[rendall]

A moment of empathizing will make it clear that option A is not an option. If I were a recruiter following that method, I would take 5-10 minutes to read someone's Github and only then send them a carefully crafted email that takes another 10 minutes, which will be ignored by all but 1 in 100?

I'm fine with ignoring unsolicited emails and politely declining phone calls.

[krageon]

That means you would hit someone you know is relevant once every workweek (at least) and because you took some time to figure out whether or not they were a match, you can be reasonably certain you can get 1-3 relevant candidates for a position every month. Having known recruiters, these figures are almost unthinkably high. Clearly this is a viable strategy.

[rendall]

Ok. Let's assume it is a viable strategy. Recruiters, the people who actually make their living at this - who must make sure their children's teeth are fixed, their houses' leaks are fixed - have an incentive to use the best strategy available.

Why then are recruiters not using this strategy, do you think?

[krageon]

There are plenty of recruiters that do use this strategy.