Note for Recruiters

I am fortunate enough to have a lot of employment opportunities, and this means that I can be very selective when it comes to picking an employer. I exercise a lot of care up-front to be as sure I can be that I can fully commit, and when I make that commitment, I make every effort to ensure mutual success and mutual growth. This means that the bar is extremely high for me to consider jumping ship.

For example:

At Google on the Android project, I led a team of incredibly talented people, and the work we did continues to have a direct, sustained, and positive impact on hundreds of millions of people. I know I can't take full credit for all of Android's success — nobody can — but I firmly believe that the energy, effort, and enthusiasm I put into it has been responsible for at least some of that success.
At Medium, I helped take the product from idea through first launch. This is a new take on how to publish on the web, which is already making positive change for millions of people.
At Slack, I worked on a product used by millions of people every day, enabling both business- and life-critical communications. The work I and my talented colleagues did on Slack's various product offerings has had a direct positive impact on so many folks' daily lives.

If you believe your opportunity has a chance of meeting my bar, then first send email, and clearly indicate that you have read my résumé; at a minimum, note the version number at the top of the main résumé page and cite it in your email. Please be sure to refer to this version and not any cached version you may have lying around; I update it regularly.

If you read nothing else on this page, read this: Only call on the phone by prior arrangement. If you make an unarranged call during the day, I will generally be at work and will have job duties to attend to; you will no doubt amuse my immediate officemates via my half of the conversation.

Note also, I am sorry to have to write this, because I assume that you — the conscientious recruiter who is taking the time to read it — don't need to be told: I am neither a recruiter myself nor a pimp for my colleagues. Adding something in your message to me about your search being for "you or anyone you know who might be interested" (or words to that effect) is a clear indication to me that you did not bother to target your mail to my actual experience, expertise, and interests. I will give your message exactly as much consideration as you gave to my résumé. Again, I apologize for the bluntness of this statement; I don't mean to offend good recruiters.

On the other hand, if you follow the handy checklist below, I will be overjoyed and hereby promise to reciprocate your thoughtfulness. Thanks in advance!

Checklist before you send email

Please make sure your email includes all of the following. If not, do not be surprised to find that you do not get a reply.

Version number of my résumé that you are referring to.
Name and URL of the company.
Your relationship with the company.
For companies that are not well-known:
- Age / founding date of the company.
- Number of founders and employees at the company.
- Physical location of the company.
- People involved with the company that I may know or may have heard of.
Detailed description of the job.
Rationale of why you believe the job is right for me, and why I am right for the job. Cite line items from my résumé.
Overview of compensation, including salary and ownership.

Note, if there is more than one company or job you have in mind, list all of them. I am not interested in any back-and-forth discussion with overly coy recruiters. If either your recruiting firm or the company in question disallows you from identifying the company, then I am not interested in further discussion.