I just received a call from a job placement service that I do not subscribe to. They claimed I had been visiting multiple jobs listing sites. This part is a bit of a red flag. I assume they gleaned my phone number from my resume which is posted on several job boards. I asked who the business was and they elaborated on their operation, but didn't really answer my question of who?
So they asked a couple of preliminary questions including “what salary range are you looking for” I responded with a reasonable $25/hr minimum and their response was “you don't want to limit yourself by negotiating too high or too low, (something about shooting yourself in the foot before you get in the door) the pay scale will be set by the hiring manager” and I responded with “then why did you ask?” and the call was disconnected. Very strange encounter. They obviously want folks so desperate for work that they don't even ask what the pay is which is completely unacceptable. I have bills to pay and I'm not showing up to a job to “support the cause.”
Has anyone else had any similar experiences? Is this a common practice for hiring agencies / recruiters to cold call folks who didn't apply to one of their job listing, then berate them about how much they're willing to work for?