The Joel on Software Discussion Group

A few days ago I was contacted by a recruiter about a dev position, and am waiting to hear back from him. Then today, I was emailed by a different recruiter and we scheduled a phone conversation for tomorrow, and based on the job description and location I am 95% sure it's the same position. How should I proceed? Should I tell the second recruiter that I have already been considered for the position by another recruiter? Is there any way I can play the two recruiters against each other to my advantage? One concern I have is that if the hiring manager realizes that two recruiters are both referring me to him, he might worry that he'll have to pay both of them instead of just one, and will reject my application for that reason. If it makes any difference, this is a full time position, not a contracting gig.

If you can tell that this is the same job, tell the second recruiter you've already learned of that position from somebody else.  Do not try to play them both off each other. 

Here's my experience from both sides of this issue:

http://blog.componentoriented.com/2006/05/job_hunting_avoid_double_submissions/

I agree that you should inform the 2nd recruiter about the first.  This type of recruitment is essentially as follows: Company A posts a job to multiple recruiting agencies or to a board.  Recruiting company B and C then search for candidates and submit them to A.  A hires a candidate and if the candidate came via a recruiter the Recruiter gets a commission.

Should both recruiters refer you it is often the policy of HR to cease consideration of that individual as you are now in conflict - that is, to whom should the commission go?  There is no way to play one off of the other.

Good luck.

+ to the advice above.

Same thing happened to me (I didn't know it) and the hiring company almost didn't even interview me because they didn't want to get caught up in the fight over commission.  I was lucky that I had a chance to tell them that the first one was representing me and they then continued with the interview.

Agree with the above. If you get double submitted your resume will be thrown away, no exceptions.

Usually where this is an issue is your resume is being submitted without your permission or knowledge by an unethical recruiter you've never heard of  that stole it from your website or Monster.

"If you get double submitted your resume will be thrown away, no exceptions."

You may do that, I wouldn't. If I got the CV for an interesting candidate twice it is clearly a problem with the recruiters, not the candidate. You would just inform the second recruiter that you had already seen that candidate.

This has happened to me a few times when recruiting and I don't see it as a big deal.

Call the first recruiter. Ask them, flat out, if they sent your CV and what the company is. If they argue, explain that you're trying to resolve a possible multiple CV submission in their favour.

Call the second recruiter. Ask them flat out, is this company X. If they say "no", email both of them and say "It's OK, there's no multiple submission". If they say "yes", then explain to them that your CV was previously submitted by the other agency.

How professionally the agencies will deal with this tells you which one you want to deal with in the future. A good agent will sigh and say "Oh well, fair enough".

If you have been multiply submitted, the company may indeed bin you. However, if you've made efforts to sort it out, this makes the situation look better.

The morale of this story is that you have to get agents to tell you the company. No client company name? No, you can't submit my CV. End of story. Good agents may not tell you who it is to start with, but they will at the point of sending a CV over. Exactly to prevent this.

If the agent won't really tell you,  just find another agent with the same job -- there's always others.

Very common. Companies farm jobs out to multiple recruiters. Since they often don't trust one. If you give it to just one, they might charge you more.

I have been contacted by up to 8 recruiters for the EXACT SAME JOB.

If its a contract... find out who pays the most money and ask questions about the terms of the contrcat. if they are similiar, drop the one who gives you attitude. Often contract terms and rates can be radically different for the same job. I have seen $40-50/hour differences for the SAME JOB.  (some are subs, others want bigger markups, etc)

If it is an employee job. It doesn't matter who submits you. Just make sure you give just one an ok to submit you. tell them you need the client name before submittal because you think another recruiter is submitting you for this job.

btw, in a contract position, generally it is only the sub-contractors that don't give client info. They pay less money since they are farther down the chain. they don't want you going around them.

This is also why counting posts on the job boards is a terrible way to tell how many jobs are out there. It is VERY common for the exact same job to be posted by 4-5 recruiters.

if it is an employee job with the client, there is no one to play off. get the name and get one to submit you.

they will lie to you about why they are a better recruiter. HR departments don't care who forward the resume. 95% of the time it is TOTALLY irrelavent. Everyone once in a while the recruiter will know the HR person, so one will be more likely to place you than another. Most of the time they just lie and say they are better.

For employee jobs, they just want the best person.

also note, that recruiters are routinely lying about employee placement compensation. They try to get you to take $5k less (or more) than the minimum part of the range. They do this since they just want to make the sale. Companies will almost never hire someone because they sell themselves for $5k less than someone else. Though they are happy to hire you at that.

I agree with Katie.  I always ask who the client is.  Usually companies that are dealing with recruiters have already decided not to hire directly, and they've asked specific recruiters or companies to search for them.  So it's not as if you're going to go direct and undercut them, or go to some other company behind their back.  Thus there's no reason for them not to tell you the company name.

What if the company that knows about the opening is incompetent, and you'd rather pursue the opening through a different company?

It's actually not all that important.  The key in a job search is to keep finding possibilities, and to have enough of them going at once that you don't have to get too hung up on any individual one.  If you're unlucky in this one (good job but bad recruiter), you'll get lucky in another one.

And then in the future when Incompetents-R-Us calls with a job, you can refuse before you even hear the client name, just in case your good recruiter calls about the same job.

Well it turned out to be the same job. I told the 2nd recruiter that I was already being considered for that job by another recruiter. She asked who the other recruiter was, and I told her. Then I asked her to consider me for any other opportunities in the area. I have still not received a call back from the first recruiter, I wonder why. Although to be honest I'm only semi-interested in that job.

you will only get a call back from the first recruit if the company decides to interview you.