I am a freelance recruiter and recently worked on a recruitment campaign for one of my clients (a medium sized strategy house). Having shortlisted candidates and subsequently passed them onto my client is transpires that they had already received one of the candidates via another agency (the candidate in question had no knowledge of this and as such had not given consent to do so). Luckily, for me, I have a good relationship with my client and the candidate and the process will continue to go via me with any potential fee being paid to myself. This isn’t the first time this has happened to me and I’m sure it won’t be the last. However I find this practice to be both extremely unprofessional and typical of the large recruitment companies only interested in the bottom line. With this in mind I thought I’d ask the following questions;1. As a candidate how would you feel about recruiters sending your CV to potential employers without your consent?and 2. As a potential candidate or hiring manager, if a recruitment agency is found to be doing this then what would be your response?

1. extremely annoyed - it is devaluing2. same as if an estate agent sent out details of a house that isn't actually up for sale... gives an impression of wide boy unprofessionalism

Luke I share your frustration - where I am we encounter this frequently, and the remedy is to always go back to the candidate and where possible get details of which agency/recruiter contacted them, and keep a track. Over time your client will see a pattern if one emerges of certain agencies acting like this and delist them.Another thing is to always get written consent in email from the candidate so you can point to this - consent wins over submission date.These cowboys give the industry a bad name, devalue candidates and result in clients making bad hires.

I'm a big user of agencies and whilst I do have to keep a couple of them honest from time to time, they are a big asset to me.Every now and then we get a shonky agency rock up trying to tip my boat over but I send them packing, and as someone says, to me consent is king.

as a candidate, I totally agree with you guys.. the last thing i want is to encounter delay in my (potential) interview simply because somebody has apparently submitted my CV.However, I;d like you to look at this vantage point. What if I've sent you my CV and my permission, but you are either too slow in submitting it to the potential hiring person OR you prefer to push a 'stronger candidate' (thereby getting that person hired easier) OR you don't have good/strong relationship with the company - then where does this leave me? I'll be stuck with the recruiter rather than having an option to get another who can give time to properly review and assess my CV as well as the capability to put my CV forward faster.I'm not saying that you are the former but I'm just looking at it from a candidate perspective.