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About six months ago my contracting company recommended a position to me at company A. I agreed to interview through the contracting company. I interviewed well and was given a verbal offer. After company A and contracting company went into salary negotiations, company A retracted its offer. I have a contact in company A, and he said that the contracting company did something to throw them off. The contracting company didn't have any more details for me. My contact recommends I try to apply again on my own.

What are the rules/regulations for this, typically? I know it probably varies from contracting company to contracting company, and it seems shady to go behind my contracting company's back, but what would actually happen if I were to apply again on my own?

P.S. This whole process has raised some red flags for company A but I hear it is a very good place to work so I am willing to give them a chance.

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he said that the contracting company did something to throw them off

This might mean anything from "manager X doesn't want anyone" to "the contracting company managed to get themselves thrown off site for cause".

What does this mean for you?

If you have signed legal paperwork saying you agree that the contracting company will be the only company to represent you there then you're stuck with them. This is unlikely, but if you're in this situation then talk to a lawyer.

If you haven't signed anything then sure, go for it. The legal situation between the contracting company and company X might stop you, but you don't know anything about it so pretend there are no problems and see how far you get.

This is a situation where it's better to ask forgiveness rather than permission. As far as you know they dropped the ball and whatever is going on doesn't involve you, so try to not let it involve you.

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  • Most contracting companies only work under legal protection that indicates if a candidate is hired, the contracting company that presents them gets paid. If they worked any other way, there are plenty of companies that will "find an issue" with the candidate as the company presents them, and then privately contact the individual afterwards for a direct contract. It's unfortunate, but this means a decision maker that's upset with the company may not wish to reward them by hiring the candidate directly as the contracting company will get paid.
    – Edwin Buck
    Commented Dec 26, 2018 at 14:10
  • @EdwinBuck There's "upset" and there's "for cause" and it's unclear here how nasty the situation is here. My former contracting company managed to get themselves thrown off the site for cause and eventually their corporate officers ended up in prison.
    – Dark Matter
    Commented Dec 26, 2018 at 14:19
  • In which case, the contract still holds. Believe it or not, if you enter a contract with someone that happens to murder someone else, it doesn't release you from the contract you willingly entered with the now-murderer. I'm not a lawyer, but I have enough of them as relatives to know that the company would have to sue to break the contract, and it's often not worth the time or effort, especially if the contract is going to expire anyway. A company simply opts to not renew, but that's not going to help the OP.
    – Edwin Buck
    Commented Dec 26, 2018 at 14:26
  • The issue back in the day was the company abusing it's workers by not paying them. If we're going to use your murder example, I'm not a lawyer but it's easy to picture the law thinking contracts between a murderer and their victim aren't enforceable.
    – Dark Matter
    Commented Dec 26, 2018 at 15:06
  • @Edwin Buck I understand the contracting company is under protection, but surely that protection doesn't last forever? If a contracting company introduces an employee to a client, then ten years later the company hires that person independently, the contracting company will surely not be in the picture any more? I'm wondering how I can find out what this time limit is
    – user86114
    Commented Dec 26, 2018 at 19:49
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You must first become a person that the contracting company clearly no longer represents. That probably means demanding that they don't represent you any further, and waiting a period of time to indicate that you're not simply exploiting the work they recently did. I'd imagine that six months to a year would be sufficient.

Then you apply again, without using that contracting company.

Note that this likely won't land the job, because hiring managers use contracting companies for a reason. Odds are if they don't like the one they have, they will discontinue using them as soon as their relationship can be dissolved (the contract between the two companies expires), and then they'll hire a different contracting company to "exclusively" source their contractors.

Either way, you probably shouldn't expect employment with the target company for six or more months. They can't hire you as a contractor (and possibly as a full time employee) without paying the contracting company (or risking the a legal battle).

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  • Not downvoting, but represented or not is almost certainly irrelevant—either the company has agreed to pay for any hires they introduce within a period of time and it is within that time or they haven’t or it isn’t. Either way it’s not the OPs problem. Apply immediately and see what happens.
    – jmoreno
    Commented Dec 26, 2018 at 15:14

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