[atgm]

> I just moved out of the US.

This is purely tangential and me venting about recruiting spam in Japan.

I live in Japan and still get a bunch (~3-5 messages a week) of low-quality recruiter spam. I have the following guesses as to why it's so low quality:

1. Recruiting companies, from what I've observed, tend to draw from a big pool of English teachers looking for steady non-teaching work. That is, they are not technical or versed in the field they are recruiting in.

2. A lot of times the companies or recruiters aren't exactly sure what they're looking for.

3. Sometimes in addition to not being technical and not knowing what they're looking for, English is not their first language (whether they're Japanese, Chinese, or Indian).

I always try to engage them in some way in case I need them in the future (since Japan is the land of networking), but it never goes well.

They refuse to tell me the company they're recruiting for, responsibilities, salary range, benefits, or even basic things like whether it's a contracted (契約者) or permanent (正社員) position or, god forbid, a dispatch (派遣) position.

Whenever I ask for details, they insist that we meet in person so they can "get a feel for me and my needs." And usually meeting them would entail traveling an hour across Tokyo, or in one case, all the way to Osaka.

So essentially, it seems like they have nothing and they want to add me to the Rolodex.

Disclosure: I found my current job through a very good, very communicative recruiter who was up-front with me and worked with me to secure the terms I wanted.