How to Lose a Job Opportunity Faster Than You Can Snap Your Fingers

I never cease to be amazed at the things people will do when in job search mode that they would never THINK of doing in the course of their normal personal or business interactions.

I recently heard from a client that he had been dropped from consideration for a really plum position and could not understand why. The answer to this question quickly became obvious.

It turns out that this individual had initially been contacted by a recruiter regarding the opportunity. A fairly lengthy discussion of his qualifications and fit for the position ensued, in which the company and the role he would fill were also outlined in detail. He managed to determine from the conversation the name of the well-known company that had the position. The search assignment was a sensitive one not advertised in public channels, and the company did not even want its name released to potential candidates until they were ready to ask the recruiter to set up an interview.

What did the candidate do next? To my horror, I learned that he became impatient with the pace of the process and decided to contact the company directly--a brazen attempt to completely bypass the recruiter who had already talked with the company about him and was preparing to formally submit his credentials. He seems to have thought that he could represent himself better than the recruiter and would be improving his chances by doing so.

The result? Now no one will talk to him--neither the company's hiring executive nor the recruiter. He's aced himself out of a great opportunity.

A word to the wise: Attempt to circumvent a recruiter who is already working on your behalf at your own peril!

Postscript added 4/26/2007:

I find it necessary to clarify this blog entry, as it seems to have generated some interesting responses. By no means am I advising that candidates passively sit and wait for recruiters to find them opportunities, nor do I believe that it is unwise to be proactive in identifying companies and opportunities and following up on your own. What I refer to here is a situation in which a retained recruiter who was working on a confidential and exclusive assignment where the company did not wish to be contacted in any other way than through that recruiter. The recruiter had invested considerable time and effort in interviewing the candidate and preparing him for presentation to the company. Certainly one could ignore this, step on and over that recruiter to get to the hiring manager, but I think the result here was predictable. If one wants to take that route, it must be done with an understanding of the risk--which this story was intended to illustrate.

It was not my intent to leave the impression that just because a recruiter has mentioned a position in a brief conversation that an aggressive and proactive job seeker could not or should not go to the company directly. For example, I spoke with a client recently who marveled to me that he'd had at least a half dozen calls from different contingency recruiters about a particular opportunity. He did some homework, identified and contacted the hiring manager at the company, and got an interview. Good job!

Posted by Laurie Smith

Comments

[bob]

This is a very unique situation. I would try and circumvent the recruiter and the HR department at all times and get right to the hiring manager.

[LN]

how so generic and untrue to some situations! I have seen plenty recruiters who don't even check the credentials, and I am not talking about even submitting them to the hiring company. So if that person was so lucky and had a good recruiter, I still think it was ok for him to go directly. you just can't trust a recruiter now.

[TimB]

In a generic sense - it's possible to see a job both posted directly on a national site, and/or a company website *as well as* posted by a recruiter. I'm neither for nor against the job seeker in question, but double submitting to an opportunity is a mistake that could easily be made accidentally as well.