Can you swap recruitment agency mid-application?

[kryten22uk]

I'm a contractor (Ltd) and get about 50% of my contracts via a small-medium sized consultancy that a friend set up. They sell me as one of their own, but in return the benefit of going via the consultancy is that they charge consultancy rates hence the pass-through rate to me is higher than I achieve on the contractor market. I also get full expenses paid via the consultancy, but in my niche industry there is never expenses paid for contractors. The rest of my contracts come either from direct contacts or whichever recruitment agency calls me up with the right job at the right time.

So I was called up by a recruiter with an interesting role, for which I agreed to let them represent me and forward on my CV application. That was a week ago, and not heard anything from them since (not even if they got round to submitting my CV). A couple of days ago my friend's consultancy called me up asking me to work for that very same role. Gutted. Of course, I told them that I was already represented.

I feel that I did the "right" thing, but what do you guys think? Is business cut-throat enough for me to renege on my agreement with the recruiter, in favour of going via the consultancy for a higher fee plus expenses?

[Collectingbrass]

I think you need to understand why your friend's firm was approached by the employer. If your friend's firm is attempting to poach the role then you've done the right thing.

That said, I think it is more likely that the employer wants to widen their search pool for some reason and you'd be ok to go through your friend, especially as he may well be able to sell you into the role where the other agency couldn't / didn't. Your friend should at least check it isnt a case of "previous applciants need not apply" though.

[untakenname]

If they haven't got back to you within a week then it's their loss imo if you go with someone else.

[kryten22uk]

Collectingbrass said:

I think you need to understand why your friend's firm was approached by the employer. If your friend's firm is attempting to poach the role then you've done the right thing.

That said, I think it is more likely that the employer wants to widen their search pool for some reason and you'd be ok to go through your friend, especially as he may well be able to sell you into the role where the other agency couldn't / didn't. Your friend should at least check it isnt a case of "previous applciants need not apply" though.

In my industry the clients just send out a job/role to a whole load of agencies at once and whoever comes up with the right person gets the fee. (So I often get a day when I get 5 emails from different agencies for the same role!) In this particular case, the client is a client of the consultancy on other work so the CFO spoke directly to my friend to see if they had anyone suitable for the project.

So theres no poaching or anything untoward. Just a rush to be the one to fill the role and win the fee.