Check for a No-Agency Notice Before You Send a Résumé

Some employers say in writing that they do not accept agency candidates without approval. If you send a résumé anyway, you usually lose any claim to a fee and may burn the candidate. The notice is often short and easy to miss. On November 6, 2026, Shifamed's careers page carried one: "Principals only. No third party referrals will be accepted without prior approval by Shifamed." The same day, Finpilot's and firmly's careers pages carried no such language. Silence is not permission either. This playbook is the five-minute check that sits before every first submission.

Example notice: Shifamed careers page, accessed November 6, 2026. Example pages without a notice: Finpilot careers and firmly careers, both accessed November 6, 2026.

What the Shifamed notice says

The full text reads: "Principals only. No third party referrals will be accepted without prior approval by Shifamed. As a general practice, Shifamed does not accept unsolicited resumes or placement information from any individual or agency that supplies candidates for a fee."

Three phrases matter. "Principals only" means candidates should apply themselves. "Without prior approval" means there is a path, but you must get approval first. "Unsolicited" means a résumé sent before approval does not count as an introduction.

Shifamed is a medical technology incubator. Its portfolio companies, including Laza Medical, publish roles that describe themselves as Shifamed portfolio companies. A notice on the parent's page may apply to the portfolio. Ask before you assume it does not.

A no-agency notice usually has an approval path. Use it before you send a résumé, not after.

Where to look

1. The careers page itself, including the footer and any fine print under the hero image.
2. The bottom of each job description.
3. The application form, especially the last screen.
4. The parent company's careers page if the employer is a subsidiary or portfolio company.
5. The ATS job board's company description, if one exists.

Write down where you looked and what you found, with the date. "Checked careers page, JD footer, parent page; no notice; November 6" is a complete record.

When there is a notice

Request approval in writing. Keep it short: your specialty, the exact role title and city, and one line on why you can help. Ask whether they use outside recruiters for that role and on what terms. Do not attach a résumé. Do not name a candidate.

If they approve, get the terms in writing before you submit anyone. If they decline, log the answer and stop. Do not route the same candidate through a different contact.

When there is no notice

No notice is not a contract. It means you have to ask. Send the same approval request. A company that says yes on email will usually send terms. A company that ignores you has not agreed to pay you.

On pages like Finpilot's, which takes applications by email, it is tempting to email a résumé directly to the careers address. That puts your candidate in their inbox with no fee terms. If they hire later, you will have a hard time showing the introduction was yours under an agreement.

A sample approval request

Here is a request you can adapt. It is short on purpose.

"Hi, I run a recruiting desk focused on medical device engineering in the Bay Area. Your listing for Sr. Clinical Engineer in Campbell caught my attention. Before I introduce anyone, do you work with outside recruiters on this role? If so, could you share your terms? I won't send any candidate details until I hear back."

Notice what it does not include: no candidate name, no résumé, no fee number, no mention of the funding round. It asks one question and makes one promise. That promise is the point. It shows you read the policy and respect it.

Recording the answer

Approval by phone is not approval you can prove. If someone agrees on a call, send a one-line email confirming what they said and the role it covers. If they send terms, save the document with the role title and date in the file name. If they say agencies are welcome on one role but not others, record it per role. Policies are often role-specific inside the same company.

What not to do

Do not quote funding to argue for an exception. A new round does not override a written policy. Do not tell a candidate you represent them at a company that has refused agency submissions. Do not resubmit through a different contact at the same company.

How long the check takes

On the three pages we used here, the check took a few minutes each: open the careers page, scroll to the bottom, open one job description and scroll again, then check the parent company if there is one. That is cheap insurance against losing a fee on a placement you worked for months. Make it a fixed step in your intake checklist, not a judgment call.

Fields to keep

Policy text or "none found," where you looked, access date, approval requested date, approval status, and terms received. If the policy changes, keep the old text with its date. Policies do change, and you will want to show what was on the page when you acted.