should a recruiter ask you to call directly?

[Anonymous]

A recruiter who submitted my resume for a corporate job called me and asked if I would call a contact of mine at the company myself and tell them about my resume. I think this is so odd and out of bounds. Am I right?

Here are the details: A couple of months ago, the recruiter called me about a corporate job and asked me if I had been in contact with the company. I had been in contact with a senior level person at that company myself (not specifically about the recruiter's job opening). Initially, I thought that would be the end of the process and that the recruiter wouldn't be interested in working with me. I gave the details of the very preliminary meeting I had with the senior person. Recruiter tells me it's fine and that the job is in a different division, so there's no conflict. Fine. Well, out of the blue, recruiter calls and tells me that the senior exec. is actually the one ultimately responsible for the job after all and that it isn't in a different division. (This was news to me b/c recruiter had specifically indicated this was not the case --and it is a very big company, so there was no reason to think there would be overlap.) In fact, had I been told the job was in the sr. exec's division I wouldn't have allowed the recruiter to submit me (b/c I'm more interested in pursuing a different type of opportunity in that division).

The recruiter also asks me to reach out to senior exec and tell him that a recruiter has submitted me for this job etc.

Is this something anyone would do? I really didn't want my contact in the company and the pursuit of this recruiter-job to overlap. I feel like it puts me in a bad position with the senior exec (who I know personally through friends). In other words, I think it looks like I submitted myself for a job in his group and wasn't open about it. In addition, I think that long-term the exec might have better more fitting opportunities for me and this recruiter-job was more of a fall-back-job. I don't want to go full blast and use my chit with the exec. for this particular job.

I'm feeling manipulated by the recruiter basically. I think now any contact I have with the exec. will now look like it is related to the recruiter (and therefore make me less-desireable b/c of the fees etc.) even though that isn't the case. My instinct is not to call the exec. and not to mention the recruiter job and ask the recruiter to pull my resume. Does anyone agree or do you think I'm overreacting?

Thoughts?

[Anonymous]

I think the recruiter is using you. I wouldn't call

[Anonymous]

right, i think so too

[Anonymous]

As a former recruiter, I have a few thoughts:

-If you aren't interested in jobs in that division, you should ask the recruiter to withdraw your resume. Recruiters often don't have all the details about positions (for various reasons: the company doesn't provide much, they are working through a middle man, the recruiter is sketchy, or anything in between) and will submit candidates for positions that aren't perfect fits. Recruiting/staffing (not corporate recruiters) is a numbers game--they get judged on resume submittals, interviews, and ultimately job placements of their candidates. What recruiters want to avoid is having a candidate get an interview request, and the candidate turn down the request. Make the recruiter withdraw your resume if you want to avoid that situation.

- If you are interested in the job: how close are you with the Senior Executive contact? If it is someone who you are comfortable reaching out to, you should absolutely do it. A personal connection will go miles towards getting an interview.

-Does the Senior Executive know you are interested in jobs at the company? If so, do they know about your background and if you're qualified? It's not a great sign that the company is still using outside staffing firms to recruit for the position.

-At the end of the day, that Senior Executive can do much more towards getting you an interview (note that I said interview, not job) than any recruiter can. You need to cultivate that relationship if it is viable.

Companies that use outside recruiters often have many recruiting firms working on their openings, and recruiters will indiscriminately send in resumes to see if they get any traction.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Read this article about recruiters/headhunters, very insightful: http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130624194641-52594-when-the-headhunter-calls

[Anonymous]

I am unclear on how the recruiter is "using you". As pp mentioned already the details of jobs sourced to outside firms may not all be clear initially especially with large companies. Since you already met with the executive and they didn't call you about the opening they either forgot about you or don't think you are qualified/right for the position. In the first instance what do you have to lose by reminding them of your skills? I would probably send a brief email rather than calling but that's me. In the 2nd you aren't getting hired anyway. Honestly, it sounds more likely to me that the company is not interested in hiring you or they would have called you about the opening.

FWIW, fees are unlikely to be an issue. If the company had sourced you as a candidate on their own before they won't hesitate to work out the fee issue directly with the firm.

Final thought - call the recruiter back and ask if you have questions rather than listening to a bunch of hypothesizing on an anonymous board.