In my practice as a Seattle Human Resources Manager, I have run across my own job postings posted by Recruiting Agencies that I didn’t authorize.

Yes, that’s right. Let me say it again, I have run across my own job postings (ones that I have personally created) posted by Recruiting Agencies in the guise of my Company being their client.

Why is this bad and who really suffers?

The job seeker is the one who ultimately suffers because I refuse to do business with an agency that I find doing this. You may be the best candidate for the job but working with an Agency adds another 20% (placement fee) of overhead to the total cost to my company. You better be at least 20% more valuable than the next candidate.

This is not to say that I don’t work with recruiters, there are some added value relationships I have in my hip pocket to call when warranted. Agencies that pretend to represent my company are unethical (and I have a growing list of Agencies I will not work with for this reason).

So, how this works is:

The Unethical Recruiter contacts you either through their own network or in response to your inquiry to their unauthorized, misleading job posting.

Unethical Recruiter: “Hello, I represent a Social Media Web 2.0 Start-Up in Seattle who is looking for X. Are you interested?”

Job Seeker: “Yes, but I am concerned about working with a recruiter. I don’t want to sign an all-encompassing exclusivity clause.”

Unethical Recruiter:”Oh don’t worry, you can just sign a exclusivity clause for this specific position with this specific client of ours.”

Job Seeker:”Ok, that seems to make sense especially considering I wouldn’t find this job another way.” Emails resume to Unethical Recruiter.

In the mean time, being the very diligent Human Resources Manager that I am (I regularly read job postings to see what other companies are posting, so I can ensure we are competitive for both requirements and expectations. I also have a ever growing Social Network that informs me of these things), I stumble across the Unethical Recruiter’s job posting.

Unethical Recruiter calls me:”Hello, My name is XXXX XXXX, I am from Unethical Recruiters ‘R’ Us, and I have the perfect candidate for you.”

Diligent Seattle Human Resources Manager: ”I saw your ad on Craigslist pretending to represent my company, I don’t recall ever signing an agreement with you, am I mistaken?”

Unethical Recruiter:”Umm… Ah… Well, I have this perfect candidate….”

Diligent Seattle Human Resources Manager:”Don’t bother calling me ever again. Goodbye.”

And I go on to successful source and place my own candidate without the additional overhead. My Company still wins. Unethical Recruiter doesn’t care, although they should because word spreads among the Seattle Human Resource Management field and my Social Network. Recruiters routinely include the candidate’s resume in the email, ensuring we can’t place the forwarded candidate without paying a fee. Ultimately the Candidate loses out when it could have been a great match for both parties.