Agency wants to put me forward for another role, but not heard back from interview

[EylesIT]

Hi,

An agency put me forward for a role with a client, and I had a telephone interview. I called the agent after the interview and said I thought it went quite well. The agent said the client would feedback in a couple of days. He then said he'd get his colleague to talk with me about another role with another client.
When speaking with his colleague, I said it seems a bit odd to be discussing this new role when I haven't heard back from the previous interview. He said at that agency they "like to put clients forward for multiple roles to cover all bases".

Seems a bit fishy to me. Does anyone else have any experience of this kind of agency behaviour, or advice?

[WTFH]

Hi,

An agency put me forward for a role with a client, and I had a telephone interview. I called the agent after the interview and said I thought it went quite well. The agent said the client would feedback in a couple of days. He then said he'd get his colleague to talk with me about another role with another client.
When speaking with his colleague, I said it seems a bit odd to be discussing this new role when I haven't heard back from the previous interview. He said at that agency they "like to put clients forward for multiple roles to cover all bases".

Seems a bit fishy to me. Does anyone else have any experience of this kind of agency behaviour, or advice?

Absolutely standard. Keep putting you forward, if they have multiple roles, and hope at least one client wants you.

It's the same as you should be doing - keep applying for roles until you actually have one. And if you, or the agent, get two offers on the table, then negotiations can begin and you choose the one you prefer.

[northernladuk]

I think there is a certain level of naivety around agents here so it's going to take a while to try educate you on the way agents work on the whole so lets just try answer this question.

Look at the exact situation in hand I don't thin it's at all odd. The agent is just hedging their bets. You have to remember they are just salesmen at the end of the day. They'd sell their grandma's only set of false teeth if they could. It suits them to get you in front of the customer as often as possible to try and improve the chance of them improving their commission.

In the wider picture the agent is doing something you must understand and apply. You have nothing until you are sitting at the clients desk. Until then you apply for everything and anything that you 100% can do and don't stop until the previous sentence is true. You will be 1 of 4 or so interviewing for that role so only a 25% chance of getting it. No point sitting there waiting until you find you don't get it to apply for the next one. This is what the agent is doing and so must you.

Oh, and forget feedback with agents. It's useless. If you were good enough you'll get the gig and the agent will being ringing you to get started quick, if you weren't no amount of feedback will change the situation. Agents make money from placing contractors, not chewing the fat with ones that didn't make it so they will put zero time in to it. If they do assume everything they are saying is a lie to get you off the phone.

What I do find a little odd is that if you are a specialist, say a PM, how come two agents are dealing with PM's for the same client? Is it a different part of the business or is it another related role that you might be able to do i.e. first gig was a PM, second is PMO or a BA?

To get up to speed with agents and their tricks have a scan of the first few pages of this thread
https://www.contractoruk.com/forums/...eferences.html

and there are a couple of gems in here
https://www.contractoruk.com/forums/...-business.html

[psychocandy]

OP - so if another agency phoned you, would you say I won't apply for that just yet because I'm waiting to hear from this other one see?

Be glad the agent is doing that for you. Some wouldn't in case you prefer the 2nd role and their colleague then steals the commission.

Please tell me you haven't been doing this so far though? i.e. applying for one role at a time, finding out week or so later you've not got it and only then move on to the next.

[jmo21]

There are many things we can get annoyed with agents for - putting you forward for multiple roles is not one of them - use a bit a of common sense eh?

[Old Greg]

Sounds like you have multiple irons in the fire. Stop worrying and do your best.

[northernladuk]

Sounds like you have multiple irons in the fire. Stop worrying and come and 'ave a go if you think your 'ard enough

FTFY

[Old Greg]

FTFY

This is a professional forum, not Rotherham or Bridgwater.

[JoJoGabor]

I think its safe to say you didnt get the first role. An agent would not use up their valuable "CV-SLots" with you for the second role if the first one was a goer

[billybiro]

What I do find a little odd is that if you are a specialist, say a PM, how come two agents are dealing with PM's for the same client? Is it a different part of the business or is it another related role that you might be able to do i.e. first gig was a PM, second is PMO or a BA?

Easy. Because just like agents and contractors, many companies too like to "hedge their bets" and have multiple agents scouring the market for them. I have worked in many places that never offered any agency exclusivity on a role (or number of roles) that they were recruiting for and often very openly told agencies that they were merely one of many agents working on the client's behalf. The agents were also clearly told that if they didn't like that arrangement, they could go take a running jump. Not surprisingly, very few agents did.