Viral marketing
I had a revelation recently about the job market.
I don’t know if anyone else has the same experience, but I regularly receive mails from recruitment agencies along the lines of “We are looking for an experienced J2EE/JSP/web developer for a client” – usually with some kind of open source experience appreciated.
Up until recently, when I was in the job market I simply replied saying what type of jobs I was actually interested in, or when I wasn’t just ignoring them. In the first case, the chances of that actually changing my interraction with the agency in question is, by experience, close to 0.
Recently, I thought that a change in tack might be a good idea – and since I think it’s a good idea, I thought I’d share it. It occurred to me that people sending out job offers from service companies are also in the decision chain about what solutions are proposed to clients.
The last couple of times I have gotten these kind of spam mails, I have replied something along these lines:
Thank you for your interest. I am currently working full time as a project manager, and in my spare time with the GNOME desktop project. The position you are filling is, therefore, not of interest to me.
If you are interested, I would be glad to discuss the project with you, and how it can offer value to your clients.
As you know, companies are using free software more and more in server software and network infrastructure. At GNOME, we have worked on a desktop environment which is easy to learn, and easy to use. In many situations, GNOME is the best choice available.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Regards,
Dave Neary.
I’m not sure what effect, if any, this has. But since these companies are generally somewhere in the chain of deciding what software is deployed to clients, there is no harm at all in evangelising a little. Anyone with similar viral marketing techniques?
