We constantly get this crap at work. Normally they get hold of one name of linked in or something and then call the main switchboard.
The worst we had was recruiting firms calling the switchboard to be transferred through. Then they would claim to be Fedex and try to phish for names. "Oh this package has to be signed for by a member of the engineering team, is there anyone who might cover if you are at lunch when it's delivered" Riiiiight!
The other dead giveaway is when you are working at an unusual hour. You hear a phone ring down the hall, no answer. Then a phone closer to you. Then one right next door, then your phone rings. The whole sequence is like something out of a cheap horror flick.
You eye it with disgust, but pick it up, and sure enough it's a recruiter sequentially dialling through the extensions. And they have the nerve to pretend they are calling just for you!
Once upon a time I was VP of Engineering at a start up in Mountain View and I'd get called by recruiters all the time. One time a woman called me and asked about the company and I was particularly looking for people who had written debuggers. So I told her that.
She repeated back to me: "Knowledge of debugglers".
I have two piece of advice about what technical recruiters should not do, based on my own experience:
1. Announce that someone is applying for a job without first asking them if they're interested. (Yes, this happened to me: I was invited to go somewhere and speak about my research; I agreed; and when I turned up, I was introduced as "Colin Percival, who wants to work for us". To this day I still don't know exactly what job I was "applying" for -- I talked about my research and got out of there as quickly as I could.)
2. Announce that someone is applying for a job other than the one they told you they were applying for. (In fact, there were three different positions involved, and in the end I was offered the position I originally applied for -- but not before having a list of on-site interviewers selected on the basis of a different position and then partially reworked on the spot.)
"... Apparently these recruiters just call random numbers and hope to be directed to some hiring manager. ..."
Poor phone screening technique.
All calls should be routed through one person where they can shield internal people from "unknown" callers. This simple hack works surprisingly well in large companies and is a 101 social engineering technique. Kevin Mitnick now makes a living writing books on this subject ~ http://www.amazon.com/Art-Deception-Controlling-Element-Secu...
The core problem here is that recruiters are adding so little. It's fairly simple to get a great job without involving a recruiter. Why not cut out the middleman?
The person should spend 10 bucks and buy a domain name. Actually dreamhost gives you a free domain name with the account, so I don't see why this person doesn't use one.
We constantly get this crap at work. Normally they get hold of one name of linked in or something and then call the main switchboard.
The worst we had was recruiting firms calling the switchboard to be transferred through. Then they would claim to be Fedex and try to phish for names. "Oh this package has to be signed for by a member of the engineering team, is there anyone who might cover if you are at lunch when it's delivered" Riiiiight!