Dear Recruiters:

Hi! It's your friendly local software engineer. You probably came across this link because you cold-emailed or cold-called me as a prospective candidate, and I asked you to visit this in lieu of a longer response.

Look, we all understand how it works. Awesome companies are facing a talent crunch, and finding the most awesome software people out there is hard. Without recruiters like you, lots of great opportunities would fall through the cracks.

And, honestly, even though many of us are happily employed right now, it's probably true that if a really, really compelling opportunity came along, we'd probably be interested in hearing more about it and exploring our options!

Seriously, we like you.

But here's the rub: unless you tell us exactly what company you're working for, it doesn't come across as a really compelling opportunity.

Making vague references to the space doesn't help. Saying it's very successful doesn't help. Name-dropping the classiest VC firms in the world doesn't help.

We realize that you're doing this because it prevents us from going straight to the company and circumventing your commission. But that's really not how it comes across.

What comes across is that the company is so lame that only the seriously desperate need apply. And if it's a company full of desperate people, it's probably not a compelling opportunity.

Please, for the love of all that is holy, lead with the company's name. That's all we ask.