u/danimu

I’m quite irritated right now and need some perspective from the community on how to handle this.

I am self employed as a software engineer and I applied to a project via a freelance platform. Most of the projects are via a staffing agency as was my last project, so that's normal.

The first project I got a response for was in my top 5. After some messages I got on a call and everything is fine. In the end the recruiter told me to fill out a few questions which he will send per mail.

The questions included parts of the interview like availability, rate etc. but in addition a table for references and for current applications in progress. I added the team lead of my current project and my friend, I helped with his start-up as references after I asked them. I did not fill out the current applications with the note that's not feasible. I have applied for about 30 projects most of which I do not know the customer yet.

So the recruiter calls my friend for a reference and everything is normal but he pitches his own company as the best staffing agency with the best freelancers and says to contact them when they need someone. My friend did not think much of it but I think this is ethically very wrong. It wasn't a hard pitch but alone the mention of their services does not belong in a reference check call.

I really would like to get the project they offer, but I also do not want to get in trouble later when they are not trustworthy.

I am in the beginning of my applications and have enough other leads but the market is not the best and I have a family to support. I am really torn.

I am not afraid of my standing with my references. That I am sure I can smooth over. It's basically just my ethics. What would you all do?