There are many reasons Recruiters don't share information like a company name out of the gate. I'm not saying I agree with these practices or the reasons behind them but I'm sure they have them for reasons. Here's a couple.
1) It's a highly competitive business and not every engineer engaged with is ethical or trustworthy - after all we're all human. As most engineers hold anyone in the staffing industry in such high regard (they're all the same right?) and Recruiters only make money by filling a job they may be concerned with an engineer taking the lead they provided and simply applying to the job in order to avoid the Recruiter interaction completely (Wait... people avoid recruiters?!?). This is something that happens more often than you'd believe, for many reasons. Maybe you had a bad experience with a Recruiter in the past? Maybe you, like many engineers, are under the false impression that Recruiters get paid out of the money the company would have paid you? Most times, I believe, Recruiters aren't trying to be deceitful but rather are concerned with protecting themselves.
2) The most important thing to remember when you get any communication from a Recruiter is that they are simply making an attempt to start a conversation. Believe me the Recruiter hopes that this is the right position for you but most importantly they want to engage you in their service. It's about much more than any single opportunity they are sending your way. (NOTE: this can vary between corporate recruiting and agency recruiting)
If only all Recruiters knew how to communicate these things.... Unfortunately, like in any industry, recruiting has rock-stars who can be outnumbered by roadies just along for the ride.
It's a broken industry. Plain and simple. Some of us are trying really hard to fix it.
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