The 7 most fail-prone openers that candidates always delete, and the one they don’t

A passive candidate decides in your first line whether you met her or found her. By the time a role opens she may have dozens of messages from recruiters, most of them written by AI, and she deletes every one that could have gone to anyone with her title.

Why do passive candidates ignore recruiter messages?

Passive candidates ignore recruiter messages whose first line could be sent to anyone with their title.Every opener below tells her you found her in a search rather than met her, so it goes in the bin before she reaches the role.

1. “I came across your profile and was really impressed by your journey.” You found her in a search, and now she knows it.
2. “Would you be open to a quick coffee chat?” It asks for 15 minutes before giving her a reason.
3. “I have an exciting opportunity.” Every recruiter’s opportunity is exciting, so none of them are.
4. “Your background is a perfect fit.” She hears that a keyword matched, which is different from you knowing her.
5. “I hope this message finds you well.” It tells her the rest was written for anyone.
6. “Are you open to new opportunities?” It asks her to say yes to a job she has not seen.
7. “Following up on my last message.” It reminds her she already ignored you once.

What opener does a passive candidate answer?

The opener she answers repeats her own reason for wanting to move, in her words, which only the recruiter she spoke to could know.

“You told me you wanted to stop translating between engineering and sales and own something end to end. A role opened this week that is exactly that, and I thought of you before I thought of the role.”

It proves you were in the room with her rather than searching a database afterwards, and it answers her objection to moving before she has to raise it. The catch is that it depends on still having her exact words months after the conversation, which is the part most notes lose.