Why I chose to walk away from a job

I chose to walk away from a job I'd been working this week.

Q). Why?

A.) Their values didn't align with ours.

We offer collaboration and transparency, they unfortunately couldn't mirror this.

Backstory:

There were other agencies working the role which was fine, there were three including ourselves, but the client became very defensive when I asked who they were and didn't want to dis-close this information. One was obvious, the other I was none the wiser.

Do I have a right to know this information, you could ask? I feel the answer is yes, because what if not all parties work like we do?

It was an unfortunate situation, however, it transpires that the client hadn't advised the other agencies of our involvement.

I got buy-in from a great candidate one morning, spent time with them talking them through the role, the culture etc. We arranged a video call the following morning which was the candidate's earliest availability to do so. ✔

The CV went over after our video call and I received a response, a response that every recruiter dreads- we've already received this CV from another agency. 😩

Now I'd done my due diligence, I asked my candidate right from the off, "have you spoken to this particular agency or any agency for that matter, about a role that sounds anything like this?" They answer that they haven't, I'm the first person they've spoken to since their start to search for a new role.... fabulous, and so my touch points with the candidate start. ✔

So what went wrong?

One of the other agencies recruiting the role called the candidate during the afternoon. Now Global CTS are transparent, the candidate knew exactly who the job was with and told the agency they knew about it already via us. The other agent says: "but Global CTS aren't in the mix to work this job, it can't be this job they're sending your CV over for. Shall I just check with the client on whether they have your CV?" The candidate not wanting to miss out on the opportunity replies: "oh okay yes, I have a further video call with them tomorrow, but I don't want to miss out on the opportunity."

Needless to say, the other agency see an opportunity to submit the CV before me, underhand and unprofessionally. The client is of the understanding that they're being fair in using the agent who presented the CV first. They couldn't understand that this whole problem arose because not all agents involved were clear on who else was working the role. 👎

The poor candidate in all of this isn't painted in the best light either, no wonder recruitment agencies have a bad name! ❌

I decided to walk away. If I'm working with others collaboratively then they need to have similar values, honesty and integrity. 💡

Not all clients are going to want to work with me and I'm ok with that as I'm not comfortable working with all clients either. 💡

I learnt a valuable lesson this week - that it's really important that values align with those we work with. 💡