Thread by @lzsthw

I've been bit a few times by what's described in this article:

engineering.tapad.com/munchausen-syn…

If you give your resume to a recruiter they will spam it to every company possible in an attempt to be the "first" to get you so they get commission. When 2 do it there's a conflict.

The gist is recruiters get paid a finder's fee. Companies then use multiple recruiters and sometimes you'll get 2 recruiting companies submitting your resume without you knowing. The hiring company then disqualifies you rather than deal with the legal hassle of who to pay.

Now, you might be thinking, how is it that two or more recruiting companies are getting your resume? Does that mean you're a dirty cheater who's double dealing?

No. People have a right to find work through multiple avenues, but also *many* recruiting companies scrape resumes.

Since there's big money in being "first" to "submit" a prospective hire the recruiting companies will scrape every resume they can find on the internet and submit them to all of their clients on the off chance they make the commission.

I have no idea how to prevent that (and if you say blockchain I'm gonna smack you) but if you do decide to use a recruiting firm it might help to list them as the only representative at the top of your resume and the date. Also add copyright information on your resume too.

The copyright allows you to contact the hiring company and say that you own the copyright on the resume and the violating recruiter is in violation of that when they submitted it. That removes them from consideration. Then listing the other company as authorized adds more weight.

But, chances are you're just screwed so it's best to avoid recruiters at all costs and consider your resume sacred. It's full of identifying information anyway, and spamming it all over the place can hurt more than help.