How long without reply from recruiter before I just apply on my own?

[Mercurylines]

I was working with a recruiter to apply for a role which didn’t work out. He then said oh there’s also this role which has come up, he sent me the JD. I said I was interested but ask a few questions but no answer from recruiter.

The role is advertised on the company website. I suspect the recruiter is not actually instructed by this company - the JD was copy and paste from the website and he doesn’t seem to have the answers to the questions I asked because this info is not on the website.

how long do I wait for the recruiter to reply before I just go ahead and apply myself through the website? If the recruiter wasn’t instructed by the company then I’m better off applying direct and I don’t want to miss out. Theres no date as to when applications close.

I'd be applying asap. And good luck!

Now, this minute!!

Just apply, I suspect that the recruiter may be trying to negoiate with them.

You should ensure that the recruiter does not send your CV to a company without asking you first. As if you apply separately some recruiters try to claim they introduced you first and want to claim a fee.

Thanks! Applied last night. It’s been a week since the recruiter emailed/I replied so I don’t see why not. I don’t think he had sent my CV because he didn’t confirm he had and we were still discussing the role

If the recruiter has already sent your CV to the firm for a different role within a certain timeframe, the firm will have to pay the transfer fee if they hire you even if you apply through the website. The recruiter will have Ts&Cs which mean they “own you” for however long with that firm.

If they thought they could make money out of you, they would. It may be that the company have said your experience isn’t quite right or he may not have been engaged by that firm at all.

Some firms don’t brief recruiters well and say stuff like “just get the JD off the website” (lazy not to give more info but it happens). It will be hard to know if they have a relationship or not.

ideally you should meet agencies in person even if it’s briefly. They can sell you in better.

Thanks. The first role that didn’t work out was with a different firm. If the recruiter has sent my CV for this job without confirming to me and/or approached them about my resume and discussed it with them and they have said I do not have the right experience and he has failed to report back to me - I’ll be annoyed. He’s been a bit useless with replying anyway to be honest.

The follow up questions I asked him were about salary and targets because it wasn’t in the JD or on the website - I suspect he hasn’t answered and doesn’t know because he hasn’t been instructed by them. But that’s just my guess.

I am looking for a job to relocate to London so it’s a bit hard to meet them in person but agree it would be best. We’ll see what happens with this one.

job market seems hard right now! Last year I had recruiters contacting me all the time but I wasn’t ready to relocate then. Now it seems like firms are just putting the role on their website or LinkedIn rather than using recruiters because they can get enough applicants at the moment

Might be worth booking a day off and going to London and making appointments to meet agents (depending on the sort of work you do!). Then you can also see who YOU trust and think is responsive and going to represent you well.

You should definitely be getting a reply anyway - that’s no good. It doesn’t take a second to say “this one’s not for you / likely to be filled internally / they haven’t replied to me yet and I’ll keep trying” and a keep in touch if you see anything else you like the look of. Irritating.

I work in recruitment and truthfully we don't always get separate job specs, especially if we're dealing with directors who themselves will just go on Google and copy and paste to us and don't pass on anymore information ( I wish we didn't have to work with clients like this but it happens)

I don't think you've done the right thing morally by applying directly as that recruiter may have a good relationship with the client, it can backfire as they will likely discuss between themselves why you've applied directly and not just continued your communication with the recruiter. If there's no good relationship then you might have gotten away with it.

How long should I have waited with no answer from the recruiter? does that mean I can’t apply for it at all if he doesn’t reply or put me forward simply because he told me there was an open job at that firm?

How long did you wait and how much have you chased? Sorry I can't see.
Id have given it a week at least if you've sent a follow up. If no response after you've chased then I'd email something like " I assume this position is no longer open and I will seek other options"

The recruiter usually has a quicker way though compared to applying through the external ad too so might still be quicker waiting for the recruiter.

However on the other end it is an awful market at the moment and we get ghosted massively too so you've got to look out for yourself. There are also some really poor recruiters out there who don't respond. I've worked worked them and managed them.

I wish you luck.

Ok thanks that’s helpful. I am not from the UK so using recruiters so much is foreign to me and my current role was just through LinkedIn. Yea the market seems difficult right now.

I did wait a week but I didn’t chase. With the role that he initially approached me about I had to chase him up quite a lot for updates and then had to chase for feedback so I got a bit over chasing tbh. As others said I should probably meet with recruiters and find someone to work with.