Telemarketers and Social Networking
Today I got a call from a job recruiter who had found my phone number on a public web site at MIT. I cut him off early: “Thanks, but I’m not going to be graduating for several more years, and I’m not currently looking for employment.” Goodbye.
Or not. “No, actually–”, he jumped in, “I’m not calling about a job for you. I’m calling to see if you have any computer science friends who are looking for jobs in the Boston area right now. Any friends you could help out here.” To my own surprise, I didn’t hang up. Instead I was thinking about which of my graduating friends were looking for jobs. I told him to e-mail me and that I would forward the message along, then even thanked him for the call. Let me repeat that: I thanked a telemarketer.
It amazes me that an unsolicited question that seems so odious when directed at you (”are you interested in working at this technology start-up?”) becomes a completely different beast when it’s phrased in the context of helping your friends. It’s not hard to believe that there exist similar tasks which could capitalize on this phenomenon for more magnanimous goals.
I’m churning on several research ideas in this general space. Stay tuned.
Very interesting! A type of “social search” too—as searching through social networks.
Cool. I await your churned research ideas
You may find that recruiters are well aware of this. I get a lot of requests from recruiters asking me to recommend friends, and I think about half if not more are actually sounding me out.
It amazes me how many telemarketers call my business and ask if we have a website to market. C’mon, do a little research before calling me.
In your case, I’m glad it worked out.