A recruiter sends you a job proposal with "URGENT" in the subject. What do you think and how do you respond?

URGENT has 6 characters, but it probably came with three exclamation marks and a space to separate it from the rest of the subject - so make it 10 characters for URGENT!!!.

These 10 characters are all within the ASCII range, so in UTF8 they should be 10 bytes - but lets say that recruiter decided to use UTF32 encoding, making it 40 bytes.

An overpriced GiB of bandwidth costs $5.

So, adding "URGENT" cost that recruiter at most 0.000000466¢. And that's how much you should value it.

Reply 4 years later. "Sorry, just seeing this!!!"

I tell them to fuck off and review their recruitment methods (and then fuck off again)

Chances are it's not all that urgent and just a way to get you to open the email.

Depending on the actual substance of the message, respond accordingly.

Found an article about that [medium.com/@panicrecruiter/how-rec...].

Seems like 20% of recruiters letters include the word "urgent".

Usually something along the lines of:

"Hmm... Looks like you Bcc'ed me (or equvialent) so I'm guessing this was a shotgun email."

or

"You're seeking someone to take an X-month contract in <INSERT CITY/STATE HERE> and any job boards my resume is on all say 'not looking to relocate or for short-term/contract work', so I'm guessing you weren't specifically mailing me."

but mostly

"<DELETE>"

If I know the recruiter, it's probably not that urgent. I may reply or even give them a call if I'm interested. The real good ones will call me first and then send me the job info.

If I don't know the recruiter, ignore + instant delete.

Urgent Emails are never really urgent.
It's like sending a postcard to call 911.
So I treat them like all Emails:
If from person I know: read, else delete.

I've got this as far as my gmail filters go:

Matches: subject:(urgent)
Do this: Skip Inbox, Mark as read, Never mark it as important