How can I politely be added to a company's recruiting blacklist?

Question

Background:

I'm starting to have some seniority in my career, and I'm fortunate enough to have a fair amount of savings. As I've progressed in the industry, I've started to realize what I do and don't want in a job and which companies I have no interest in. The reasons may be something that a company couldn't change (industry, too big size, etc.), or very unlikely to change (entrenched C Suite I don't want to work for, and long-standing policies I don't want to be under).

From time to time, I'll get nonbot cold emails from recruiters for companies I know I do not want to work for. Like all cold emails I receive when I'm not job searching, I ignore them. For one of the companies, they've reached out several times through different recruiters.

My understanding is that if I were to tell someone at a company to go pound sand or some other suitably rude comment, I'd be put on a blacklist as a 'do not hire' and would never hear from them again. I'd love to not hear from a few of these companies anymore, but it's not worth being mean to some innocent recruiter.

Question:

How do I politely get a company to put me on a 'do not hire' type blacklist, as I know I never want to work for them?

Clarifications: I don't feel the need to tell them why I don't want to work for them (unless it'll achieve the goal that they leave me alone), and I'm not worried about the risk that at some future date I change my mind and would be willing to work for them.

Answer 1

Asking to be on a blacklist, while not the nadir of unprofessionalism, is certainly within striking distance of it.

A blacklist is usually reserved for very bad people, and you don't want to be on one. You'll be on a list with thieves, former employees who assaulted people (including sexual assault) and abhorrently poor performers. The reason won't be listed, but the worst will be assumed.

You may think, Oh, I just don't want to hear from XYZ company I hate them. Well, XYZ company could change and become just the place you want to work for, or, they could be bought out by EFG company, and now the blacklist is in the hands of EFG company where you wouldn't mind working, but now can't, because they have your name on a do not hire list.

Worse, you might want to work for DREAMCORP , but someone from XYZ company who was familiar with the list (As those lists tend to be very very few people), and sees your name. Now, you will not be able to get in the front door of DREAMCORP, because someone remembers your name, and maybe puts it on THEIR blacklist, and they are not going to care what the reason was, as it's used to screen out very bad people.

Answer 2

Like all cold emails I receive when I'm not job searching, I ignore them.

That's all you need to (and should) do. The companies that pay attention will eventually stop and the disorganized ones will keep pinging you no matter what you do.

It's a bit unclear what problem you are trying to solve. Having to hit the delete button every once in while doesn't seem such an undue burden.

Answer 3

How do I politely get a company to put me on a 'do not hire' type blacklist, as I know I never want to work for them?

The polite solution is to professionally reject each and every offer you receive that you don't want.

I don't suggest you do something to be blacklisted, as that (1) would not be professional (2) it could backfire on you (3) this company could share your blacklisted status with other companies (perhaps some that you would like) and kill your chances there.

You don't need to give them any reason why you don't want to work there, just politely thank them for the offer/chance but say that you are not currently looking for jobs, or that you are not interested in offers right now.

Answer 4

From time to time, I'll get nonbot cold emails from recruiters for companies I know I do not want to work for.

From the tenor of the other answers I suspect I'm in the distinct minority here, but personally, I don't see anything actually unprofessional about responding with

"Thank you, but I'm not interested in working at XYZ Corp. Please don't contact me about it again."

If you say this, will they put your name on a do-not-contact list? They might or they might not. Will other recruiters working at XYZ Corp use that same do-not-contact list? They might or might not. Will that do-not-contact list be the same as the "blacklist" on which they put rude people and criminals? It might or might not be. In either case, will they note why you were even put on that list? They might or might not. Will this bite you in some foreseeable or unforeseeable way in some related or unrelated event in your professional life in the future? It might or might not. The world is not a totally rational, predictable place.

All the same, it's not beyond your rights to ask someone to leave you alone. So I don't personally consider it unprofessional behaviour.

Whether you want to take the risk of doing it, versus taking on the minimal burden of ignoring or declining each contact request, is up to you, of course.

However, in the other case:

For one of the companies, they've reached out several times through different recruiters.

I think it's far more likely that it's the recruiters who are reaching out to you, not the company. (If the company was interested in you specifically, why would they bother to pay a third-party recruiter to contact you?) So there's really very little you can do about this, since there's no way you could inform every recruiter that you aren't interested in working at XYZ Corp.

Answer 5

Keep in mind that most of the recruiters that you deal with aren't employees of the hiring company. They work for recruiting firms, who receive job postings from the company and get paid if/when they fill the position. They represent many different clients, so the last thing you want to do is to have them blacklist you. They don't share notes with competing recruiting firms so even if they do blacklist you, you'll still end up getting calls from some other firm. The hiring company doesn't share blacklist-type information with recruiters, they filter out those candidates later. I know a guy that still gets recruiting calls for the company he retired from, even though the terms of his early retirement package forbid him from being re-hired since he's drawing a pension. All that is to say, I don't think it's practical to do what you're asking and even if it was, it wouldn't be a good idea.

I get calls from recruiters occasionally regarding jobs at a local company that I have zero interest in working for. They usually won't say the company's name but I'll explicitly ask "is this position with Company X?" and they'll usually respond. I politely tell them that I'm not at all interested in working for company X (or in certain geographical locations, or whatever your requirements are), but I'd be happy to discuss any other positions they might be hiring for. It's beneficial to have good recruiters on your side. Don't give them any reason to ignore you. They'll appreciate you not wasting their time and letting them know early on that you don't want to work for that company. It might also steer the conversation to another job opening that you are interested in.

Answer 6

Do you feel compelled to always reply?

If so then make a boilerplate email:

I appreciate you reaching out to me with this opportunity but it is not one I am interested in at this time.

Sincerely, Stacksmashing

There is zero reason to be snooty, rude, or prejudiced.

Answer 7

Email filter.

Burning bridges is not good.

Neither seniority nor savings, nor a company ownership, leadership and policies are absolute things.

Answer 8

For some companies, you can't. I am in a particularly interesting situation, where in my past I've worked for one of the FAANG companies, and I was terminated under extremely questionable circumstances (so much so that they tripled my severance pay upon termination as thinly-veiled hush money to not sue them; I most definitely had grounds and I also had evidence, but I took the hush money because I was too lazy to actually go through with it). Despite that, every once in a while I get recruiting messages on LinkedIn (not emails, per se) from recruiters for that company. I began by telling them politely "I'm not interested", and slowly, over the course of years, ratcheted it up to using vocabulary that would probably get me banned from this site if I was to repeat it here. I have asked to be put on a recruiting blacklist, and even gone so far as to threaten a lawsuit against the company for harassment if they do not blacklist me, and yet to no avail; they continue to contact me anyway.

Some companies just won't stop being annoying.

Answer 9

For one of the companies, they've reached out several times through different recruiters.

I think you're misunderstanding how a lot of recruiters work. They match clients (folk like you and me) to roles at companies. My understanding of how this works is that a recruiter will be aware of a role, approach the client with the details to see if they're interested, and then, if they are, forward those details on to the company.

Even if you were on a company's "do not contact" list, this wouldn't stop independent recruiters* contacting you about a position.

You're much better off either working with a small set of recruiters who you know and trust (which is what I do, I only work with about 3 recruiters when I or anyone I know is changing jobs) and letting them know what you are and are not interested in, and just ignoring everyone else.

(*independent means not part of the company HR department. I'm sure some recruiters do enquire about things like this from the company first, but my experience would suggest most do not.)

Answer 10

It's too late for you, but in the interest of a comprehensive answer that may help other people in the future:

Create a separate e-mail address that you use for job hunting (resume sending, job websites, giving to recruiters, etc.). Never, ever, ever let a recruiter have your main/every day e-mail address. Trying to convince recruiters to stop e-mailing is like trying to degnome a garden: even if you convince some of them to stop more will just show up.

Spam filters are OK, but then when you actually do want to look for a new job you have to re-train them or risk missed e-mails (or you have false negatives where it fails to catch some mail you didn't want to see).

With a separate e-mail address you can look at it when you want and ignore it the rest of the time. Getting recruiting e-mail from companies that you will never join while you're actively job hunting is much less annoying than getting them when you're not even looking for a new job.