Client Received My CV Multiple Times
A client received my CV multiple times, so what should I do?
Contractor’s CV Sent Out
An agency called me up to ask if they could send my CV to a major bank in the city. I agreed and thought nothing more of it.
They wouldn‘t tell me which bank. Other agencies called me up and asked me if they could send my CV out. However, they were even less specific.
Of course I agreed – I haven‘t worked for 4 months.
About a week later the first agency called and said that they had spoken to the client. The client said that they received several copies of my CV.
They wanted to know if they could tell the client, on my behalf, that the CV that they had forwarded was the one that I wanted considered.
Sending My CV
It turned out that the agency that the client was saying was the first to arrive, hadn‘t even told me that they were sending the CV.
I told the agency that they could go ahead and say that they were my agency, as they were the ones who had told me that it was a major bank in the city. The other one hadn‘t even told me that they had sent my CV.
Was I wrong to do this?
Dr McLaughlin’s Contractor Surgery
Yes, you certainly were!
It‘s not your problem to sort out inter-agency battles. You have to look out for your own good.
Let me tell you what has happened here!
When I was an employer and we got someone’s CV multiple times, I had a scheme for sorting it all out. It was quite simple. The first one that I received was the one. It was first come, first served.
What has happened is that the client has informed your agency that your CV had arrived through another agency first.
The client will have told the agency which has got onto you that this is the one that they are considering. They have probably told the agency that sent the CV first this too.
Going to Get Interview with Client
The agency who has contacted you is feeling tremendously frustrated by this.
It‘s almost certain that they are going to interview you. Otherwise the client would have told the agency that it didn‘t matter anyway as you are not going to get any consideration.
Therefore the agency sees a great deal of cash slipping through their hands – so near and yet so far.
Agency That Represents You
However, they have one last shot. They can phone you up and get you to say that they were the only agency that represented you. You had given no permission to other agencies to send the CV through.
Of course, when they speak to the client they will go further and say that you are very upset that the other agencies had sent your CV out without permission. So, you don‘t want them to represent you.
Inter Agency Dispute
Do you know what‘s going to happen next? It could be one of two things:-
1) The client accepts the new agency as your representative
2) They say that they don‘t want to get involved in an inter-agency dispute and that they won‘t now be interviewing you. They might be a bit miffed also that you have overridden their own selection process
There might have been a third option and that was to say to your agent that they were sticking wit the original agent as they had sent the CV out first.
However, you have told them, through your agent that you don‘t want to be represented by this other agent – so this is not an option.
Going for Interview
Even if the client goes for option number 1, i.e. that he accepts the new agency as your representative, your troubles aren‘t over.
The client will inform the first agent that they will no longer be taking you for interview through them as you have said that they don‘t represent you.
Guess what they‘re going to do next, now that a juicy bone has slipped from their grasp?
You‘ve got it!
They‘re going to call you up and try to get you to change your mind – or at least remonstrate with you.
I don‘t think there‘s any need to go any further with this. You can see the hassle that it has all caused. It may even have cause you a very good shot at a job.
Agency and Client Dispute
So what should you have done?
You should simply have said to the agency calling you up that it was up to the client to choose which agency they wanted to choose, according to the criteria that they currently had.
If the agency contacts you, you can be certain that they have already been rejected as your agency.
They will tell you that no decision has been made yet – but that is unlikely to be true.
Chances of Getting Contract
Tell the agency that you understand their situation, where they gave you the most information about the job, and that the other agency hadn‘t even told you that they‘d sent the CV, but that you‘ve been out of work for four months and that you didn‘t want to jeopardise your chance of getting a job – that it was up to the client to choose.
This kills it dead – and you will almost certainly be hearing shortly from some other agency to say that you have an interview.
Don‘t Take sides in inter-agency disputes.
Leave it to the client to sort it out.
It‘ll have happened to them before, and they‘ll have their own method of sorting it out.
You started out by saying that the ‘client received my CV multiple times’ and asked what to do about that problem.
It’s not a problem – not for you anyway, nor the client. The only person who has the problem is the agent.
See also, After I signed Contract Agency Ditched Me and I’m the First Contractor Here and They All Hate Me
