Thanks for the comments about the book. I’m glad you like it.
When you say “recruiter”, do you mean someone from the company looking to hire you, or do you mean a generic recruiter looking to harvest resumes?
If he’s from the company doing the hiring, then you have it pretty easy. You can find out about the job directly. All the questions that I suggest that you find out by Googling and talking to people who work there you can now figure out by asking the recruiter directly. “Thanks for contacting me. Can you tell me about what problems you’re looking to solve? Tell me about the position you’re looking to fill.” and so on. You’re just doing research from a different angle, and from there you can tell whether or not it’s something you’re interested in pursuing.
Now, if it’s a recruiter from a resume farm, I’m guessing his email sound something like this. “Hi, I came across your resume will searching for Ruby On Rails developers in the Cleveland area. Could you please forward me a copy of your latest resume in Word format?” If that’s what you get, the recruiter is likely just harvesting resumes to add to his database, and doesn’t have an actual position in mind for you. He just wants to be able to do more keyword matching.
For these sorts of recruiters, I’ll ask for specifics about the position. If he does have a specific position in mind for you, then you can continue like you would for a recruiter in the company itself. If he’s just looking for a resume in his database, it’s probably not worth the time sending it to him, and he may even send out your resume as if he’s representing you, which is definitely not what you want.
