OMG! My Resume Was Submitted for the Same Job By Two Different Recruiters!

By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter

A friend of mine sent an email recently and said he wanted to speak with me. He has been looking for a job for a few weeks. I called him and asked what was wrong.

“My resume was submitted by two different recruiters for the same job!”

“And what do you think the problem is with that?”

“They will think that, uh, they don’t know what I am doing. They don’t like receiving multiple resume.” The he said my favorite.

“It makes me look bad!”

I have asked this question for many years as a recruiter because, frankly, I’m curious to know if there is a new reason someone will give me to explain the problem. Let me give you some historical context.

I started as a recruiter in March of 1972. At that time when you wanted to present the credentials of a candidate to a client, there were only three ways to do it:

You mailed the resume

If the client was local, you had a messenger pick it up and deliver it or

You pleaded for permission to have what was called in the business “a phone send out.” That is the ability to reserve the rights to a candidate pending the receipt of…