[notahacker]

Agreed... the whole conversation reads like parody: self-centred and inane recruiter pitch followed by smug, obtuse developer reply followed by recruiter amusingly taking umbrage at the reply and still trying to pitch the job.

[anonymuse]

Really? I spent a small amount of time trying to craft a suggestion that I honestly felt would help this person do their job better. I can see how it could appear potentially condescending, but how are we able to give people constructive advice if there's an effort at a concise, polite response and it's perceived as obtuse?

Using words such as "recommend", "advice", "friendly" in my mind conveys only transparency. I would genuinely like to know how this email could be re-written in a more helpful tone. Or is any response doomed to snarkiness?

[brd]

Disregarding the entire content of his email while simultaneously nitpicking his email etiquette is never going to come across as "friendly".

As its written, you just seem like you're dismissive and passive aggressive. If you had actually responded to the email and then added an aside about his email subject it would have come across much differently.

[anonymuse]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll consider that in the future. It's probably naive to think drive-by-criticism can be constructive in this setting.

[joezydeco]

You simultaneously tell the guy:

1) Email headers in all caps don't get seen by me.

2) I saw your email.

So, of course, the recruiter switches from spam-intake mode to "just cut the crap and tell me if you're interested or not, since you are responding". His job is to feed the hopper with resumes.