As far as I know I've never expressed any interest or given them any of my information outside of being a customer for several years. However, they continued in their email asking me to provide them with lots of information about myself without actually telling me a single actionable piece of information about any role.
Regardless, I replied (on a Sunday!), telling them (paraphrased) "I did find it strange as to why they were reaching out to me specifically. But even so, I do like Chewy from my experiences with them as a company. So I would definitely entertain the idea." I gave them some basic information about myself(YoE, Education, Tech focus) and asked the following questions (with some personal information removed)
- What are the pay ranges on your senior positions?
- Is remote a possibility?
- What does your overall interview process look like?
And unfortunately, Chewy is not the only company behaving this way. They were just my breaking point from seeing this happen multiple times.
You need to adjust your expectations.
If there was one book I could read to understand this company's business model and future, what would it be?
I'm very careful about what company I join after a string of bad experiences (or even good experiences that failed). I don't just care about engineering, I want to understand the product and business I'd be working on/for on a deeper and broader level.
So I'm not asking this to be pedantic or anything. I love to read, so anything a recruiter responds with I would 100% take the time to read.
So far, nobody has ever written me back.
I haven't yet formed a theory on what that means, but I can't help but find it disappointing nonetheless. I'm literally asking the teacher for more homework.
2) the profession of recruiter is very different from developer, it has a different kind of personality type, with different norms for social interaction; some are great, some are mediocre, gushing with enthusiasm when they think you're going to help them get a bonus, dropping all communication the moment that's not true. A recruiter with mediocre professionalism is doubtless just as common as a developer with mediocre coding skills.
3) most likely, they sent you the email, then got a person for that position, and didn't follow up to let you know that the position was filled. Not right, but no upside for you to let it get you angry, which hurts no one but you.
4) many companies are having hiring freezes, often with little notice; as uncomfortable as this is for us as developers, it is probably worse for recruiters, in terms of their own job prospects. It is possible (I have no inside knowledge here) that the recruiter that sent you the email has been laid off in the meantime...
It sounds like you really want to learn about roles at Chewy, why not just send another email or directly contact a recruiter on LinkedIn?
Second type are professional recruiters. Their salary is by commissions will often be a percentage of your salary. They are knowledgeable about programming and tech (often former engineers who wanted a break from coding!). They typically are looking to match specific profiles to specific jobs at client companies. This goes all the way to recruiters specialized in C-Suite executives (and you can picture the commission finding a CEO will bring in). Their messages will be personalized and you shouldn't hesitate to reply back even if you aren't looking for a job. They know that most great software engineers are almost never openly looking for a job so their goal is to be on good terms with a large number of talented developers so that the minute they start looking for a job they can match them with positions. You'll know when you encounter one.
Third type is basically referrals. A players attract A players, smart companies know it. Make sure your referral bonus is a percentage of total comp. It's probably the most effective way of recruiting (it has an insane signal to noise ratio). But you only get access to that type of network by... bringing value and being part of it in the first place!
You somehow ended up on the former's spam list. Sorry.
Apparently, 10+ years ago, I showed some interest in some Google product aimed at developers. It's been so long, I cannot even recall which one.
For the past 5-6 years, I've been receiving emails from Google recruiters. When I finally asked one where did they get my address, he said that I was labeled in their "database" as a software engineer, and that "database" is shared across the whole organisation.
One that allows you to specify all the search parameters the candidate cares about, and severely punish bad faith actors.
I get dozens of recruiting emails per week, and they seem unable to comprehend why I'd want to stay at a company that pays me 2x their Total Comp... (Also my current company has a hard time comprehending why I'd consider leaving for a 50% raise btw).
It's Chewy themselves, using an email address from their domain.