Bad

This afternoon I was called by the agency who had interviewed me last week.

Apparently my name was already with their client but submitted by another agency. This meant that this agency couldn't continue handling my application.

I had checked my database and there was no record of an approach to this company.

But I then checked my written notes and this helped me recall something. An agency had called me out of the blue about a PM role with this company, or one of its subsidaries. Some of the details do seem different. What's more the agency never got back to me about this so I didn't record this as an approach. I think I was waiting for feedback from the agency's account manager before they would go to the next step, or a confirmation email or something.

(Nowadays a few agencies send you an email outlining the job, the client and require you to send an agreement by reply - an "I agree" in the subject line suffices. This way everyone knows that they're handling your application to their client.)

I was so appalled that I mentioned this agency by name to the agent who called me today by enquiring: "It wasn't H...?". She replied that it was and that the client seemed to be having general problems with this agency. A few years ago I read a Usenet forum about contractors also having problems with this agency. Well, contractors moan in the same way that other people breathe so I disregarded it at the time.

Anyway, it means that my interview last week was a waste of time.