Hello people,Wanted a quick advice.I have applied for a research role at a company 4 days ago and haven't heard back from them yet.Today I got a call from a recruiter for the same position and he was quite confident of atleast lading an interview. Only found out when he emailed me the details that I have already applied for the same role directly to the company.Should I tell the recruiter to go ahead with forwarding my CV and advice him of the move I already made or should I tell him not to proceed as I have already applied.This is a junior Analyst role in a research consultancy.Can't quite weigh the pro's and con's.Many thanks

It won't be an advantage - the company will tell the recruiter when he forwards your CV that they have already received it. This means that the recruiter will not be paid if you are hired so he will stop promoting you to the client, and will be unhappy that you did not tell him before he wasted time. Better to tell the recruiter immediately that you have already applied directly - that way, he can consider you for other openings and will not get the wrong idea about your character.

don't listen to the above personthe recruiter wont consider you for other roles - they'll simply submit someone in competition to your already sent through application....may even slate you to the company saying they sifted you out as not suitable!my advice - let him submit you as well - if it comes to interview you / the company / agent can sort out the package the agent gets then...if you think / worry about recruiters thinking of your character you'll get no-where in the world of work - agents dont have a cgood name with anyone other than their bosses for bringing in the green...keep your mouth closed to the agent...

Completely agree with contractor dude.You can simply leave it to the agency and the client to haggle over the matter. You should make use of both channels to gettign the job you want.

Thanks Anon, Contractor dude and Mr Cool,What a great mix of replies. I was more worried about getting the job honestly. The recruiter mentioned that he provided the company with a candidate last year who had a similar profile as mine. So he has a much better chance of pushing me through than me going in by myself. This mere fact is tipping me towards going with the recruiter. What if I tell him that I have applied already but want him to go ahead too. Is that being too optimistic?

re-read the last sentence of my post!to make it clear - he gets paid if the person he submits gets the job - tell him you're already submitted and he'll put someone else's CV - in today's climate there's alot people out there with good CV's looking for work....he can prob get the other person to tweak their CV to beat yours as well! stop worrying bout the recruiter and ethics - there's a role - you've applied - him submitting you means 1 less person in competition with you - comprende?

Totally disagree with the contractor dude. On the few occastions as an agency we have supplied profiles of candidates who have already applied to role directly the client has always come back to us saying the candidate is coming across desperate, why apply twice etc?If you have a good profile and you've applied correctly to the role you will get an interview.

Do not tell the recruiter that you have applied directly. If you do he will then not put you forward, but probably tell you he has. Weeks will go by and he will basically be keeping you out of the loop while he submits other candidates on which he is more likely to get paid.If you don't tell him and he gets you an interview and then the firm notices (and they might not)) that you have also applied directly, then they may pay the agent anyway (if he is one of their good and regular recruitesr and they want to keep him sweet). Rare but it does happen.If they choose not to, then it is not your problem.Finally, you may actually go through a different channel by going through an agency. Your direct application might get filtered out by ajunior jobsworth in the HR function, while the recruiter may have a better direct line to the hiring managers.Finally if the recruiter does give you grief after the event (worst case), then simpy say "oh yeah, I did send them my Cv a while back, but just assumed it had been filtered out by a jobsworth, that's why I was so keen to work through someone as well connected as you."What's he goign to do? Come looking for you and knee cap you? He's a recruiter, not Joe Pesci.

why would being an actor make a difference?

Since my acting career tanked Ive been in recruitment. We got loads of great candidates.. they're all good fellas.

Arrrggghhh, aye aye me maties!!!A lot of us ex-actors are now in the recruitment business!! Arrrgh!!!<img src="http://www.petite-cirkeline.com/Hornblower_051031093919974_wideweb__300x375.jpg"> </img>

I was referring to Joe Pesci in one of his numerous "bad-ass-goodfella" personae, such as in Goddfellas, Casino, Once Upon a Time in America, etc. and his tendency in those roles to deal with those that cross him with excessive violence.I was not referign to his role in My Cousin Vinny in which he plays a bumbling, badly dressed, ineffectual lawyer who "lucks" his way to a win due largely to the work of his cleverer, more dilligent assistant - which could in no way remind anyone of your average headhunter.

Recruitment agents do not get paid if the CV did not come from them first - this is standard T&C number one for contingency recruitment.Employers do not pay for CVs they can get themselves, and waste no time in telling recruiters to get lost if they pitch too many candidates who the employer already has on the books. Similarly when a candidate is submitted by two agencies, only the first one who submitted the candidate is credited - both do not get paid. This is the main reason why recruiters will not work with you if you have signed on with too many other agencies.The recruiter will be mightily p*ssed off if they find out half-way in that they&apos;re wasting their time and will simply stop supporting your application (if they don&apos;t bad-mouth you to the client as well). They will not consider you for other roles if they don&apos;t trust you not to try and screw them again.A good recruiter will quite happily put you forward for other roles if you have been up-front and made an effort not to waste his/her time in other assignments. If anything, it marks you out positively as someone who has shown professional respect for the recruiter (remember, they are humans with egos to be stroked too).

anon and GGM are correct. Judging by Mr Cool&apos;s postings on here, he/she is either a student or unhappily unemployed - whatever the motivations for giving you bad advice, ignore it. Just Google "using multiple recruiters" and decide for yourself.

Alas I am neither a student nor unemployed. You’ve made me all dreamy at the though to of it!! What with the recent sunshine and the cancellation of extra tax on super-strength cider, I could quite enjoy being either of those two again…Advice above is based on:1) Recruiter will not find out, and if they do it will be too late2) If they find out, you can claim ignorance and they will have little recourse3) Their worst recourse would be not to work with you again, which would be (given the vast majority of agencies only ever have one job for you) no great loss4) The ban would only be at agent level (not agency) as most agents are simply too focussed on making a sale to pander to requests from their colleagues for “bans” on candidates that are perfectly suitable to a vacancy.5) If you do tell the agent that you are already going direct, they are just as likely to sabotage your application in order to get their own candidate in the door.6) If you choose not to go with the recruiter, you may yet find your direct application lost in the internal HR etherGo ahead, google “multiple recruiters” – I agree with all of the consequences in the above posts – I just don’t think they outweigh the benefits.