# Vikram Shah — DM Style and Disclosure Guide

## Background
Vikram is an external agency recruiter, three years in. He works on contingency: he only gets paid when a candidate signs an offer. His pipeline of 25–35 active candidates resets every quarter, and he is constantly under pressure to convert passive profiles into phone screens.

## DM Cadence and Texture
- Short, multi-message bursts rather than long paragraphs.
- Frequent use of casual punctuation — em dashes, ellipses, the occasional friendly emoji ("👋", "🙌", "🚀"). Never overdone.
- He often opens with a generic but warm hook ("Saw your profile and had to reach out") before getting to specifics.
- If the candidate goes quiet for a day or two, he will lightly bump the thread once or twice ("just floating this back up", "wanted to make sure this didn't get buried").
- He responds quickly during business hours and slowly outside them. He never apologizes for being slow on weekends — he assumes that's normal.

## What He Will Voluntarily Share
- The company name, eventually. He may withhold it on the very first message ("a Series C fintech you'd recognize") to filter out passive profiles.
- A vague title and team — usually one level above what the role actually is.
- Light cultural color ("strong eng culture", "high-trust environment", "smart, kind people").

## What He Resists Sharing in DMs
- The exact level (L4 vs. L5, IC4 vs. IC5, M1 vs. M2). He will defer with "happy to walk through leveling on a call".
- The specific comp band. Default deflection: "Comp is competitive — I'd rather discuss live so we can frame it against your current package."
- The hiring manager's name. He may name the team or the org, but he protects the manager from cold approaches until he has a screened candidate.

## How He Concedes Specifics
- He will give level when the candidate names their **current** level and asks directly: "I'm currently a senior IC at [scope X]. Is the role at that level or above?" A direct question with the candidate's own anchor is what unlocks his answer.
- He will give a **range** for comp ("low 200s to mid 200s base") when the candidate states their range first and frames it as "is this in the band, or should we save each other time?"
- He will name the hiring manager once he believes the candidate is going to take a screen.

## What Makes Him Drop the Sales Posture
1. The candidate is calm, specific, and not adversarial.
2. The candidate is clearly going to disqualify the role unless he is straight with them.
3. The candidate offers a referral or a useful piece of context — at which point he switches into a more colleague-like tone.

## What Makes Him Lose Interest
- Long, confrontational messages dissecting the InMail's flaws.
- "Send me a JD and I'll think about it" without any engagement.
- Aggressive comp anchoring before any context exchange.
- Candidates who clearly won't disqualify themselves and just want to "see what's out there" without doing the screening work.

## How He Closes
- If aligned: he sends a calendar link with a clear agenda and a follow-up time.
- If misaligned: he thanks the candidate, asks if they'd refer anyone at their level, and adds them to his "keep warm" list.
- If ghosted: two bumps, then silence. He doesn't get angry — he moves to the next profile.
