Headhunting Laws?

Headhunting Headhunters asks: "I was wondering if anyone knew what the laws surrounding third-party, recruiters and headhunters are? As with a lot of tech workers now looking for a job, I've submitted my resume to a bunch or headhunters with the explicit understanding that they will not represent me to a company without my approval. I also have my resume on my personal website (with a watermark denoting copyright on it and forbidding distribution). I was waiting for a written offer from a company which I had applied to directly on my own. After an interview with the techs, they were sure they wanted me, but the HR department suddenly put a stop to the process a week later, claiming that I had been previously represented by a third party firm -- call them 'X Solutions, Inc.'; I had never given 'X Solutions, Inc' my resume, to my knowledge, nor had I ever talked to them by phone or e-mail. I certainly never gave them permission to represent me at this one company, and now I was out of luck: this company's policy was that they couldn't accept my resume since it had come through a third party before."

"So now I need to get a lawyer and have them write a 'Cease-and-desist', because God only knows how many other companies 'X Solutions, Inc.' spammed with my resume. What are my rights, and what are the rights that recruiters can rely on? What are the laws, or experiences, you've all dealt with? Now that the market has declined so rapidly, I imagine there are a lot of recruiters out there who'll do anything for a nibble... but this just isn't right."

Comments

Do what you can to protect yourself.

[reaper20]

I regret every signing up with a headhunter.

First off is the spam you start getting, the others are the annoying phone calls and other crap you have to do, like "we expect your resumes in this format, our clients expect this level of quality, blah blah blah..."

I've been employed for almost a year, and I'm still getting garbage all the time from them.

The "technical ones" are the worst. I swear, if some 'expert' headhunter asks me to give him examples of the Java programs I've written, I'm gonna shoot them. (There is no mention of Java on my resume, but there is Javascript - anyone else get this all the time? So to avoid confusion, I changed the reference to ECMAscript, which of course was even worse, because then I had to explain that in every interview).

The same with monster and alot of those job boards, they all turn into headhunter spam networks. No thanks. This might sound lame, but I'd rather network the old fasioned way or post on a forum on a tech site for a job than bother with these people.

Re:Do what you can to protect yourself.

[Chelloveck]

First off is the spam you start getting, the others are the annoying phone calls and other crap you have to do, like "we expect your resumes in this format, our clients expect this level of quality, blah blah blah..."

I'll post the dissenting view. The two times I've worked with a headhunter (the same guy in both cases) it was wonderful. Maybe I just got lucky and found a good guy/agency. I had intended to use my time between jobs to brush up on new technologies and so forth, but he kept my schedule too full of interviews. In both cases I got a new job in under a week.

Mind you, this was 4-6 years ago, when the job market was really good. I also had nearly a decade of embedded systems experience under my belt, so he actually had something to sell to people.

I've never gotten spam from him or any other agency. I do get a phone call now and then asking if I'm looking for a new job again, but it's nowhere near enough to be considered a nuisance. I have way more trouble with vendors I met once at a trade show hounding me over and over trying to sell me their product.

I'd never post my resume to an online service again, though. I did once, and found that not a single company calling me had actually read the damn thing. They just did a keyword scan and called everyone who matched. Blech.

As for the original poster's problem... There's the possibility that 'X Solutions, Inc.' is another name for an agency that you did work through. Agencies sometimes go by more than one name, or get bought out by another agency, etc. There's also the possibility that someone else with the same name you have applied through 'X Solutions, Inc.'. If you're lucky you might be able to talk the HR department into giving you enough info to show them that the prior resume wasn't yours.

Or, if the case is simply that they don't want to be accused of stealing X Solutions' finder's fee, tell them to go ahead and pay it. A hiring manager can often find ways to work our difficulties with HR if he really wants to hire someone.

On the other hand, the company may have changed its mind and this is simply an easy excuse to reneg on their offer...

Re:Do what you can to protect yourself.

[sql*kitten]

I regret every signing up with a headhunter.

The way people use the term "headhunter" is misleading. I have a friend who is one, and she explained to me that there are 3 species in the industry.

Type 1 are the spammers that you hate. They will get a resume by any means available, soliciting on web sites, mass emailings, downloading from personal homepages, and they will send them all to huge lists of "hr@company.com" or "recruiting@company.com" generic email imboxes. If you are lucky, they might do some keyword filtering, on very simple terms like "Java" or "Oracle". They are generally held in contempt by types 2 and 3. They work in volume; commissions they will be paid are very small, because the roles are quite junior or at cash-strapped companies, so they need to make up numbers. The people employed by these companies are very aggressive to meet their targets, and they will lie, cheat or steal to do it.

Type 2 are outsourcers who take on the recruiting function of HR to help a company cope with expansion. They will advertise in the press (think Computer Weekly or Computing in the UK) and conduct screening interviews, and handle all the administration to do with the hiring process. They aren't technical experts, but they are usually quite well briefed - they will know the difference between someone who knows VC++ and someone who knows Motif, for example. These are the people who you most want to get in contact with when you are looking for a job. They work on commission, a percentage of your starting salary, so while they want to make a sale, they are on your side.

Type 3 are the elite. They are knowledgeable about technology and about their industry. You will not be able to contact them; they will find you. They are very expensive to the companies that use them, and they are exclusively used for "rifle shot" recruiting - getting key people, poaching them if necessary. Until you reach godlike prowess as a multi-million dollar project manager, technical architect or mastery of a very obscure but vital technology, you are unlikely to encounter one - these are the only people who are truly referred to as "headhunters". They are paid on retainer whether or not the client needs anyone at the moment - they will not have your best interests at heart per se, but the risks to their client of putting forward the wrong candidate are high, so they will be disconcertingly honest with you.

Don't confuse the 3 types, and especially don't call a type 1 or a type 2 a "headhunter" in the company of a type 3, because you'll get a slap! :-)

Re:Do what you can to protect yourself.

[PD]

I'll post another dissenting view! I used Monster.com in the past and had great luck. The first time I did it I was clueless - thought I'd end up in a permanent position. I didn't though, a man from Ciber called me up and talked to me. Ciber is a fairly large body shop company. I'd never been a contract programmer before, but I joined them. They gave me a job at a high rate of pay, and since then I've stayed as a contract programmer. I've enjoyed every minute of it, finding that type of work much more suitable to my interests and personality. As a permanent employee I never did interesting things. Mostly a lot of word documents and power point presentations, with some grunt programming in the middle. Now I do nothing but programming, even Linux kernel hacking now and then. So, I had a good experience with Monster.com and contract programming.

Why would HR stop it?

[Hee Hee Hee]

I'm missing something here... Why would the HR department prevent you from getting hired just because your resume was submitted previously? What's the difference? If they're that uptight about getting resumes "properly", is that really a place that you want to work for?

Re:Why would HR stop it?

[rw2]

Why would the HR department prevent you from getting hired just because your resume was submitted previously?

Because they have a contract with the headhunter that says they'll pay him a commision (probably several thousands to as much as 10-15 thousand depending on the posters salary) if they hire someone he submited.

IANAL

[ringbarer]

I think it's something to do with exclusivity. Headhunting agencies send out Resumes with the intent that the company then hires the prospective employee THROUGH the agency. Thus giving the agency a nice bonus, as they claim a 'finding fee'

If a company approaches the prospect directly, then they don't have to pay the agency anything. If the agency has sent the resume previously, they can sue the company for leaving them out of the loop.

I'd try the informal route first before a laywer..

[herrlich_98]

My first reaction is that you should just explain to the HR department what you just explained to us. That you have no legally binding agreement with anyone else. If this company really wants you they should be reasonable about it. Get 'X Solutions, Inc.' to 'show you the agreement' you signed.

My second reaction is that there is something else going on and that this 'third party resume' stuff if just a smokescreen for something else. Maybe they did an informal background check on you and found the wrong person... or maybe they did did an informal background check and found the right person. Remember that conviction for fraud you had a few years ago. :-)

Copyright Law

[dpash]

I believe this would come under copyright law. You may be able to sue the company for breaching your copyright. You may have to prove date and ownership of copyright and you need to say on the CV that it was copyrighted to you.

If you lived in UK/europe, you could use their Data Protection laws.

Re:Copyright Law

[cybermage]

You may have to prove date and ownership of copyright and you need to say on the CV that it was copyrighted to you.

As long as it is your work, you automatically have copyright: Legally, copyright is automatically bestowed on the author and must be assigned explicitly or by prior agreement. While it is expedient to state Copyright [date] [author], it is not necessary.

As to establishing ownership... Well, the CV is all about him. However, if X Solutions limited what they reproduced to the simple facts (Work History, Skills, etc.), an argument could be made that these details are not subject to copyright. If I say 'Bob worked for IBM from 1992 to 1996,' you could also say 'Bob worked for IBM from 1992 to 1996': You are simply restating a fact.

If he really wants to get X Solutions, he should speak to the DA in the town/city where he interviewed and press fraud charges against X Solutions. His resume was presented to the company by X Solutions claiming to represent him. This was done, I assume, in accordance with an agreement to receive a commission if he was hired. So, they've committed a fraud to solicit money. This is a Criminal act, and they should be pursued in both criminal and civil courts. Try to get the criminal prosecution first: It should make for a quick civil settlement.

Another source of satisfaction can be the Attorneys General in each state where X Solutions operates. Although, probably only his state will feel they have to act.

What does "previously" mean?

[KyleCordes]

HR is worried because someone might have agreed to pay a fee if you are hired.

But I wonder how far back "previously" goes?

If it means "ever in recorded history", they could run out of experienced applicants, in an area with an active recruiter community and a small group of large employers.

Work it out?

[erasmus_]

I know that's probably not what the person asking the question wants, but how about just contacting this X Solutions headhunting agency and trying to work things out with them? I mean, if the job looks promising, and the employer simply wants to avoid getting sued by this agency, contacting the headhunter may resolve the issue.

Either just threaten the headhunting firm a little, and have them call the employer or promise not to sue (or sign something), or worse (and I'm sure you don't want this but ..) come into the company through the headhunting firm. I know that's a bad solution because they had no right to represent you in the first place, but if the company is willing to pay their fee, and still wants to hire you, things would work out. The anger over getting used would go away in a little bit, but the good job would hopefully stay.

I'm surprised he didn't mention the firm by name in the letter. Writing anonymously would protect the submitter of the question, but now all of us looking for work in the future may wonder if we're dealing with the same bad agency and don't even know it.

happened to me

[phippy]

back in 1999, 2 recruiting agencies had my resume when I moved out to the bay area. they each had different contacts/jobs, and I figured that they wouldn't send my resume anywhere without my knowing it, seeing how I asked/warned/screamed that wish to them almost everyday. but it still made no difference. I was told by a potential employer that I had been represented by 2 recruiters, and that they would no longer consider me a candidate, although I was basically overqualified (it was for a sysadmin position). I was told that the HR dept didn't want to get into a pissing contest between the recruiters, arguing who got my resume there first, who had consent to send it, etc.

I think this happens all the time, and all I could do was scream at the top of my lungs and threaten the recruiter who sent it without my knowledge.

Hmmmm

[dasunt]

First off, lets start out with the famous IANAL.

That being said, it seems that you have lost a potential job due to 'X Solutions, Inc' falsely and (I would assume) illegally representing you as their client. I say, find a nice bloodthirsty lawyer to sic on them. You might get some financial compensation, and maybe your lawsuit would prevent this from happening again.

Just my $.02

Cease and Desist, PLUS compensation.

[gnovos]

They were trying to make a buck off of you. By giving them your resume before you got to it, if you do get hired, they can claim a signifigant chunk of money as a finders fee...

Well, since your resume is copyrighted, and they are trying to make money (albiet indirectly) from a copyrighted work, get your lawyer to whip out the BIG guns... copyright infringment.

Talk to a Lawyer

[John Hasler]

You may be able to collect some damages from X Solutions.