I think many developers complain about recruiters as a way of subtly bragging about how many people want to hire them. Secretly, they'd be kind of disappointed if the emails stopped coming.
This isn't a fair perspective. Recruiters are legitimately annoying. Especially as many recruiters obfuscate the hiring process so you can't just skip them directly to the company they're fielding. There's a long litany of abuses they take part in quite frequently, ranging from knowingly introducing you to companies you're not qualified for just because you're a "programmer" to deliberately making the hiring process for a company difficult without their direct participation.
I can't really argue with you if you've experienced this, but for what it's worth, all the developers I know professionally have legitimate reasons to dislike recruiters, and avoid them wherever possible.
I think it's unfair that people have their motives for disliking something called into question just because they're in a certain strata that has that problem and not everyone else does.
I'm not trying to say the recruiters are pleasant or anything. I just feel like the amount of complaining about recruiter emails is disproportionate to how inconvenient they actually are.
There's nothing wrong with disliking the emails--a lot of people get recruiter emails and just silently ignore them; a few complain loudly about them, and that's who I'm talking about.
Alternatively, quit your whining that you entered a profession where you're not as marketable, and don't minimize the problems people have even if they appear trivial.
I don't think you know much about how recruiters operate...they're very annoying and antagonize the process for small businesses/boutique firms. There is a reason why hiring managers will say they don't want recruiters.
Often, they obfuscate the process so you can't skip them to contact the representative company directly, and they'll embellish your resume in ways that make it impossible for the company to contact you directly.
I am in the camp that considers them more a nuisance than anything for many purposes, and while I appreciate that it might seem nice to be hounded by them, I share the parent's scorn, as I've never had a positive experience with them. And even if I had, it wouldn't invalidate what I've said.
tl;dr - Peoples' problems are peoples' problems. Other peoples' problems don't make them go away.
Alternatively, quit your whining that you entered a profession where you're not as marketable, and don't minimize the problems people have even if they appear trivial.
This being HN, by definition devs are certain to be over-represented, as well as their problems (real or imaginary!).
Also, since I know I am out of my peer group here, I hope that as I learn from fellow HNer's, I can also contribute, however minutely, and in this instance, by sharing perspective from my neck of the woods.
As to marketability, (something you also suggest) it varies across professions and disciplines, and I have no problem with that per se. From where I stand, the problem, as defined by you, and many others in other HN posts over the years, appears akin to complaining of flies when you are drinking from a river of honey.
Of course, there are annoyances in every facet of life, but from where I am looking at things, all I see is a bunch of fat piglets squealing that their milk is cold.
tl;dr - Peoples' problems are peoples' problems. Other peoples' problems don't make them go away, but they sure help provide some much needed PERSPECTIVE!
They're trying to cash in a fat bonus, not getting people a job first and foremost. At least the ones who message me after not reading my profile, just having a single buzzword match.
My guess is people want to feel like coding is something meaningful and worthwhile that they do instead of a lucrative, in-demand job in which they function as an expensive but interchangeable cog.
because there's no unsubscribe. i went through a few recruiting agencies 5 years ago to get a job and now that my contact info is in all these recruiter databases, i get emails and/or phone calls almost daily. Even if I tell one recruiter I'm not interested, there will be a different one bothering me tomorrow. The worst part is that many of them are contacting me about jobs in a city that I don't even live in anymore.
I don't hate them. I have no problem when they contact me through legitimate channels such as LinkedIn or StackOverflow. I even try to respond with a polite 'no' in most cases.
I have a problem with them abusing the git commit logs to get at my personal email as a way of manipulating me.
1) I've never had a positive experience with recruiters.
2) They have an observable tendency to embellish your resume for their own purposes, refer you to other recruiters, and network you in soliciting ways that you don't know about at first and don't agree to.
3) They obfuscate the hiring process so that you and a company cannot directly interact without going through the recruiter, and make it difficult to have a candid relationship in the interview process.
4) They only exist as a middleman, adding an extra step to an interview process which I am opposed to on principle.
You're not doing this, but I really hate it when people minimize complaints about recruiters because they think we're spoiled. Those people tend to really not know much about how recruiters operate.
I would literally dance on my hands if I were hounded (courted?) this way in my choice of profession (bio/pharmaceutical research)!
Hell, if someone knows where else I could put up email, phone and CV to be seen by successful recruiters, please let me know.
Quit the whining and be a bit more thankful for what you do have. Sheesh!