company finds contractor but uses recruiter to negotiate

[CalmEddie]

I've done this before.

The Client Co wanted me, and asked me to chose one of 5 preferred. The pimp I chose took their rate as commission on invoices, at percentage agreed in their relationship with Client Co.

From my side, I insisted that all contracts contained wording which stated that I initiated the relationship and engaged the agent for invoicing.

My purpose here was to be able to work with the Client Co in the future without being bound to that agent due to their (albeit unenforceable) non-contact clauses.

[nomadd]

A recruiter claims they have been asked by a client specifically to recruit me.

It's called "stroking your ego." Also called BS. Take your pick.

Like you said, plenty of other agencies are working on it, so you aren't that special. Sorry.

...but you also aren't stupid. As you've already pointed out, it's just to stop you putting your cv forward with someone else. End of story. Move on. Either submit your cv - via whoever is offering the best rate - or forget about the whole thing.

Still, best of luck if you do go for it.

[darrenb]

Thanks for your advice. There's a lot of smoke and mirrors here. The skills of the position are spot on, so I believed the first agent who said he was contacting me at the explicit request of the client (and I'd been in that kind of situation before). He also went on to claim that the client had rejected my rate as too high. In that kind of situation it seemed unwise to be talking to other agencies.

However, looking at it again, I'm not even sure if the client is back from holiday yet! It seems like a big project where a number of agencies are just collecting CVs to present in a week or two. But it's difficult to be sure.