My East Indian recruiter friend Pharat is unlike most other East Indian recruiters, because when he phones he sounds as though he might very well be just down the street. When he says he's calling from New Jersey I believe him.

This is very different from most of the other East Indians I hear from. They always seem to be phoning me from a boiler room in Madras or Bangalore via an old-fashioned tie-line (although they often tell me they are phoning from Parsippany--why Parsippany, one wonders).

Their technique, obviously, is to scan the online job boards for open positions and CVs, and then try to match up a candidate. There's always a good chance the candidate has already applied for the job, and if the candidate is a real star he (or she) probably isn't looking for work anymore. I am not a star, so I stay in the orphanage, getting more and more scuffed and abandoned-looking.

I find that our friends from the Hindustani call centers get miffed if you call them on their deceit.  I can empathize.