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!