's hard not to. Anyway - night night... got hooked reading online - you'd think I'd get tired of staring at the computer screen, but not tonight.

  • 1 point 2 years ago

    Phil is wearing the wrong hat! posted 4/17/2007 at 7:21 p.m. PT by Sherry Karr

    Shouldn't he be wearing an OSU hat? Not Texas! Matt: wasn't Accolo the company that had that big hairy guy in the spoof commerical washing the car and eating a hamburger (based on the Paris Hilton one I think)?

    Oh that was funny....I was wondering if it is Phil's cousin.

    That was Accolo. Eugene is considered part of the Accolo family. By the way that was my car and I still have 2 dents on the roof to prove it!

    Best,

    William

  • 1 point 2 years ago

    Joshua, I found the blog on my own so no need to reply on the ere. It's interesting to me that you did not recant your personal experience with Accolo on the ERE thread about candidate treatment. I show you in our system with 1 email address and we would have in you twice if we did indeed add your new address to our affiliate network.

    You could have opted out after the first email you received but I see that you did not. I went ahead and changed your setting so you will not be contacted by us going forward. I guess that would make you #87. The list has not grown this quickly, ever....

    We consider the highest art of recruiting to be: -Targeted sourcing -Crafting a job description that speaks to the right person for the position -Crafting screening questions and open ended questions that actually help identify the person who has the greatest likelihood to succeed in the role we are hiring for. -Giving every candidate who applies feedback and closure regardless of their qualifications of the position -Building life long relationships with the people we come in contact with by showing them respect

    The automation in the background lets our Hiring Consultants focus on these areas. As you and many others pointed out on the ERE; you are unable to focus on some of these areas because there are not enough hours in a day. You wrote, ?What I would like to throw out there is the very simple concept of diminishing returns. Imagine a simple S-Curve analysis - if you spend anything above a certain amount per candidate application, there is diminishing return.? I would like to throw out the fact that we (Accolo) figured out how to do this without the diminishing return.

    We are striving to make this whole mess we call recruiting a better more humane process for everyone involved. Nothing is perfect but we think we are getting it right by our candidate feedback, our revenue growth, client retention rate, and hiring manager satisfaction ratings. I think everyone at Accolo is sensitive to anyone who feels like we are doing something wrong and we make adjustments to improve our process on a daily basis.

    As for Shally, I thank you for pointing out your experience with the email you received from us. We work hard but can't get it right every time. If you let us know we will review and adjust as necessary to strive towards our goal of 99.99% perfection!

    Thank you,

    William

  • 1 point 2 years ago

    Shouldn't he be wearing an OSU hat? Not Texas! Matt: wasn't Accolo the company that had that big hairy guy in the spoof commerical washing the car and eating a hamburger (based on the Paris Hilton one I think)?

    Oh that was funny....I was wondering if it is Phil's cousin.

  • 1 point 2 years ago

    N/T

  • 1 point 2 years ago

    N/T

  • 1 point 2 years ago

    I am glad to know humans are watching the robots - that's very important and something I would always recommend. After all, robots only misbehave when we're not supervising them :)

    Even though my removal was not requested, that's quite alright since my addition never was either. Besides, I always wanted to be a number, and 86 is perfect. In fact, its quite appropriate. Readers who have worked in foodservice will know exactly what I mean! ROTFLMFAO!

    Strange that after carefully considering my resume and sending me 8 emails you still say you knew nothing about me, but ok, I can see past that. Trashed though? No way. Called out, maybe, to point something out. There's no malice. A trashing would have pointed out things about malformed headers, used your clients name, given you no praise at all, and completely left out the humor. This is no trashing, but I'm glad you're sensitive.

    I assume the response to my two points will come privately, so I won't be dissapointed yet. I guess I'll see you in San Diego then :)

    #86 over and out.

  • 1 point 2 years ago

    Nice photo! And thanks for joining me here. I appreciate a good debate, particularly since I'm such a wag :)

    OK - Lets say I could "stretch" my definition of "not spam" to include the cold, impersonal info@ and sales@ etc. though quite frankly unless they are used for sending out announcements, newsletters and such I just don't see how personal communication can begin from a generic address like that. And also that would mean its opt-in, not opt-out. But, yes I can see it as not spam. I still think a real name would be better.

    For example, I send out announcemnts about events, conferences, etc. but I use my real name. When I send email to candidates, even if its a "cold email" or initial contact (i.e. not opt-in a.k.a. unsolicited), I also use my real name.

    Your point about having send me several emails... well, are you trying to say that because I never opted out of your emails then that means you have an opt-in list? Not clear on that one, and not sure what having sent me prior unsolicited emails has to do with this. I think that's just plain posturing, which is OK, but not really relevant to the debate.

    I have no issue with fun, creativity and enjoying what you do. I enjoy what I do and email marketing is a gigantic piece of our industry. In fact, email marketing is an issue I have defended vocally many times and been personally attacked about.

    As you can see from my comments prior to yours, I have also used the "Ivana Job" name for certain things. However, my two simple points remain and though you have braved an explanation you have addressed neither with satisfaction:

    1)

    You are directly, commercially soliciting to a completely incorrect audience.

    You say you are simply asking for referrals. That is no correct. You are directly soliciting my interest... and also asking for referrals. Your email states "we believe this may be of interest to you" and then again, twice in one sentence in the very next paragraph "If you are interested" and "you can give us more details about your experience" meaning you are directly interested in me for this particular role.

    My advice to you is to change that when you are emailing "less active" candidates, particularly if your email is intended as a referral solicitation as you now claim that in retrospect yours does.

    2)

    My interpretation is that Phil Jobs is within this context a false header in a commercial email.

    I'm no attorney either, and I'm not going to sue anybody over commercial email but I agree with Martin's response. I believe that false header information is directly covered by the CAN-SPAM act.

    Your comment that the act "applies to commercial emailers advertising a commercial product or service" is slightly off the mark in this case. You are a commercial product and service. You make money from the product of making placements for your clients. There's nothing wrong with that, go ahead and make your money, everyone should be able to go make some money, but you are most definitely commercial. If a corporate recruiter sends out such an email they don't stand to make a profit form the placement so perhaps then they could use that counterpoint. Yes, they get paid to do their job, but they don't generate income for themselves with the placement like you do, hence this doesn't fit your situation.

    Beyond CAN-SPAM it is my personal belief that in this modern age where information is so easily accessible the perception of impropriety, the mere hint of it, should be enough to deter certain behaviour. I don't think we should even have to invoke the CAN-SPAM act to make a legitimate business rethink its mass email strategy.

    That said, you asked me for a favor. Because you are a real person asking for a real favor I would be happy to referr you a few recruiters with strong writing skills if that's sincerely what you want and you aren't just saying that to "win points in a debate." I have always been very open in supporting my fellow recruiters and even though I may have issue with this one email that doesn't mean we can't all learn from it and move on, still friends.

    If you are sincere I would even go as far as offer to help you craft a better mass email process so that wags like me don't get their waggers in a bunch when they get emails from Phil or Ivana.

    Question - if I had not blogged about this would you have really taken the time to respond to my email? You say you would within 32 hours, but with my rush to get this on the blog I'm wondering if forced a public reaction instead of a private one. Geting a reaction was my intent. I ask because haven't gotten a message yet, and yes, I did check the spam folders. If you are sending out a response its possible that is being blocked by servers because I did check some of those blacklists and that particular IP was already listed in a few. You may want to look into that.

    Oh - one last thing because I can't let this slip past un-noticed. Lets take a look at your "stats" about hires, not intended as free advertisement of your services I'm sure...

    16 people to make 1,100 hires is 68 hires per person. I know dozens of recruiters who make well over 70 hires per year, unaided and with no spam. I have personally done that in a corporate environment, as have many of my peers. In fact, I have clients in healthcare, retail and banking with recruiters making on average 300 hires per person per year, and some more.

    Presenting candidates in 8 days is great, but in comparison staffing firms would starve if they took that long. External partners are sometimes called upon to provide results within hours.

    You do have exceptional client satisfaction rates. Congratulations! How about a white paper to tell us how you manage to keep 9.5 out of 10 people happy? I think many pepople here would love to know that.

    Phil, er... Matt, I hope you take this in the helpful, constructive and informative manner in which it is meant.

    Sincerely Industry Wagger

  • 1 point 2 years ago

    I'm in Cleveland Matt but no worries- it?s all flyover country anyway :-)

    Aside from being one of the smoothest cats I?ve ever met, Matt knows his business and is pretty much telling us that email marketing is a critical part of what Accolo does. As such, Matt clearly knows that having a from:name that uses the syntax of a person?s name is important to his yield.

    Phil Jobs is more than a little light humor; he is the key to thousands and thousands more emails being read and not whacked by automated systems looking for syntax not suggestive of a person name.

    The question remains: is using Phil Jobs as the sender name to unsolicited addresses violate CAN SPAM? Shally believes that it does, and I concur.

    A simple review of the CAN SPAM act?s text, particularly the definitions section, leaves zero wiggle room, even for someone of Matt?s dexterity.

    ?(8) HEADER INFORMATION- The term 'header information' means the source, destination, and routing information attached to an electronic mail message, including the originating domain name and originating electronic mail address, and any other information that appears in the line identifying, or purporting to identify, a person initiating the message.?

    My suggestion would be for Accolo to appoint an email ?czar? from time to time and use that person?s name as the sender. When that name becomes overly exposed and yield drops, then Accolo could use another name or revise the exact spelling/presentation of that name.

    In that way, they could maintain decent yield but also comply with the law, because Phil Jobs does not appear to be legal. But I can?t practice law without a license, even in the blogosphere, so it?s probably up to the government to have the last word on this one.

    Industry wags don?t faze Matt, at least until late in the day !

  • 1 point 2 years ago

    Where does it say Ron?

    And IMHO, the From: is part of the header thus if that is fictitious false then the header is false or misleading.

    But not as misleading as how quickly I would get disqualified during my job interview for a technical support role ;)

    LOL!!

  • 1 point 2 years ago

    I love it! Anita Lobotomy!

    After picking myself up off the floor my mind wandered to the new Monty Python broadway show Spamalot

    :)

  • 1 point 2 years ago

    Shally, perhaps Accolo just has such a high opinion of you that they think you could do anything?

    Maybe you should send them the resume of Anita Lobotomy to contact for their technical support position.

    On a serious note - nice post, funny, but a good reminder about CAN-SPAM.

  • 1 point 2 years ago

    Oh I'm not offended at all, just amused!

    I think creative pseudonyms or pen names are cool, fun, and can be great ice breakers. I also know quite a few recruiters who use several pen names or aliases online and not their given names, but there is a real person behind suck aliases, and they are not a "catch all" anonymous "inbox" device like in this example.

    Anita Placement reminds me of Anita Job which is a variation of one of my favorites, Ivana Job. Eric Jaquith turned me on to that one at one of the projects we worked together, and we've both used it in some fun, successful ways. For example, we used the email alias Ivana.Job@ for people who subscribed to our clients career related newsletter, thus it was an opt-in list.

    Fake names on usolicited emails are in direct vioation of the CAN-SPAM act. Though I have not asked John for his opinion on this I would be shocked if he thinks this is acceptable. In my experience John is not a big fan of spam, much less illegal spam.

    Despite any legal issues - I think this is a great example of what NOT to do in a few other important ways. Primarily because they completely missed the mark. They are emailing me to solicit my interest in an opportunity that is not even remotely matched with my backgroud. Beyond that, lets say I actually was a tech support person, how impressed am I with an employer that is not only recruiting "by proxy" but also anonymously? What does that tell me about how interested they really are in me? Don't job seekers already have a negative opinion of the "HR Black Hole" and here is this company trying to recruit without even using a real person? Talk about being treated like a number and not an individual!

    BTW I did test the alias and go no bouce, or reply, but I am looking forward to ther reply when their clients read this blog :)

    Cheers, Shally

  • 1 point 2 years ago

    Anita Placement

  • 1 point 2 years ago

    that means I cannot use my recruiting name of Candida Recruta any long...shucks....

  • 1 point 2 years ago

    Phil Jobs is illegal if you DONT opt in, because it then violates CAN-SPAM act. If John's list is opt-in, he can call himself whatever he wants. What is not crystal clear about that?

    Accolo needs to use a real name with non opted in addresses, or they are not complying with CAN-SPAM, period- anyone's level of offense is not relevant.

  • 1 point 2 years ago

    If Phil Jobs is illegal, then is John Sumser's use of Carrie Bags also illegal even though his list is 100 percent opt-in? I've never taken offense to John's use of a pseudonym and wouldn't take offense to Accolo's either as long as someone there actually answered my email should I reply back. Did you test the Accolo email to see if it bounces or is answered?