About a year ago I was in a product meeting and just by chance happened to find myself sitting next to the director in charge of my development team. My cell phone was on the conference table in front of me just like almost everyone else at the table. During the meeting I got a text message from a recruiter soliciting me about an "Amazing Opportunity!!!" . I wasn't looking for a job at the time nor had I ever had any previous contact with this recruiter. At the time, I didn't pay any attention to it, this type of thing was common, getting SPAMMED by recruiters was something I was used to.

So a week goes by, and I come in to work that morning, set up my laptop and check my email before I go to make my morning coffee and begin my normal routine. In my inbox I have an email from my director asking me to please come see her in her office "ASAP". Great, I thought, what fire was I going to have to put out today? Like a good soldier, I immediately get up and make my way to her office, winding my way through the workstations in our open floor plan. I get to her office and knock on the door. "Come in." I hear her say. I enter her office and immediately notice that a member of the HR team is also there with her. My heart sank.

My director then tells me; "Ryan, as you know, our new CTO is making some changes. And we feel that in those changes, we no longer have a place for you." She then stopped talking and the lady from HR began walking me through my exit package. After she was finished she asked me if I had any questions. I turned to my director and asked; "Why is this happening? Did I do something wrong? On my last quarterly performance reviews I received 5 out of 5's." She looked at me and plainly said, "We just don't feel that you are a loyal team member. I saw the text message you received last week in our product meeting, and we only want team members who are committed." I tried to explain, but it was too late, her mind was made up. I was now unemployed because a recruiter that I never knew existed, decided to SPAM me with a text message at the worst possible time.

This experience got me to thinking about just how bad the climate of tech recruiting has become. If this has happened to me, it has also probably happened to others as well. I felt that something had to be done. No one else seems to be doing anything about this, so why not me?

After thinking about this problem of recruiter SPAM I decided that the heart of the problem was with just how easy it is for recruiters to mine contact information on job sites like Indeed, Monster and Dice. And that there are no repercussions for them when they use this information to engage in unethical activities to make a buck. Also, these traditional sites are catered to the recruiter's experience, not the job seeker. I felt that this approach was wrong. The demand for tech workers is far greater than the supply. There needed to be an alternative that catered to the job seeker, not the other way around.

So I created Teqopps, a No SPAM IT job search site that makes life easier for the job seeker not the recruiter.

Features Include:

- Job Seekers are in control, no one can search for them or find them unless they initiate the conversation first
- All Job Postings must be completely filled out, to give the candidate the most possible information about the job before they decide if it's the right opportunity to apply to
- Full Transparency, they will know exactly who posted the job with contact information, and how many applicants have expressed interest in the job
- Review and Rate recruiters/companies, to help them decide which staffing representative to begin the application process with
- Blacklist service to expose recruiters that engage in unethical and dishonest behaviors

We went live on January 1st and we have seen some good traction with many jobs posted and user signups...so I'm optimistic that this can really help.

Any feedback you can give would be greatly appreciated, positive or negative. I really just want this to create a meaningful change in the status quo, and hopefully stop others from experiencing what I have.

Thank you