A friendly reminder to my fellow job-seekers to push back against recruiter shenanigans.

Several years back when I was just getting my start as a software engineer I was on a Skype call with a recruiter that straight up told me I should consider cutting my long hair. She was working with a hiring manager for [well known used car marketplace] who once had this to say about an otherwise strong candidate, “Good, but long hair.” I had had long hair my entire adult life and was too taken aback, but also probably too timid at the time, to say anything close to how I felt about the ridiculousness of her suggestion. I just nodded in appreciation for the advice.

Recently, I ended a conversation early with a recruiter that couldn’t accept my answer when they kept asking how much my current/most recent base pay was. I kept bringing it back to what I was targeting for my next role and we went back and forth with this. They assured me they just wanted to make sure they weren’t setting up candidates for potential roles with a salary they wouldn’t be happy with. Great, this is my experience, this is my skill set, this is what I’m targeting, either you have roles for that range or you don’t.

The reality is they were just mining data about what some company pays for my experience—or the lowest I’d be open to.

If it doesn’t sound like a recruiter has your best interests in mind, they don’t. Like the great piece of advice I once received, cut it short.

And I absolutely did not cut my hair.