Submitting a job application twice

kildara

I recently applied for a position through an agency. They told me who it was but the position was not advertised on their website. I submitted my application through the agency.
Shortly afterwards, I found that the company had then put the position up on their website.

I really want this position and realise companies prefer to get applications themselves as they don’t have to then pay the fee to the agency.

So, my question is: How would it look if I now sent an application directly to the company for this position - bearing in mind they possibly already have my application.
My cover letter (I feel) is top notch so I really want whoever does the hiring and firing to see it, and I don’t know if agencies will also submit a cover letter with a CV.

I realise reading over this that maybe I should just leave it with the submittal by the agency, but as I say, its a position I really want so...

jimoc

If you haven't heard anything from the agency about the status of your application, then write a direct letter to the company, state that you have also applied through the agency but haven't been updated on your application so you had assumed that the agency did not submit you.

Alternatively, ring the agency and find out whether they have submitted it or not. If they haven't or give you the run around, tell them to cancel your application and do it directly yourself.

Or just apply directly and if they mention they agency tell them that you weren't told who the company was. This of course will backfire if they told you in writing but not if it was only the phone, most agencies I've dealt with forget you as soon as they hang up the phone. (Yes I've dealt with the wrong agencies and yes I know there's good ones out there so don't fixate on this comment only )

kildara

Thanks for that.
I emailed the agency this morning and they say my application has been submitted.
Thing that also annoys me is, I emailed them last week to ask if they had any idea of a timeframe or when interviews would be taking place. They never got back to me. I got a few calls from other agencies asking if I would be interested in applying for this position so I emailed, again, saying I was approached by others and it was only then that I got a reply from them.
I know all about bad agencies!

I can't say I wasn't told who the company was because I gave the agency a cover letter that included the company's name and details within it.

Does anybody know if an agency will also submit a cover letter or do they deal only with CVs when submitting to the company?

mikemac

I applied for my current job directly, got rejected and a PFO letter through my door
Two weeks later I applied through an agency, exact same CV
And got the job, hurray

But I told noone, not even the fool in HR that cost the company thousands in agency fees when they could have hired me directly

So no harm in applying directly OP and if they mention the agency, say you weren't told the company name

axer

I know with my job that I had applied first through an agency and then applied directly as I really wanted the job and was not sure if they had received my application. My boss (now) told me that they had to deal with the agency as the agreement is that if the CV comes from the agency first then the company must pay the agency.

spellstar

mikemac wrote: »

So no harm in applying directly OP and if they mention the agency, say you weren't told the company name

Totally agree with mikemac... Most places these days are receiving hundreds of applications so they wouldnt even notice if you applied twice.

I've applied twice for 2 positions recently.. once with an older (and worse) cv and again with a better version. Neither of the places seemed to notice that they rejected me a few weeks back!

And besides if for some reason your place does, you can always make out that u didnt know who the agency was putting u forward to!

Good luck!

kildara

Thanks for the replies so far.

As I said above, I can't say that I don't know who the company are because I also gave a cover letter to the agency for this role which included me saying something to the effect of "ABC Ltd are great blah blah blah"
I've mentioned the company name three times in the cover letter!

I think I will leave it another few days and then contact the company direct to ask if they have received my CV and cover letter from a third party. If they say haven't I will submit directly to them.

Curl52

Having worked in HR for 5 years I can tell you that an agency has never sent in a candidates cover letter with their CV. Also you should be aware that agencies can change your CV before sending it in, they like to submit all their candidates in the same format. I definitely think it is work your while sending in your CV directly as no one wants to pay recruitment fees these days and most companies will go out of their way not to, so the company would rather hire a person directly, just make sure the agency doesn't find out!

axer

Curl52 wrote: »

Having worked in HR for 5 years I can tell you that an agency has never sent in a candidates cover letter with their CV. Also you should be aware that agencies can change your CV before sending it in, they like to submit all their candidates in the same format. I definitely think it is work your while sending in your CV directly as no one wants to pay recruitment fees these days and most companies will go out of their way not to, so the company would rather hire a person directly, just make sure the agency doesn't find out!

Thats true. In the job I am now in I had a really nice CV done up for it. After getting the job I saw the mess the recruitment agent made of it.

They stripped all contact details (naturally) to be replaced with a large header with their own companies details and just copied and pasted the rest into a new document while not preserving the formatting.

It looked horrible after the amount of work I spent making it look as good and as efficient as possible (i.e. drawing attention to specific areas using formatting).

My cover letter that I had spent ages getting just right was not passed on either. I was kinda lucky to get the job since I wouldn't have hired myself with the state of how my CV looked in the end.

jimoc

axer wrote: »

Thats true. In the job I am now in I had a really nice CV done up for it. After getting the job I saw the mess the recruitment agent made of it.

They stripped all contact details (naturally) to be replaced with a large header with their own companies details and just copied and pasted the rest into a new document while not preserving the formatting.

It looked horrible after the amount of work I spent making it look as good and as efficient as possible (i.e. drawing attention to specific areas using formatting).

My cover letter that I had spent ages getting just right was not passed on either. I was kinda lucky to get the job since I wouldn't have hired myself with the state of how my CV looked in the end.

This is the exact reason why I always take my own copy of my CV to any interviews I get.
I worked for a company that made recruitment software (badly ) and the method of getting details into the software was for the agent to highlight the relevant sections on your CV and click a button to copy them in.
Of course the agents invariably screwed up and copied the most woeful looking formatting etc in and completely destroyed most peoples CVs.
So advice is, submitting to an agency, use plaintext on your CV
submitting directly, make it look as good as you can.