Simona Luca’s Post

At least 25.74% of an email list becomes outdated after a year. The most common type of risky email? Invalid addresses. An email address isn't forever. Businesses open and close. Job positions open and close. People switch roles and companies. They also get married and change their last name. The only way to ensure you have a list filled with working email addresses is to regularly validate it.

I have applied to 70+ jobs via LinkedIn in EasyApply. I have never gotten anything but an automated rejection, and in some cases, the job listing even says “apply on our website” which negates the entire point of EasyApply. The more I use this site, the more it feels like a scam. I’d love to have a positive attitude about it, but so far as a job seeker, I’ve seen zero upsides. Sure, I can see jobs that list who the hiring manager is, but there shouldn’t be an onus on us to message them directly to get them to actually look our resumes. That’s the entire point of the application process, but y’all don’t want to admit that your AI screeners and filters are denying quality candidates because you aren’t taking the time to review applications properly and refuse to admit that the automation is doing a poor job that leaves candidates like us looking into temporary jobs in different industries just to get a foot in the door and pray something eventually opens up once we’re in somewhere. Instead, this place is just Work Facebook and my feed consistently recommends me posts from recruiters lecturing each other about being the problem while doing nothing to change the problems in their profession. You can blame hiring managers for waiting for the perfect applicant all you want, but a majority of the managers never even see the resume of someone they’d want because of your gatekeeping.

What to do if you receive an Inmail? Here are the options. 1. Accept with a reply (sender gets a credit back) 2. Accept with no reply (sender gets a credit back) 3. Decline with a reply (sender gets a credit back) 4. Decline with no reply (sender gets a credit back) 5. Ignore (sender loses an Inmail) Why am I posting this? Because Inmails are expensive! 💰 People who have premium LinkedIn offerings Like Recruiter, Recruiter Lite, and Sales Navigator are paying for the right to "try" and communicate with you. If you are not interested, it's important to DECLINE the message. Inmails after 90 days that are ignored will cost the sender credits. That being said - there are bots here, and there are spammers, and there are recruiters and SDRs that have no idea how to craft a message. So if ignoring them helps them shape up or ship out, then I am all for that. LinkedIn shows us our % of opened inmails and makes us have to keep to a certain standard. There are consequences for spamming. So have a heart, and decline that message! 🖤 #LinkedIn #Inmails #Recruiters #Networking #Connections

Great breakdown! 💡 InMails are definitely a paid privilege, and ignoring them can cost the sender. If you're not interested, declining is a kind way to go—unless it’s spam or poorly crafted, then ignoring might send the right message. 🖤

Email addresses. And applying for jobs. Let's talk about it. partigurl1995@hotmail.com, probabbbbbbbly not the email you want to use when applying for jobs. hotmess@outlook.com, funny, but also not the email we want to be using when applying for jobs. Sticking with your first/last name or initials, are simple, straightforward, and convey a sense of professionalism. Your email address is often the first point of contact with potential employers, so make sure it reflects the image you want to portray. Keep your hotmess and partigurl emails for the spam emails! That's where my embarrassing email address from the 2000's lives. 😎 💅 #jobseeking #jobseekinghumour #resumetipes #resumehumour

To anyone who customizes or manages automated rejection emails from applicant tracking systems, I have an observation. See if you can spot the difference in messaging between these two statements: 1. "We have decided to move forward with candidates whose experience is more closely aligned with our needs, but we [will keep your resume on file for future opportunities | invite you to join our talent network]." 2. "We encourage you to check our careers page and apply for opportunities that more closely align with your skillset." ✅ The first statement shows an actionable path that says to me, "Hey, it's nothing personal. You didn't make the cut this time, but we're open to future opportunities." ❌ To me, the second statement is ineffective and insulting. It says, "Nice try, dummy. What were you thinking?" As #jobseekers, we are used to #rejection throughout the the hiring process. When that rejection happens at the beginning, it usually is automated and perfunctory. That is to be expected. It doesn't have to be cruel. 🤔 Do you have examples of language--the good, the bad, and the ugly--from automated rejection emails? 👇 Share it in the comments!

Don't send that nastygram. If you don't get the job you wanted, it's not a good idea to send a mean email to the recruiter or the hiring team just because you're upset. Why? First off, it doesn't help you in any way. You won't get anything good from it. All recruiters have a huge network of other recruiters and hiring managers. If you apply for a job at another company that recruiter or hiring manager that you sent the nastygram to may be there. And if you sent a mean email before, they'll remember you for that. On the technical side, most Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) have email integration so that any and all communications that a hiring team has with a candidate is logged for auditing and candidate tracking purposes for recruiting operations. So your interaction is now documented in the ATS. The next time you apply to a new job at the same company, your last interaction can be viewed by the new recruiter viewing your application. What do you think they'll do when they see your nastygram?

Beware of Fake Recruiter Emails!🚫 I keep receiving emails with the classic "false recruiter" header. They often start with: "Hello, my name is ***, and I recently found a fantastic opportunity for you!" These annoying spam emails flood my inbox with positions that don't align with my qualifications or experience at all. It's clearly an automated tactic, designed to generate clicks without genuine interest behind them. It seems like some of this could be AI-driven, targeting thousands of candidates simultaneously. When will these emails finally be stopped by spam filters? We need smarter protections to tackle these spam tactics. Anyone else dealing with this? Any effective solutions? #FakeRecruiters #SpamEmails #JobSearchScams #RecruiterScams #JobSeekerAwareness #SpamFilters

I can see when they open my emails. You too suspect discrimination in hiring or have clients who go silent when it's time to pay an invoice? I have applied to over 1700 jobs in the past 4 months, and over 300 of these have been through direct emails mentioned in the job postings. 90% never respond. 9% send automated rejection emails. 1% bother to give some sort of a feedback / explanation for rejection. But through Mailsuite (formerly Mailtrack), a simple Chrome extension, I can whether the email was opened. It is a professional life hack. Simple to use and even generates reports of the time at which the email was opened and the number times it was read. For a long time I suspected that they are discriminating in hiring, but I gave them a benefit of doubt that they might have missed the email as they they get 100s daily. But this has removed any doubt. They open and ignore! Download it and find out if it's happening to you as well.

As many of you that follow me know, I am a big supporter of read notify, the online email tracker, and this has been in valuable many times over the years, when I have had to prove to the job centre that I am applying for work, and, many times has proved to recruiters that have made claims that they have "never received" my CV and when I have proved through email the tracker results, they have not only received my CV, but it has been read, that they back track on there statement, but this also shows just how bad some recruiters are. I received an email today from read notify that show and application I made back in 2021, that was only opened a few days ago. Seriously! if it takes a company or an agency that advertise for staff, and it takes them more than 2 years to read an email, then they are, very short staffed, are just advertising to boost there image that they have more work than they do, or are so lazy that they just can't be bothered then something needs to change. I "WAS" originally going to post this as I got it, but as a security professional I thought better of it. Tracking emails is the only true way to verify what has happened when that email left you, and this just shows that applications can in many cases be ignored, and this just makes the recruitment process worse, as many times when you make an application, you don’t get any response but this is just poor, and things really need to change and it is at times like this I really want to name and shame, but, I won’t.