The Evil Double Submission

I’m going to jump right into this one by saying the double submission issue was created by staffing companies and hiring managers over the last decade. I would argue that many candidates/employees aren’t even aware of its existence and resulting standard practice of “first right of refusal”. Candidates are punished by the evil double submission and here’s why:

Excellent candidates are typically well known and highly sought-after.  This in turn creates a situation where the candidate may be double submitted.

In discussing this with some on my own, I get two general reactions:

First, “As a vendor, if I submit the candidate first, I should be rewarded.”

Now, I gotta ask, why should you be rewarded? This basic flaw in the current submission process is creating a whole industry of new business/vendor management with the single purpose of combating résumé spam. When did it become more important to be first than consistent? I understand that this new vendor management industry has created a self-fulfilling prophecy in that they lock out based on the total number of submissions permitted, but does this “gotta be first” mentality really work? And to take this to another level, why isn’t the hiring organization allowed to choose from multiple submissions to select the one that best fits? On some level, isn’t the selection of the candidate based on the vendor organization’s overall service? In my opinion, it’s those organizations most likely to do well with submissions that are the ones willing to leverage their existing hiring manager relationships, and risk not being first.

Second, “The candidate should not allow that to happen.”

Okay, why not? If I’m a candidate trying to get a job/contract, how am I supposed to know which vendor is preferred by each client, for each hiring manager? Without such knowledge, is it really my responsibility to pick which vendor should represent me for each submission? Now, If I’m a hiring manager, why wouldn’t I want the ability to review each submission for that candidate? I find it really interesting that every hiring manager I’ve spoken to about this has openly stated acceptance of the multiple submissions for these very reasons. So if the candidate is okay with it, and the hiring manager is okay with it, who else really matters?

To close this out, I wonder who declared this practice evil if not the candidate and hiring manager?

Now, it’s entirely possible that someone out there has an argument I’ve not considered. If so, I’d really love to hear your thoughts on the matter.

Photo by Markus Lütkemeyer