RE: ethical consulting practices?

[Bill Hartzer <BHartzer -at- cha-systems -dot- com>]

Hi,

What that person did was completely unethical.
However, when it comes to dealing with "consulting agencies"
and contracting agencies, it's "anything goes" nowadays.
It's become a very cut-throat business.

In your case, I would have said, "that's none of your business."
And left it at that.  After a while you get to know which businesses
are ethical and which are not.  

One of the biggest "traps" or "tricks" that recruiters use nowadays 
is asking "have you had any interviews at any other companies?"
Frankly, that's none of their business.  Period.
They "say" that the reason they ask this is because they don't 
want to 'present' you to any companies where you have already been
'presented'.  But, they _REALLY_ want to know where you have been
interviewing so that they can find out what companies in the area are
hiring so that they can find some other technical writer to present 
to that company (because obviously (to them) you're not going to get 
the job at the company where you interviewed).

There are a LOT of unethical recruiters and consulting agencies out there
but there are also a lot of them that _ARE_ ethical.  It's a cut-throat
business, and you never know what recruiters will do to make money.

On a similar note:
I once faxed my resume to a recruiting agency that had an ad in the local 
paper for "IT jobs" (I'm a technical writer with over 10 years' experience
working
for computer software companies).  I promptly received a phone call from a
recruiter at that
he'd have to throw out my resume.  He "only hired programmers and _never_
received
a job opening for a writer." He only hired in the computer industry.  And
according to him, 
the computer industry _never_ hired writers.  I laughed and hung up the
phone.

As far as I'm concerned, I put recruiters in the same category as lawyers.
OOPS! Uh, I mean "ambulance chasers."


agency

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Theresa Jones [SMTP:tjones95 -at- hotmail -dot- com]
> Sent:	Friday, December 03, 1999 1:04 PM
> To:	TECHWR-L
> Subject:	ethical consulting practices?
> 
> The other day, I interviewed for a position with a consulting company.  
> After talking to my recruiter, I spoke with an account manager who gave me
> a 
> miserable time in my interview- needless to say she was not impressed with
> 
> me.  She looked at my resume and noticed that I have worked for some large
> 
> companies.  She then asked about those companies, how I liked them, and if
> 
> used contractors.  I told her that I didn't think so and that if they did,
> 
> they use one of the several contracting agencies in that city, not from
> over 
> 2 hours away. She then kept after me until I gave her the name of a person
> 
> at that company that she could speak to.  After that, she offered me an 
> interview with a company that I am very interested in.
> My question is, do consulting firms regularly use prospective writer's 
> resume to pick up new clients?  Am I being naive, or is this unethical?
> 
>