Can you apply for a faculty position via a recruiting agency? I came across some job advertisements for faculty positions that stated


  Strictly No Agencies


This implies that some agencies apply on behalf of the applicants. Is it common? Is it possible at all? I mean do open positions without the above statement accept applications sent by agencies rather than the applicant?

I know that the recruitment for senior industry positions is outsourced and handled by agencies, but this should be a different case.
I have never, ever, encountered a faculty search - or indeed a postdoc search - handled by an agency.

Nor have I ever been contacted by an agency looking to handle recruitments as a potential candidate, despite getting ads on sites like LinkedIn that suggest I've been accurately categorized as faculty.

In the vast universe of possibilities, I'm sure there are exceptions, but my best guess is that this is boiler-plate language that goes in all job ads from that institution.