I recently saw a job posted on job board and I applied for it. I was contacted by a staffing co. who told me more about the position and what the company was looking for in a candidate.
After our conversation I went to the company's website and saw a list of open positions, but not the job I applied to. The recruiter called me the next day saying that the company wanted to set up an interview. I asked her if there was a reason why the company hadn't posted the position on their website, and she stated it was a new position.
The answer didn't make sense to me. I did some further research and decided to call the exact department within the company. It was a long shot, but the department manager answered the phone, so clearly the position wasn't new because there was someone in the role. We had a brief conversation as I stated that I was returning a call in regards to an interview and she let me know that her department wasn't hiring.
I called the recruiter back and declined the interview. She asked me why because from my resume I seemed to be a great fit. I told her because there seemed to be a lack of transparency, and it appeared that either the company was planning to let the person go who was in the role or that her company wasn't that familiar with the organization they were hiring for, but either way it wasn't for me. Has this happened to anyone else?
4 Comments
4 Comments
Cinzia Iacovelli
399
Marketing Project Manager, Digital Events
12/18/20 at 5:28AM UTC
Was it a recruitment agency? It can be they just wanted to interview you because you could be a good fit for other positions?
1 Reply
Anonymous
12/18/20 at 5:48AM UTC
I had already done the interview w the recruitment agency, and was supposed to interview w the actually hiring company.
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Anonymous
12/18/20 at 6:24AM UTC
Sometimes staffing agencies hire for roles that aren't necessarily posted on the company's career site since the companies outsource staffing agencies to fill the role (as opposed to it being an FTE role). In these cases, for many reasons it's typically best to work directly with the staffing agency and not contact the company directly or apply to the role on the company's website (if it's posted there) as this can eliminate your chance of being selected for the opportunity. Best of luck!
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Anonymous
12/18/20 at 2:45PM UTC
It's common for a company to use a staffing agency, and there are a variety of reasons that the job isn't posted on the website: 1. it's a backfill for someone on the team who is unaware (as you're guessing), 2. it's a confidential opening (similar to #1, but there are other reasons it may be confidential), 3. to keep the talent pipelines separate (i.e. if people are applying on the company site and through the staffing agency, candidates may get lost in the shuffle or have multiple points of contact, which can lead to a poor experience) - just to name a few.
If you're interested in the role still, consider asking the staffing agency why the role is open (rather than why it's not posted on the company's site). They should be able to answer if it's net-new or a backfill and give you the context that you're looking for.
User edited comment on 12/18/20 at 2:47PM UTC
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