Ask HN: How do you deal with recruiters when you are not actively looking?

On a human level, they're just folks trying to make a living; so I usually try to respond fairly quickly, and politely (except to the mass email blasts, screw that). I just try and say "thank you for reaching out, I'm happy at my current position at the moment, but please do keep me in mind as you come across new opportunities in the future"...or something like that. And then I remind them of what I actually do, (since they most-likely contacted me about something I'm not remotely qualified for).

On a business level, you're a walking pile of money to them. So it really doesn't matter when you start being responsive; they'll be happy to engage whenever you're ready.

I only respond to contacts who address me by name and show they have actually read my cv, not just reacted to search term hits. That said, my response is typically "thankyou, I'll keep you in mind should circumstances change".

Don't accept LinkedIn request from recruiters - ever.

Reason: Your linkedin relationships/connections can help you find people you have in common - your old colleague Bob can vouch for you to Mary who works for a company you'd like to work for. If you accept a recruiter, now your LinkedIn connections list is polluted with hundreds of 2nd level relationships - people you have nothing in common with except that they accepted a linkedin request from the same recruiter.

You can remove these "bad" connections after the fact so its not the end of the world.

I don't respond under the assumption that the recruiters are sending hundreds of messages and really only care about responses from people who are interested. I assume my lack of response won't be noticed and that notifying them I'm not interested only creates more distraction for them.

Also, I never accept connection requests from recruiters. The reason they normally request to connect is because with that request is the only way to deliver a message for free (and after they're connected they can message you forever). And I like my contact list to be only people relevant to me--it's nice to scan my contacts occasionally and see where people are working now, and to see status updates from only people I care about.

I'd love to have this problem.

Molotov cocktails, mustard gas and, for the semi-civilized ones, bullwhips.

While I have worked with two recruiters who rose to the level of honorary members of the human race, by and large, there is a reason they are called "pimps" on Wall Street. More recruiters have screwed me out of work than have gotten me work. Most of them are less ethical than used car salesmen. They will spam your CV all over creation hoping for a bite from a fish, and they get preposterous payoffs for "knowing" you. They almost never listen, they provide little value to any of the parties concerned, and I am looking forward to the day when this job role is obsoleted by software.

I assume any recruiter who add me in LinkedIn just don't know anything about me. They are just trying to get my attention to fill some programming job, probably not related with anything I really know.

If they really want to work with me, It is easy to find my contacts.

Some recruiters send me emails and I answer nicely. If they sent me a good position (matching my skills), I even congratulate them for the effort. This is rare.