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Got to admire this smooth change-up. When a tech-recruiter cold-calls a potential candidate and the candidate turns out to run his own company, said recruiter not only offers his recruitment company's services, but even offers to undercut their prices to do personal recruitment on the QT:

A recruiter from a tech company gives me a call asking to hire me for a Linux job. When I tell him I'm already gainfully employed running my own company, he sends me two emails. One from the firm he works for, [redacted], and another from his personal MSN account, offering to help me with recruiting the same folks he's paid full time to recruit at [redacted]. This guy ought to get his ass fired for pulling things like that.

The recruiter sent a standard "Thanks for your time" email from his work account; his naughty undercut offer is after the jump.

I would like to assist you, as I also do some searches on the side and could assist you in tough searches. Since I have a full-time job, I can afford to work with you at a reduced rate, not 20% like the others, but 17% of the salary if they are hired.

So, for those of you with recruiter experience, how common is this practice? And would the recruiter's day job consider this a firing offense? Hold forth.