Ask HN: A friend has a plan to get a job in UK, worried about legal implications

Hi, I'm asking on behalf of a good friend and fellow programmer who is looking for a job in London, UK after being made redundant recently.

She told me that virtually every offer in job boards are posted by recruiters, who liaise with the companies to help them get candidates.

She used recruiters in the past to get her previous job and told me of the ordeal that was to deal with most of them, who conducted themselves with a remarkable lack of morals, taking advantage of her naivety. She was threatened, harassed, verbally abused, lied, etc. She went once to an office were the first thing they did was to ask for her passport to make a photocopy without asking her first and much much more.

So she wants to avoid them now, the problem is that they are few offers of employment that aren't advertised through them and most of them are in boards like this that are used by start ups while she prefers working in medium or "big co" where her experience can command a higher salary.

To the point: her plan is to create a fake cv with a different name, talk to the recruiters, get the companies name out of them and apply to those companies on her own. I'm concerned about her because she doesn't know for sure whether she would be breaking the law or not doing this, and she could end in a bad position being in legal trouble, possible blacklisted and unemployed.

Can someone offer some insight here. What would you do in her situation? She would really loathe to deal with those people again.

Thanks.

Otherwise if you want to write to her directly send me a pm for her email address.

PD: I'm mainly a lurker but decided to ask for help here today for the first time, as it was the first place I could think of for this purpose. I know there are many people from UK here too.

Thanks for the advice, she is a web dev. She might have had problem because she is a foreigner, maybe just bad luck... no idea.

I'm a UK based Web developer, and about three years ago I was looking for a job in the London area. While some of the recruiters I spoke to were a little bit pushy, they were nothing like the experience your friend previously had. So I think the fake cv thing is probably unnecessary.

Dunno, I believe her. As I said it might be the fact that she was foreigner, just arrived and not assertive. (if I may add, I'm even surprised someone has a positive or even neutral opinion of recruiters! I'm pretty pretty sure that that view is not the common consensus, whether her case is extreme or not)

This may be the difference between being a contractor and being after a permanent position. For the latter, with the exception of very senior roles, you don't often hear people talk about them as anything better than a necessary evil.