Been approached by two agencies for the same role...

[Keldin]

I have had the experience of providing proof to our HR dept that an email an agent sent had been faked.
The agent had attempted to show he had submitted someone's CV first by faking an email thread as if he had sent the CV a week earlier and had no reply and then resent that email as a forward. The fact that the font was incorrect for a start was a dead giveaway. He was quite aggressive as well in shout that he was first and we must only deal with him.. The commission was going to be close to £100k so he obviously thought it worth a try. He got what was coming and his agency got blacklisted. Not that he cared too much.
If the company doesn't care there's little the agency can do as they can't see when the other agency submitted you.
I've sent my CV direct to a company that was advertising and I had already been put through by an agency a week earlier. The copany called me and asked which I prefer so I said direct. They said no problem.

K

[Vivamex]

Bad luck! It happens.

This is the "straight bat" answer:

It's the client that is usually bound by T's and C's to accept the first time your name appears as definitive, not you. Go to the first interview. Tell them you have been submitted firstand ask them for advice on which agency has priority as havingfirstput your name forwards.

This is the "wise" answer:

Do what the guys say above and withdraw from one agency fast. If you play the straight bat it will be honourable but may well lose you the job. If the client gets nervous about their own legal position, as they might, they will simply choose another contractor.

[PrinceNamor]

I would also credit check both agencies and make a decision based on which is more likely to be able to pay and not go bust!

[Moptop]

If you go with agency 2, you need to e-mail agency 1 to withdraw your permission for them to represent you for that contract.

[BlasterBates]

It might sound obvious but cancel one of the interviews, you don't need to give any reasons. If the interviewer finds he's phoning you a second time he may just drop you, simply because it's complicated for him, unless of course you have some very special skill and he really really needs you. On the whole its bad.

[vhadiant]

When an agent approached me about the same role 2 weeks later after not hearing about the first one, I always asked them to check with the hiring manager whether he/she has seen my CV. This way I'll probably know if the hiring manager has seen my CV or the first agent binned my CV.

It has happened before that the second agent actually submitted my CV and got me the job. Who knows whatever happened to the first agent!

[Keldin]

Ive just had something similar happen.
The problem is the agencies are so bloody cagey about who the role is for sometimes out of fear that some other agency might find out they're hiring that its inevitable you'll get put forward twice eventually.
If the first agent won't tell me who it's for and I end up getting put through twice I've no problem dropping whichever one I think is going to get me less or otherwise give me problems.

K

[DS23]

this always happens for me. don't think i've ever landed a gig that didn't involve arsing about between client and agents and me for some reason or other. right pain in the doodah it is. still at least nobody is talking about shotguns in this thread.

often it is the result of the same job emerging from client and the clients integrators. both using different agencies and both agents being secretive about the location and client etc. sometimes it is time gap: agent banana puts you forward in feb and agent orange puts you forward in april blah blah.

make a choice (i always try to go first come first served) and announce it soon before everyone gets peeved and drops your cv in the bin. tricky esp when the first agent is new / untried / unpleasant.

[Ruprect]

Some clients drop you straight away coz they don't want to p*ss off the agencies. Not that it will help this time, but I always get a reference number for the role from the agent, then if client A contract 1 comes along through agency X, then agency Y comes along and offers contract 1 then I say I'm with agency X on that. If agency Y then talk about contract 2 then they can represent me if I want and my conscience is clear.

In your case I'd say go with the first one, they are the ones that put you in first. The second agency will be p*ssed, but what can you do? Someone's going to be p*ssed, no matter what you do from here.

[MrRobin]

No rule of thumb - some agencies ask you to state in an email you are to be represented solely by them to client. I would choose quickly and ask the agency you do choose to call the client and apologise to the client for the confusion.. perhaps say that the other agent hadn't revealed who thye client was until they had arranged the interview.

Edit: Although to be fair, the client hadn't realised that they were saying yes to interviews to the same person even though they were thru different agents... perhaps one agency changes the format of your CV before it goes across. Grr.. hate it when they do that.

[Viktor]

I've applied for a role through agency 1, without any interview being planned. I've heard nothing back for 2 weeks, then I was contacted by agency 2 for the same role. Thinking that agency 1 may have binned my CV I've applied for the role with agency 2 as well.
Hilarious situation today: both pimps phoned me (5 mins apart) and now I've got a phone interview via agency 1 and a second via agency 2 (same day). Pimp from agency 1 phoned me a second time asking about other agencies involved. At this stage I don't know what to do, the client obviously knows about this and I don't want to loose both interviews because of a stupid situation.
I may say to agency 2 that I've got another contract in the meantime and go only via agency 1 (pay roughly the same via both agencies, agency 2 5% more). The first pimp wants a confirmation via email that I want to be represented by them.
So what should I do? Is there a rule-of-thumb that prevents contractors from being represented via two different agencies?

Thanks in advance,

Viktor