"Exciting Opportunity" and Other Recruiting Phrases That Must Die

I met a web developer last week who has worked for some pretty high profile digital media companies and gets blown up on LinkedIN. He was astounded at how many emails and InMails he'd been getting that included the phrase "exciting opportunity." He wrote about his inbox:

I came up with no fewer than fifteen hits on "exciting opportunity" in the last year or so.  Yup.

Unfortunately, because staffing agencies often teach people to use salesey catch phrases and not disclose the client's name, a high percentage of InMails and emails to candidates offer little more detail about a job beyond bland, meaningless descriptors. 

Here's a message someone sent a Python developer I know recently:

Thank you for taking a minute to read my InMail. I hope you may be able to help me as I find myself in a bit of a bind. I am desperately searching for a solid front end developer with CSS and HTML 5 experience. This is a great opportunity for the right person looking for excellent compensation, stability and challenge. Hopefully you may be interested and if not I would be greatly appreciative if you would refer someone if now is not the right time for you. Again I appreciate you taking a few minutes to read this InMail. 

Folks, these are mind-numbing catch phrases. Nobody has a real conversation about a job opportunity using such vague verbiage.

"Good news honey, some recruiter has a really exciting opportunity for me!"

"That's nice, what's exciting about it?"

"Well, it's with a great company."

"Awesome. You should def. take that job"

Meanwhile, here's a list of companies who good developers and engineers have gotten messages from within the last two weeks.

****

Amazon

Google

Uber

Facebook

.

.

.

You

****

Some recruiters can get away with "exciting opportunity" in their initial outreach campaigns...provided they work for Amazon, Google, Uber or Facebook. If you're a recruiter at Jimbo's Garage Outfit Staffing Co., you might need to tweak your initial InMail JUUUST a bit if you have any prayer of being taken seriously. 

Think about it this way - have you ever received junk mail? Of course. Now, let's say you got five pieces of junk mail a day. Four of them say "Amazon," "Google," "Facebook," and "Uber," on the outside and one says "Exciting opportunity!!" 

Guess which one is getting dumped in the garbage can? So much wasted paper...