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I applied for a job over a month ago through a recruiter and was told by the company and the recruiter that they would be taking a month or so to assess whether they were able to bring anyone in at all and then move from there.

It's been a month and a half since my interview and my attempts at checking up on my recruiter for feedback went from them sending me other jobs whilst I waited and constantly saying they'll have feedback next week to now not even replying to my emails even when I have said I'm interested in other jobs (I wasn't constantly asking it was more of a "Hey following up on this job you sent me, while I have you have you heard back yet?"). About 2 weeks after the job was posted it dropped from the recruiment agency and no mention of it online anywhere, I assumed they didn't get the funding for the position and left it at that.

A month and a half later since my original interview I was approached by another recruitment agency for the same job that had just been posted on their website and when I casually told them I applied for this job a month ago they seemed surprised and said they always did recruitment for this company and that the job had only just been posted as live.

How should I proceed? I'm not sure whether it is okay to apply for this job again as my original recruiter is pretty much stonewalling me and from what I can tell the job has pretty much switched recruitment agencies, or whether I should just tell the new recruiter to enter my name into the hat again but that I've already interviewed so if the company actually rejected me they can pass that on immediately.

David K
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RecruitmentNightmare
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2 Answers2

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Since you were previously interacting with the recruiter and not directly with the company, and since you never got a concrete response, then I think you can proceed to apply with the new recruiter. Just be sure to be honest about the situation and share as much information as you have. Tell the recruiter who at the company you talked to and where you left off so they can ask for more details. It may be that the recruiter flaked on both you and the company, so dropping in a second application from a different could look bad. That's why I recommend sharing all of the details with your new recruiter and having them check in with the company so that they know it's your former recruiter who acted unprofessionally, not you.

It may also be that the company decided they didn't want you, in which case you don't lose or gain anything here. It may be that the company decided to drop the recruiter and their clients, so they might be happy to pick up your application where you left off. There might be some contract issues between the company and recruiters, but there's not really much you can do about that at this point. Lastly, it may be that this is a very similar position but with a different hiring manager, in which case a new application is needed.

David K
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IMHO, if you didn`t signed an exclusivity agreement with the first recruiter, you are free to apply for any position by yourself or with recruiting / staffing agency.

Point to mention, if you interviewing with same company for same position, interviewer(s) need to be made aware of that fact.

Strader
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  • If the new position is slightly different, as it could be due to the change in agency, it's possible that the older agreement isn't valid for this position and try applying anyway. Do check first and make sure. – TheM00s3 Jul 18 '18 at 09:35