So first, Niloufar Far of Cortica sent me three unsolicited e-mails within two weeks, including one containing the line, "I hope you take my persistence as a compliment."
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| Screenshot of e-mail reading: Niloufar Far <nfar@corticacare.com> Hello again! I hope you take my persistence as a compliment. We are still searching for a Licensed Mental Health Therapist who is passionate about supporting children and families navigating autism, ADHD, and related differences. No, I don't take your persistence as a compliment! I don't have any illusions that you aren't sending your obsessive spam to every clinician whose information you have been able to locate. Today, I received an e-mail from Alexa Goodrich of Cortica, clearly written by a robot. It appears that this robot scanned my profile, pulled up certain keywords that don't have anything to do with the job, and wrote this bizarre message. Yes, my work with "low-cost virtual programs and community engagement" certainly aligns with their mission. What? |
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| Screenshot of LinkedIn message reading Hi Erika, I hope you’re doing well! I came across your profile and noticed your work in evaluations and consultations. It seems like you have a strong background in supporting queer youth, which is really impressive.I’m currently hiring for a part-time ABA Therapist position at Cortica in Quincy, Massachusetts. This role involves working with individuals in crisis, and I believe your experience could be a great match. Your work with low-cost virtual programs and community engagement aligns with our mission. If you’re open to it, I’d love to chat more about this opportunity. Let me know if you’re interested! Best regards, Alexa Alexa Goodrich Senior Talent Acquisition Associate @ Cortica |
Once again, I will remind people that the headline of my LinkedIn profile is "recruiters please do not contact." You can't miss it. Well, unless you are a robot. Those generally discard language they have not been programmed to understand.
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| Screenshot of my reply, stating: Hi, thanks for your message. I'm curious; is there a reason your company uses robots to look for certain terms in profiles, but hasn't programmed them to look for clearly stated boundaries? My headline is "recruiters please do not contact" and the first line of my "about" section is "I do not provide ongoing individual or group therapy services at this time. Recruiters, please do not contact me with job offers for types of services I do not provide." I can only assume that your organization similarly ignores boundaries with clients, families, and collaterals. I will be keeping this in mind when making referrals in the future. |
Those who have talked to me about such things (or read my blog) know that I like to remind folks that while I don't support the ABA Autism Industrial Complex, I am also aware that ABA is currently often the only way for families to pay for an aide for their child, or sometimes the only service that will include autistic kids in much programming, especially if they have Masshealth. Until it is abolished and replaced with more affirming services, we will have kids who need to receive some services through ABA and will need to find the least-problematic provider.
Cortica is clearly not in the running for this. They're stalking clinicians and using robots to ignore boundaries. I am assuming they are run by finance people, not people people, and they have decided it's a worthwhile risk to stalk and alienate clinicians in their community if it means they manage to fill a few more slots so they can make money.
I can't imagine that a company run this way would have any sort of willingness or skills in collaborating with a child's other providers and their community supports. I imagine they've probably stalked most of these providers and sent them disjointed robot messages. As a professional, I of course attempt to communicate and collaborate with all of the professionals and community connections my clients provide me, as this is in the client's best interest. But I am first and foremost a human, and I'm not really sure how charitable and open-minded I am going to be when I inevitably need to contact someone from this organization. I certainly won't be referring anyone there unless there is some reason why it is only provider that will fulfill a particular need.
