You may have heard the rumor that recruiters post fake jobs to collect resumes, or that candidates are submitted for positions they didn’t agree to in advance. This behavior is a red flag! We actively resist these behaviors at Cinder, and if this is your experience with a recruiter, you should stop working with them. However, there are a few scenarios that could explain these experiences:

When the job you applied to disappears:

In cases where it seems like you’ve applied or been submitted for a fake job, it may just be that the position has already been filled. The availability of jobs can change quickly, and on many occasions, we’ll find a perfect candidate for a position only to discover that the hiring manager filled the role internally or it was sourced by another agency. Other times, customers are looking for many people with the same basic skill set and ask us to send them candidates throughout the year. However, this doesn’t mean that they’re always hiring, and that can result in some candidates being submitted without any feedback from the hiring company for weeks.

When you receive a call for a job you never applied for:

Recruiters should always check with you before they submit you to a position. At the same time, once you are submitted, your resume might sit for an extended period of time. If the client company sees your resume weeks later and thinks you’d be perfect for a different position, you could be contacted by your recruiter and asked if you’re interested in a position you’ve never considered. In the event that you’re still looking for a new position, this can be a best case scenario, but it can also feel like the recruiter submitted you for something you did not choose to be considered for. Remember that you can always decline if you are not interested!

There are a lot of industry terms in the recruiting and staffing world. If you want to learn more, refer to this glossary of recruiting terms that we’ve been building.

*This content was originally written as a guest post on Mac’s list, available here: https://www.macslist.org/career-happiness/top-misconceptions-about-recruiters-explained