What is the proper way to deal with an unethical recruiter?

Question

If you've been in the white-collar job market for very long, you have undoubtedly come across recruiters who exhibit questionable ethics.

The most common way I've seen this manifested is when the recruiter oversells you as a candidate to the point of exaggerating your credentials to the point where it is extremely uncomfortable when you get asked about a particular skill that you don't have or at least not to the extent you have been sold to the company by the recruiter.

The worse instance I've seen is a recruiter that called my office to try and headhunt me. I was out of the office so they used the company directory to get someone else, lied to them saying that I was moonlighting for them on a programming project, then asked if there were any other programmers they could be transferred to that could also help them with the "project" I was supposedly doing for them on the side. At first I had no idea what was going on, and it took a while to convince HR and my boss that I wasn't moonlighting against company policy and this was just a recruiter fishing for more programmers to entice out of the company.

Ultimately, karma bit them in the butt when I was promoted to a manager position and potential customer for a staffing company. I told the exact story above each time their sales people called me looking to place candidates and told them I would never ever work with their company and advised fellow managers against using their firm also.

Luckily I was in a situation to make them regret their unethical behavior, but I'm sure I am in the minority. Does an average job seeker have any recourse when they encounter an unethical recruiter? For example, is there a professional association for recruiters that they can be reported to? Does it do any good to contact the recruiter's company and report them directly?

Answer 1

As a hiring manager, I have contacted a recruiter's company on two occasions to report behavior that I felt to be unethical or otherwise unacceptable. The first case resulted in the termination of the recruiter and the second resulted in improved training and process.

As a candidate, I've never had an issue working with a recruiter, however, I would contact the company if I did. Further, I only work with firms that have a process in place for me to sign off on all submissions and all resume modifications.

Recruiting firms live and die by their contracts and their contacts. If either one of those can be impacted by the negative or inappropriate behavior of a recruiter, then you should absolutely give them a call and let them know.

Answer 2

I've never heard of recruiters going to this length, but there's always http://shame.heroku.com/ - it takes anonymously forwarded recruiter spam emails (or other undesirables), and puts them on the shame list.

Answer 3

As a candidate, I wouldn't worry too much about this. As you suggest, what goes around, comes around. The more stupid tricks recruiters pull, the less likely they are to be trusted and the less likely they are to get business in the future.

If you find yourself in that situation again, people will be generally understanding if you explain that there appears to have been some misunderstanding. If you are certain a recruiter has over-sold you, then you just have to explain, apologise for their behaviour and possibly cut the interview short to avoid wasting any more of anyone's time.

As a hiring manager, avoid these recruiter like the plague. They are wasting your time and the time of potential candidates. As Tangurena suggests, a company wide black-list is too good for them. If you really feel strongly about a recruiter, make sure that the recruitment firm knows about the behaviour of it's employees, as Jacob G recommends.

Answer 4

Many companies have a "preferred vendor" list. If yours does, then getting them removed from that list means that they can't "sell" your company candidates.