Company recruiter contacted me out of the blue for manager job opening

[eostache]

I just got a email/Linked In message out of the blue from a recruiter (VP of Talent Acquisition) at a well known local company asking if I am interested in interviewing for a position they have. It's a manager position and my resume and info on Linked In are just low level worker positions, I have no management experience AT ALL. I've seen the position open for a while and wonder why they cannot fill it.

I'm wondering what does this mean? Does it mean nothing? Does this company recruiter just have quotas to fill?

I'm familiar with the company and know of a few people that work there. The company is a govt contractor (DOE). I have occasionally applied there in the past but never got an interview. They seem to have a lot of openings all the time and I assumed they had a lot of turnover. I've looked at Indeed/GD reviews of this company and one reviewer suggested that some positions were seat warmers because of the govt contract.

I'm unemployed but not looking too hard for a job right now. I'm not anywhere close to FI but I have a stash of FU money and few expenses. I'll go interview for it because it's no pressure on me.

[scottish]

I get email's from recruiters every month.    This month it was Amazon:

Our Supply Chain Optimization team is coming to the Toronto area the week of February 24th, 2020 to conduct interviews for Software Development Engineering opportunities (SDE2/SDE3) for our Toronto offices.
I wanted to check in and see if you would be interested in participating?

If you are interested in participating in this Interview Event, please let me know ASAP! I will immediately send you information regarding the next steps in the process. We do have a VERY tight deadline if you are interested in this event. Invitations to the onsite interview are contingent on successfully completing an online coding assessment beforehand.

This one was a little humorous.   You're calling me about a job, but first you want me to write a coding test?

These emails don't mean anything unless you personally know the person recruiting you and she is also the hiring manager.

[Sibley]

Recruiters will contact you for all sorts of things. They don't always seem to read your profile either. Often, they're throwing darts and seeing what sticks. Talk to them, don't, up to you. Don't expect anything.

[Paul der Krake]

I get email's from recruiters every month.    This month it was Amazon:

Our Supply Chain Optimization team is coming to the Toronto area the week of February 24th, 2020 to conduct interviews for Software Development Engineering opportunities (SDE2/SDE3) for our Toronto offices.
I wanted to check in and see if you would be interested in participating?

If you are interested in participating in this Interview Event, please let me know ASAP! I will immediately send you information regarding the next steps in the process. We do have a VERY tight deadline if you are interested in this event. Invitations to the onsite interview are contingent on successfully completing an online coding assessment beforehand.

This one was a little humorous.   You're calling me about a job, but first you want me to write a coding test?

These emails don't mean anything unless you personally know the person recruiting you and she is also the hiring manager.

You only skip the coding test if they're convinced you will not be wasting their time. Cold call? You're definitely doing a coding test, whether automated or over the phone.

[dsw]

These emails don't mean anything unless you personally know the person recruiting you and she is also the hiring manager.

I'd echo this statement. Recruiter cold calls are largely nothing but advertising. If the position genuinely looks interesting to you, think of it as nothing more than you saw a listing on their website. You won't have a special advantage because the recruiter contacted you first. That doesn't mean you shouldn't act on it if you're interested and qualified though.

The contacts from people you know or have experience with are meaningful though. Those informal contacts are often a great way to find a new position.

[terran]

I'm unemployed but not looking too hard for a job right now. I'm not anywhere close to FI but I have a stash of FU money and few expenses. I'll go interview for it because it's no pressure on me.

Yeah, given this, why not just say yes and see what happens. You'll then have more information than you have now.

[Car Jack]

I always make a game of it.  Recruiter calls and won't tell me who the company is.  Within 3 minutes, I figure out who it is and use their name as if it was disclosed at the beginning of the call.  The silence I've laughed at has been quite entertaining to me when the recruiter can't understand how I could possibly have figured out who his client is with so little information.  I'm in a very specialized area where the players are well known and one little piece of information would normally tell you nothing is all I need to know exactly who they are.  I have gotten jobs from some of these calls, including one at huge-mega-tech where I had sent a resume to someone in the exact group I interviewed with.  Companies are so incompetent with trying to hire, it's no wonder they ended up paying this recruiter $50k to introduce me to them....where they could have simply responded to my resume.

[Reynold]

I definitely had recruiters contact me back in 2009 when I was job hunting who did not have much idea what I did or how it matched the job opening, but to be fair, these were specialized technical positions, and the recruiters had HR backgrounds, not technical ones. 

I still get emails from what were clearly LinkedIn searches that found keywords in my profile but for positions far afield from what I did or do.

[bacchi]

I still get emails from what were clearly LinkedIn searches that found keywords in my profile but for positions far afield from what I did or do.

--------
Hello [username],

I found your Linked in profile and was impressed with your experience in devops and working in C++*. Would you be interested in a contract with a large company in St. Petersburg**, Florida doing some exciting and challenging C++ development?
--------


* I've never done devops and the only C++ experience is from one job 10 years ago.
** I don't live anywhere near Florida and I'm 99% certain that the rate won't cover expenses.

[Sibley]

I still get emails from what were clearly LinkedIn searches that found keywords in my profile but for positions far afield from what I did or do.

--------
Hello [username],

I found your Linked in profile and was impressed with your experience in devops and working in C++*. Would you be interested in a contract with a large company in St. Petersburg**, Florida doing some exciting and challenging C++ development?
--------


* I've never done devops and the only C++ experience is from one job 10 years ago.
** I don't live anywhere near Florida and I'm 99% certain that the rate won't cover expenses.

Yep. Get that sort of thing constantly. The ones who are dumb enough to call or email me at work get a very terse response.

[Sayyadina]

One tried to be clever by claiming that they were calling me to respond to my inquiry. I guess it might have worked if I was looking, but it just made me mad and I told them I hadn't and to never contact me again.

I think my favourite, though, was a recruiter who emailed my husband twice on the same day, for two different positions in practically different fields (same company, both technical roles) saying that his background was "perfect" for both. Slightly better than the time that (same company, possibly different recruiter, they have an army) emailed both of us for the same role saying each of us was perfect.

He's a web dev with enterprise services experience. I build apps for head-mounted devices. There's no way we should be close to perfect for the same job unless the only requirement is having a pulse.