Free Company Recruiting tactics, what do you prefer when being recruited?

Random invites without communication are a no-go for me and get ignored.
Shouts have been around for years in many MMOs and I'm okay with FCs doing that, they simply rarely tickle my fancy.

I generally prefer being approached via /tell and in a way that makes it clear that the other person isn't copy-pasting this to 200 others at the same time and invites whoever agrees without question to get as many members as possible. Have a little conversation with me, tell me about your FC, why you even approached me if there was a specific reason (like "I saw you're already 80 and we have a lot of people doing casual and endgame max level stuff" or "I've seen you hanging around a lot and we're looking for active players"), let me ask some questions, let me tell you what I'm looking for and see if it fits or not. Be honest if you don't think I'm for you.
I also like FCs who set up a PF without duty selection (duty categories are for duty parties, not FC recruitment - deal with being listed at the bottom), so you can join and have a chat.
But if I'm actively looking for a FC I generally take the initiative and browse PF, forums, look at shouts, randomly check company profiles from players whose FC tag I see around often enough to know they're active, set up a PF myself or shout.

Not part of an FC nor will i ever join one. And if someone randomly sends me an invite to join their FC not only will i decline, that player will also be blacklisted.

On my main, I was sent an invite and I accepted. Have been there for 6 years now. Nice group of people. Leadership has changed through the years, but we are still here having fun.

I prefer to be approached personnaly via a /tell and having a conversation about the FC, and seeing if it would suit me. I don't like copy pasted messages, it feels too cold to me, and /shout are even worse.

Shouted Ads are honestly great. Boil your FC idea down to a short elevator pitch and I'll at least read it.
Whispered recruitments are okay but can feel a little invasive. I'm kind of torn on them. If you're going to do them, just don't be creepy and don't be too aggressive. You're already basically jumping into someone's DMs by doing this.
Never, never, ever.. ever just blind invite. That's the fastest way to get me to not only ignore you but actually mentally blacklist your FC from ever being considered at any point in the future. For some reason this is how I've received 90%+ of my FC invites in FF14 and I don't know who started the trend but it's trash.

Now, how I ended up in the FC I'm in (and loving) is I just stumbled across a member out in the world. They had a name I liked so I did an examine and checked out the details there. Then I asked if they were recruiting.
The point? Make sure you don't have a stupid short form of your name! It seems like some FCs just don't care or think about that. It's an extremely important eye catch and, if someone does join, it's something they are going to have to wear over their heads all the damn time. No one is going to join a FC if the short tag is dumb (an intentional joke is fine, but it can't be stupid).

If I get a FC recommendation from a friend or similar, than I might be open to join, you don’t know if the person /telling you or talking in chat is crazy or not, so I’d be more likely to trust friends judgment.

I’ve had bad luck joining FC’s any other way, I encounter strange and/or creepy people in them who make it awkward to even be there.

NEVER invite directly.
use shout with moderation and use whisper with even more moderation.
The best way to recruit is standing idle close to an Aetheryte in one of the big cities (Limsa..?). People looking for FC will ask for in the shout channel or will take a look in all Companies tags and links in each char they see. This is the best way according to my own experience.

Been guildless for 4 months now. Can't say I feel a difference between my current state and when I was in a FC. Truth be told, I'd much rather join a linkshell. Unless you're part of a fc's core group that does the exploratory missions and whatnot, FCs in my opinion are just glorified chatrooms.

If I had to join one right now, it'd be if I was really good friends with someone ingame and they were in one. I'm not interested in joining a fc that throws random invites nor one "that's looking for members to start one. Will pay". That last one is the most egregious. If you're so desperate to pay complete strangers to make FC and its not even a mule/dummy FC, pleas stop. Go make friends or join a circle of them, then join their FC or make one with them. But please, stop looking for strangers to "grow" your fc.

I wonder how many FC recruiters who send blind invites will continue doing so after reading all of these "I hate blind invites" comments.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by goob

I wonder how many FC recruiters who send blind invites will continue doing so after reading all of these "I hate blind invites" comments.

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All of them. Cause the reason they do that is because it's fast and people are by default lazy.