Cowboy Recruiter Alert

Last week a recruiter called Andy (although no doubt not his real name) posted the following on our discussion board

I have been trying to break into a client for ages and have not been successful due to an agreement they have will a major high street agency. I am desperate to get in and have considered both registering with the agency and pretending to be a real candidate, getting an interview with the client then not turning up to make them look bad, and also considering calling the company saying i am mr x calling from this high street agency and then just being rude and generally pain in the backside. Obviously i would be doing this to try and damage their relationship with the client, which i think could open up and opportunity for me. I read about this type of thing in art of war by tsu su and thought it would be well useful in recruitment. might be a little bit underhand, but that's just business for you. what do you think, anyone else tried this?

Andy rather exemplifies the rouge recruiter element that gives this industry it's cowboy reputation.  I'm sure Andy isn't the only "bad apple" out there.  However, I was pleased to see that he is (according to this particular thread) the only one on our discussion board.  In all the responses to his post not one person agreed that this was an appropriate tactic.  The feedback he got included:

unethical, vindictive and generally quite reproachable...

May you reap what you sow Andy!

If you cant win the business ethically you really dont deserve it anyway!

He was also given some good advice on how he might win the business through more ethical methods.  However, I'm sure he's far too busy lying and scheming to use any talent he may have in a positive way.

Comments

[Darren Carter - Director (Any Service Bureau)]

Its just like being in the bad old days of recruitment again! Its people like this that give our industry a bad name.

Ethically practice is the only way our industry will grow. Currently in the UK Agency accounts for approx 6% of the Labour force in other European countries It can be more like 40%. The only way our industry is going to be respected and grow is if we cut these bad apples of our tree!

[Paul]

The differneces between "cowboy" recruiter and a general telemarketer are dollar signs... I see that you fellas are on the low end so brush up on your skills.