I have been attempting to change jobs. I have applied to numerous jobs online, posted publicly at monster. I am extremely well qualified and did not understand why I have not heard back from any of my applications. Most of the positions are posted through placement agencies. My current industry is education, and I specifically teach high level IT skills. I am applying for positions in the IT field (where my degrees and background are very well documented and credentialed). It appears that several of these (so far) placement agencies have contracts with our CMIS department at the corporate office. I do not work in corporate or for the CMIS departments, I am in academics. They have agreed to not recruit employees of my college.

When I initially posted my resume publicly, which hides my name and the name of my current employer, one of the recruiters called me within hours, anxious to meet with me. After he learned of who my current employer was, he asked if I knew [name of VP of CMIS] and I indicated that I did know her. I never heard from him again. No follow up to my full resume when sent, no contact for jobs that this company is attempting to fill. Today I learned, from a coworker who does work for our IT department, that he was at a job fair recently and was told by 3 seperate agencies that they were not allowed to even talk to him. That they are not allowed to recruit employees of my current employer.

My question is this: I have never signed a non compete. I am applying to publicly posted jobs (dozens now over the past 2 months) in an industry different than the one that I am currently employed. I am applying for IT positions, not in a competing education position. Can they arbitrarily discard my resume, refuse to even consider me, for positions that are posted publicly that I find and wish to apply? This not only seems discriminatory, but in fact they are helping my employer to hold me hostage. I am desperate to leave, as my life has been threatened and the situation has escalated seriously. HR indicated that they couldn't do anything, despite my reporting the situation for more than 6 months. Their reasoning was that since they didn't counsel the threat in the beginning, that they can't do anything about it now. They recognize that my life is in danger, but insist that they can't do anything.
(an employee is bipolar and manic and has been off of his meds since January. He's threatened me repeatedly, has unlimited access to the building in which I am the sole occupant, and his ex wife felt compelled to seek me out and warn me. She indicated, as I had reported for 6 months, that he'd fixated on me as the voice in his head and believed that the only solution was to eliminate me. She then asked that "when" he does "something" to me that we contact his mother, not her, since she has power of attorney over him since the first time he was committed for this 4 years ago.)....

This just seems like it shouldn't have even gotten to this point, but I do feel trapped and need to support my kids and provide medical. Do I not have any rights? I'll leave, happily, but they are preventing me.

I am not sure there is anything that can be done to force an employer to look at your resume, though you may want to speak to an attorney regarding that. As for the threatening situation you are in, you definitely should speak to someone, either the police or an attorney since the HR department isn't doing anything. You can locate an attorney through the attorney locator on Lawinfo's home page at http://www.lawinfo.com/. Some do offer free consultations.

I may not have explained it well. I don't expect the employer to be forced to look at it, but when the third party collects the resumes to submit to the employer, my resume should not be removed from the lot. I applied. Should not the company be aware that I applied? Removing my resume from this process prevents me from applying to work elsewhere. Don't want to force anyone to look at it, but would like to have the same chance as anyone else, that it will be looked at. Remember, the employer is not trashing the resume, it's never making it to the employer.

I'll have to talk to a lawyer. I think you are right, just hate having to go such an extreme.

Thank you!

Well I do wish you luck.