Big-Time Recruiter Mistake

jeremywatts2005

Got a job from a recruiter earlier today. As I read through the description I see there is more information below. So I keep reading and its communication with another candidate about the same position she sent me. In the email, she tells him she is only going to send him over. To make matters worse she includes the guy's personal information including phone. I am was shocked as she was playing him and then probably me and was going to send likely both of us up for the same job. While telling us we were the only one going for the position. So I hit the guy up on Linkedin and send him the information. Then I email the recruiter I am passing on the position and oh btw please be careful about sending a candidate another candidates information. This is a first for me I was totally shocked.

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Comments

LaSeeno

Wow, I'm shocked you took it that far. Talk about a burned bridge.

Uriah7

Good luck to you and sorry that this happened.

p@r0tuXus

There may have been other ways to handle that. You could have simply told the recruiter in a nice way what they had done and let them appreciate you brought it to their attention and saved them some embarrassment. Maybe you would have gotten the job. Maybe you wouldn't have wanted the job if you felt guilty about how you got it. But then, you could have gone completely the opposite direction and called the guy pretending to be from the firm and told him that the job was filled and thanked him for his interest, thus cutting him out of the running. To be fair, I'm not saying you should have done anything, but considering what you could have done and what you did... what you did was sort of a middle-path. I respect that. Wash your hands of someone so careless with information that they could expose yours to a would-be ill-intended person.

bigdogz

LaSeeno wrote: »

Wow, I'm shocked you took it that far. Talk about a burned bridge.

I think there was gasoline poured on it first !!! There are no ashes.

networker050184

Have to agree with p@r0tuXus. You could've handled it a bit better. Everyone's made, or will make, an email mistake in their career.

bigdogz

Seriously,

Can recruiters be scum of the earth? Yes. This may be your first problem, but not your last. You may want to handle this differently the next time something like this pops up. Just remember that the IT recruiters talk to each other it may be a great job but getting the job may be more difficult and your resume could be placed as a secondary interviewer or trashed.

Good luck and keep looking !!!

PCTechLinc

When my wife had an interview at WalMart, she was given a hiring packet afterwards and sent home. When she sat down and read through it, she realized that it was a different applicant's information, full with name, address, SSN, and other personal details. She called the interviewer to let her know, and we ended up shredding it for them at home. Unfortunately there are a TON of dishonest people out there. While I can understand mistakes are made, people that work with this type of confidential data should be EXTRA careful. As a habit, I usually re-read my emails and correspondence about 3 times before I actually send it.

For the OP, I would LOVE to send exactly what you did, but I usually end up erasing what I WANT to write, then rewriting something that is much nicer.

advanex1

Hate to say it, but I don't think the ONUS is necessarily on the OP. I think if he had no intentions of working with the recruiter again (which I wouldn't in the future) then it was fine. The recruiter was deceiving both applicants. Regardless of your job/occupation, you don't have to be dishonest to be good at it. It's pretty scummy. That's not just an email mistake.

EANx

There were definitely better ways of handling this and a lot really depends on how much you want future jobs with recruiters.

1) Absolutely let the other person know their info was spilled. That's known as "being a decent human being".
2) Let the recruiter know "hey, you accidentally included this message that this other person was the only candidate. I guess that means you don't think I was a good candidate?

Pro-tip: If you think you ever want to use someone's services, other the services of the firm they work for, give them a way to save face. Everyone knows what happened but giving them a public way of saying "this was an accident" can pay off later.

volfkhat

Huh???

First of All:
it was the recruiter who LIED about "you are the only candidate".

Second of All:
Why even LIE about this in the first place? it's not even worth lying about.
geez.

OP let the other candidate know that recruiter is Sloppy with PII. If i were that other candidate; i would appreciate the Heads up.

As for burning bridges....

Then I email the recruiter I am passing on the position and oh btw please be careful about sending a candidate another candidates information.

How exactly did he Burn a Bridge?

jeremywatts2005

volfkhat wrote: »

Huh???

First of All:
it was the recruiter who LIED about "you are the only candidate".

Second of All:
Why even LIE about this in the first place? it's not even worth lying about.
geez.

OP let the other candidate know that recruiter is Sloppy with PII. If i were that other candidate; i would appreciate the Heads up.

As for burning bridges....

How exactly did he Burn a Bridge?

Thank You Volfkhat there is nothing wrong with what I did. I pointed out her mistake no biggie. I let the guy know what happened and he actually connected with me on Linkedin and thanked me. The recruiter sent me a response later today saying she was having a bad Monday and she appreciated me calling it out. She had apparently been sending this same message to others. Now let me turn it the other way. Do you think a recruiter is going to burn a bridge with someone who is in Incident Response and Digital Forensics? Probably not there are not enough workers to go around. So if you find one who is honest and is breathing you try to keep in contact.

The other thing is I have probably 20 to 30 calls and emails a day from recruiters. Some big firms and some small and a lot from India .... err New Jersey yeah that is what they are going with. So it would take more than this to burn a bridge. Sometimes people have too small of circles they run in I guess you need to branch out. I have been recruited for positions all over the world and just about every state in the union. I am sure more IR, Digital Forensics or Infosec guys can say the same thing.

aderon

p@r0tuXus wrote: »

But then, you could have gone completely the opposite direction and called the guy pretending to be from the firm and told him that the job was filled and thanked him for his interest, thus cutting him out of the running.

lol jesus... remind me not to piss you off

cyberguypr

There are two things I hate in life: EC Council and recruiters, in no particular order. OP has A+ in my book.

joemc3

T oo many people with no meatballs. We all know recruiters are scumbags. I love what you did.

IaHawk

jeremywatts2005 wrote: »

The other thing is I have probably 20 to 30 calls and emails a day from recruiters. Some big firms and some small and a lot from India .... err New Jersey yeah that is what they are going with. So it would take more than this to burn a bridge. Sometimes people have too small of circles they run in I guess you need to branch out. I have been recruited for positions all over the world and just about every state in the union. I am sure more IR, Digital Forensics or Infosec guys can say the same thing.

20-30 emails/calls a day?

paul78

Geesh - what's with all this hate at recruiters?

There is often a stereotype that IT geeks do not understand business and business motivators. When I read this type of bashing on another profession - I understand why

beads

IaHawk;

Yeah, easy. I even calls from prairie states like Des Moines, Iowa myself. I was shock to learn they had in door plumbing these days let alone more advanced technology.

But to answer your question about the number of calls? Yeah. Words like Christmas, New Years, Easter, Memorial Days have all been victimized by the dread recruiter call. Friday afternoons are by far my worst day with a record 41 calls in one day. Still they complain that your VM is full too!

Strange things.

- b/eads

bigdogz

paul78 wrote: »

Geesh - what's with all this hate at recruiters?

There is often a stereotype that IT geeks do not understand business and business motivators. When I read this type of bashing on another profession - I understand why

....the mistake about the email is HUGE. I know people are human.
The bigger problem I have with the recruiter is the BS line. I know TONS of other recruiters that could find me a job if I was serious.

bigdogz

cyberguypr wrote: »

There are two things I hate in life: EC Council and recruiters, in no particular order. OP has A+ in my book.

...gotta agree with the EC Council.

IaHawk

beads wrote: »

IaHawk;

Yeah, easy. I even calls from prairie states like Des Moines, Iowa myself. I was shock to learn they had in door plumbing these days let alone more advanced technology.

But to answer your question about the number of calls? Yeah. Words like Christmas, New Years, Easter, Memorial Days have all been victimized by the dread recruiter call. Friday afternoons are by far my worst day with a record 41 calls in one day. Still they complain that your VM is full too!

Strange things.

- b/eads

Wow, thats insane. I've had 3 in one day, but I've been at the same company for 9 years and have yet to use a recruiter to land a job.

dhay13

I used to get up to about 10 a day but the last 3 or 4 months its maybe 1 or 2 a day

jeremywatts2005

If someone needs a lead on job let me know what job. I get jobs calls for all over. Just hit me up glad to give you the recruiter who called me. Always willing to help others looking. My neighbor is trying to get his first tech job so I have been helping him out find work. No luck yet he has zero experience trying to get him on at a helpdesk somewhere. He has a BS though in Infosec.The only helpdesk ones I have gotten called on though are in California for $15 an hour. I doubt anyone would relocate for that. Here is a, for instance, this is either Dell or Bank of America. This position has what seems like a hundred recruiters trying to find someone. The problem is the duration. Who wants a 6 month IR position?

Job Title: Security Incident Response Analyst
Location: Plano TX 75075
Duration: 6 months

Required:
· A Bachelor’s degree (B.A/B.S.) or equivalent in computer science, business administration, or equivalent discipline from an accredited college or university.
· 3+ years of experience in an incident response team (CIRT) or in a computer investigative role
· Knowledge of incident response processes (detection, triage, incident analysis, remediation and reporting).
· Demonstrated skills in digital investigations including: computer forensics, network forensics, eDiscovery, malware analysis and memory analysis.
· Solid understanding of hacker techniques (TTPs) and exploits, including current security threat landscape.
· Firm understanding of both Windows and Linux operating systems.
· Expert knowledge and experience of most commonly used forensic toolkits such as FTK, Sift, Sleuth Kit, etc.

Preferences:
· A minimum of one of the following certifications: Incident Handler certification, CEH, GCIH, ECIH, CERT-CSIH

Role Responsibilities:
· Conduct highly technical examinations, analysis and reporting of computer based evidence related to security incidents (intrusion artifacts/IOCs) or investigations.
· Effective and secure handling of digital evidence and matter confidentiality.
· Perform incident triage and handling by determining scope, urgency and potential impact thereafter identifying the specific vulnerability and recommending actions for expeditious remediation.
· Ability to analyze data, such as logs or packets captures, from various sources within the enterprise and draw conclusions regarding past and future security incidents.
· Document incidents from initial detection through final resolution.
· Coordinate with and act as subject matter expert to resolve incidents by working with other information security specialists to correlate threat assessment data.
· Maintain and expand related information security metrics

bigdogz

... not me.

JoJoCal19

That seems to be a big issue with security jobs. I too get hit up constantly for jobs, however even if I were looking, I dismiss most of them because its some stupid 6 month contract garbage.

LaSeeno

I probably wouldn't have contacted the guy. I may have let the recruiter know their error and possibly voiced my displeasure with their tactic. I just don't see any real gain for you by being vindictive. And his personal information was a name and phone number. Things that are most likely already available freely on the Internet.

I have a few rules I follow right now when dealing with recruiters:

1. Ignore if its not for a local position.
2. Ignore if they are not fluent in English.
3. Ignore if it's not 40% or more than my current salary if it's a contract to hire position.
4. Ignore if it's contract temporary.

atippett

Geez, I hope nobody on this thread are in any form of cybersecurity. The recruiter released PII, that's not something to take lightly. OP said "personal information", that doesn't stop at name and phone number. Could have been home address, SSN, you never know. I can hear it now, coming from anyone that disagrees with what he done, "It's okay man, I know you just emailed our trade secrets to our competitor, but it's okay because it could have been worse."

TechGromit

jeremywatts2005 wrote: »

So I keep reading and its communication with another candidate about the same position she sent me.

When I was working at the FAA as a contractor, someone in HR send a programmers offer letter... to EVERYONE in the company.

TechGromit

JoJoCal19 wrote: »

That seems to be a big issue with security jobs. I too get hit up constantly for jobs, however even if I were looking, I dismiss most of them because its some stupid 6 month contract garbage.

Bah, at least your getting security jobs, I still get $15 a hour deskside support jobs once a week from recruiters from my resume before I got into security.

AvgITGeek

I don't get the hate for recruiters. My first job after getting out of the Army with zero experience in IT other than the internship my OIC got me with the MIS dept in the hospital was though a recruiting agency. I posted my resume and they picked me up. It led to my following position and after 15 years was laid off right before christmas due to the company going under (Hindsight is 20/20 and I should have jumped ship a long time ago) I applied to a position through a recruiting agency and I've been in my new job for over a month and a half now.

Danielm7

AvgITGeek wrote: »

I don't get the hate for recruiters. My first job after getting out of the Army with zero experience in IT other than the internship my OIC got me with the MIS dept in the hospital was though a recruiting agency. I posted my resume and they picked me up. It led to my following position and after 15 years was laid off right before christmas due to the company going under (Hindsight is 20/20 and I should have jumped ship a long time ago) I applied to a position through a recruiting agency and I've been in my new job for over a month and a half now.

There are lots of good recruiters, but from what I've seen even more bad ones. I work with a few really good ones that I (mostly) trust but get hit up by a lot that are only slightly targeted spammers.