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Duplicate Firm Submissions…Causing Rejected Candidates
New opportunities are presented to firms in mass emails, job boards, and third party systems. Sales and recruiting team members monitor these to have a quick response time for candidate submissions. Firms with benched resources, those between projects, are usually submitted right away. If you are on the bench, some firms won’t even notify you that you are being submitted. The problem of duplicate submissions happens when those consultants who have started to reach out to other firms are submitted, but have not resigned and therefore were submitted by their current firm. The end result is disastrous for both firms and the consultant.
Let’s first look at this from the client’s perspective. They don’t need to be involved in a bidding war, nor do they have the time. To protect the client, any candidate that was submitted by more than one firm is automatically disqualified and rejected for the position. Regardless of who submitted the candidate first, both firms are notified of the duplication. The bad news for the consultant is they now lost out. Firms that submit candidates without notifying them, whether potential new hires or benched employees, need to rethink their process. They are only hurting themselves and their employees.
As a consultant there are several things you can do to minimize duplicate submissions. The most important thing is to tell your current firm that you want to be notified of being submitted and approve it first. If you are interviewing with other firms, let them know you are still on an active bench and may be submitted for other opportunities. It should always be up to the consultant where they want to be submitted, by whom, and when. The hard fact is that if you don’t resign, some firms may terminate you for failure to disclose that you have been seeking alternate opportunities.
A tricky curve ball has been added to the mix by some newer, not so ethical firms, that blind submit candidates. These firms will submit their candidates from a combination of resumes created from LinkedIn, initial recruiting calls, and job boards. Their assumption is you are looking. Their play with the client is “we have this resource,” and if they are interested in talking to you…then you’ll receive a call. I call it ‘reverse recruiting.’ Another words, they are getting the client’s interest first, then going after the candidate. I’ve had dozens of consultants complain about this practice in just the last month, and all have not been selected because of duplicate submission.
In reality all firms are vying for the same positions at the same time…and often with the same candidates. Put yourself in front of this competitive curve ball by communicating and limiting access to your resume. Be sure that you trust the firm and people you are talking to. Your resume is what gets you an interview. Your firm and their recruiters are only a tool to get you there…don’t let them turn into a threatening weapon.
Have experiences or thoughts on the subject? Share your comments below.
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Hey Doug this is great information and you are spot on with your findings! Working as a Consultant over the last 2.5 years I have found all of the issues you describe in your Blog. It’s been very frustrating over the last year trying to find a Ambulatory opportunity. I really was frighten to death when I first started Consulting with MaxIT in 2012 but I was a dependable and reliable Consultant to each organization that I work with. I’m very grateful for the opportunity that Parker gave me and still today wouldn’t have changed anything about what I experienced. I still hope I can continue my Epic Consulting career but not sure if the market will allow me the opportunity. With that being said keep up the good work 🙂
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