Marriage without Dating. Recruiting Agencies and Letters of Exclusivity.
On in Career Assistance, Hiring Strategies, Landing a Job, Working with Recruiters.
You’re out for a night on the town, you are looking great, and are excited about all the possibilities that the evening might bring. You visit a local hot spot and see an attractive person to connect with. You get the nerve to go and talk and the conversation starts off well. You’re in a good groove and then, out of nowhere, you’re new connection pulls out a contract and asks for you to sign on the dotted line stating that you will only converse with this person for the remainder of the night.
Say what?
Silly, crazy, but most importantly, non-binding. This was actually a common practice by a few technical recruiting agencies a few years ago and it seems to be making a comeback. The infamous Letter of Exclusivity.
Technical Connections has and will never put anything so ridiculous in front of the people we are trying to assist. Maybe some agencies make candidates feel like a sports superstar, and by signing this they are getting an exclusive agent. The problem with this scenario is that your new-found “agent” can only present you to about 3 out of the 22 teams in the league.
There are thousands of technical jobs in Los Angeles at any given time and, as much as we would like, we cannot represent all of these. Sometimes the stars align and we have a perfect role at the perfect company, but more times than not, you are going to have to kiss a few frogs. Just don’t feel that you are obligated to kiss the same frog a hundred times due to a contract you signed.
Remember the Letter of Exclusivity is non-binding, but more importantly, do you really want to work with a company that is trying to use smoke and mirrors to make sure that they are the only ones to make a profit off your talent? People aren’t commodities, and strong, honest relationships don’t require signatures.
– Scott MacKinnon
VP of Operations at Technical Connections
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