I took the time (about 1 hour) to write a custom cover letter explaining how my skills, knowledge, and experience validated me for the job. This document was maybe 6-10 pages long and meant for the hiring manager or client to review in addition to my resume document. Most staffing firms just validate my experience from the cover letter and send it to the client, but this particular firm still required a pre-screen interview?
So on this pre-screen interview I am glad the recruiter said she would NOT be forwarding my custom experience letter, because I called it QUITS right there. They wanted to spend like an hour writing a resume from our phone interview to place in their format to send to the client. I was OK with that as long as they sent my custom cover letter and my resume documents in addition to their unique style of marketing. She said no, they would not send that document. I thought it was not beneficial to myself, her, or her staffing firm on not sending all my resume documents that would validate my experience. Furthermore, I just thought it was very disrespectful.
I feel really bad for the clients they recruit for because of their approach. They are losing out on talented minority women engineers.