Contractors Gaming The System. Guess What? You Lose
So here’s the situation:
A contractor is contacted by several different staffing companies/recruiting firms to fill a specific contracting job at a particular company. The company is large and obviously uses many different agencies to assist them with their need.
The natural inclination for a job-seeker is to say yes to as many agencies as they can find in hopes that their resume’ will get into the right hands.
WRONG.
By taking this approach, especially for contract positions, you are shooting yourself in the foot. Attempting to game the system is a very bad move which may result in you not being considered at all without regard to your skills or availability to do the job.
I know you are thinking…”What? That doesn’t make any sense at all”!!!
So let me lay it out:
Companies that have contract positions typically engage with more than one agency to fill their need. This makes sense for a company to do this as it broadens their reach into the candidate marketplace without up-front cost.
Generally speaking, there is a limited candidate pool for any specific requisition–especially if it is a difficult-to-find skill set.
So naturally, a candidate may be contacted several times by different agencies for one requisition.
Now, here’s the hard part:
If a candidate is submitted by more than one agency for the same requisition, and the company is interested in the candidate…it sparks a chain of events that can lead to the candidate not being considered at all.
- Who submitted the candidate first? Agencies have to prove who was faster on the trigger. Often…this literally comes down to minutes or seconds.
- Who actually worked the candidate…promoted them? Again, has to be proved by the agency.
- Did the agency have permission from the candidate to submit them to a particular requisition?
- What is the company policy as it pertains to multiple submissions? Generally..it is the one who got there first.
So you see the problem…if a candidate engages with multiple agencies for the same requisition…it sets up an agency brawl internally with a company.
More often than not: A company will avoid the unpleasantness of jumping in the middle of an agency brawl and forego the candidate altogether.
NOW do you see why this is a bad plan?
So to all the contract candidates out there…please don’t try to game the system…it just doesn’t work. You will end up hurting yourself in the end. If you get a call from an agency…go with the first one that calls.
But what if the agency is doing a bad job of representing me???
It does behoove you to continue to follow up with the agency & make sure that you are properly represented to the company.
If you do not feel as though the agency is doing its best to get you in front of the client, write a letter to the agency disallowing them to represent you for this position any longer. Be sure to include details like when you were contacted, who the recruiter is, etc.
Get in touch with any of the other agencies that called (I assume you kept a list), and write them a letter giving them permission to represent you. Also include the disallow letter to the other agency in your communications. This assists the agency when presenting you to their client.
Using this strategy, you keep your nose clean and there is no question in the company’s mind which agency is allowed to present you as a candidate for the contract job.
I hope this helps…happy hunting!
Please contact us if you have any questions or if we can assist you in any way.
Tags: agency, contract, contract labor, contractor, Recruiter, recruiting, recruiting agency, recruiting client, staffing, staffing agency, staffing client
July 1st, 2009 at 1:13 pm
I knew that dealing with multiple firms for a single position was a no-no but never understood the reasoning. Thanks for the insight!
July 1st, 2009 at 9:20 pm
Thanks Jen! It’s good to see the situation laid out from both the agency’s and the company’s point of view. Without that, it’s easy for a candidate to make the mistake of viewing the market as a numbers game and another agency call as one more spin of the wheel.
At one point I was called by four agencies about the same opportunity. When I told them that I was working with another recruiter on the same role, each of them dropped me (courteously) like a hot potato. Nobody had articulated the ‘thou shalt not’ as clearly as you did above, but it just seemed like the right thing to let them know.
One thing that’s tricky here is the letter disallowing the first agency from representing you. It sounds right but also has a risk of burning a bridge. (Admittedly one that wasn’t getting you anywhere, but on the rare occasions I’ve burned a career bridge I’ve always regretted it). My take on that would be to have a frank conversation with the person first so that at least the letter doesn’t come as a surprise; would you agree with that approach?
July 1st, 2009 at 9:31 pm
Russ: Absolutely. You’ll note that I encourage candidates to follow up frequently with the recruiting firm to gain insight into the status of their submission, if there is feedback, etc.
If you are just not getting any answers, or feel that the agency is unresponsive to you…fire them as you would any other service provider. Give them an opportunity to rectify and if the condition persists…put it in writing and move on.
Thanks for clarifying that point!
Jen
July 2nd, 2009 at 11:40 pm
Since I haven’t been in the contract job market for that long, is it typical that the job posting text is the same for every recruiting agency that posts it? That is, is it always obvious (to the contractor) that he/she is applying for the same job opportunity across multiple agencies?
July 3rd, 2009 at 12:00 am
Matt: Great question.
Not always but there are usually certain key details that are consistent across postings. Length of contract, specific skills needed. It is generally easier to tell for a technical contract position than others.
Generally speaking, however, agencies don’t usually re-write job descriptions for posting…pretty easy to tell.
It is imperative though that you speak in-depth with the recruiter to be sure that you are not being submitted twice. This may take some due diligence on your part. Clarify even down to the requisition number on the company’s website if you must.
If an agency refuses to tell you who the client is and is otherwise secretive about the opportunity…move on. You most likely don’t want to work with that particular agency anyway.