Hello LUGgers: I'm a newbie in the job search arena, and could use some advice on how to avoid a certain situation in the future. Say, hypothetically speaking, that you have a friend that just got a new job at company Foo via job-finding company Quux (rhymes with "sucks", as in "rat bastard fuckers die die die") Jobfinders Inc. This friend encourages you to apply for another position that's open at Foo; you do this, and in addition you ask the boys at Quux to see if they can locate some position for you. You find yourself fucked, because what does Quux do but send your resume off to Foo? Now Foo wants to hire you, but Quux says that Foo owes them some sort of finder's fee, even though you have a contact of your own at Foo, and really didn't get anything from Quux. Foo won't hire you because this fee is exorbitant, and why the hell should Quux get dime one anyhow? So how do other people manage this situation? My thought is that I should have made some agreement with Quux from the beginning that they had to have my permission to send my resume to Foo; once this was done, Foo was "theirs" and if they found a job there, they were entitled to the fee. This would leave me free to search on my own at Bar and Baz, Inc. Any other ways out of this? Regards, J