I made the decision to stand up for myself and defend my time carefully. If a recruiter randomly reaches out to me about a job unsolicited (particularly if it’s from a recruitment agency), they have to pay me for my time.
How, you may ask?
I set up a Calendly account with my availability and connected my Stripe account to it. I set up my calendar invites with a mandatory credit card field and send them MY Calendly link whenever they want to chat.
If they really want to talk to me, they’ll pay the toll. If I like what they have to offer and I get the job, then they’ll get their money back.
Note: Calendly charges $8/mo or something to add a credit card field to your invites, but I already use it for freelancing, so it doesn’t bother me.
Start defending your time, people. It truly is your most valuable asset.