W2 vs C2C vs 1099 — what US IT recruiters should put on the packet

Hiring managers hire a stack. VMS portals hire an employment type. If the JD says “W2 only” and you format a C2C contractor onto a pretty template, you have not helped anyone. Read the gate before you source.

The three types, in desk language

• W2 — they are an employee of your agency or the end client’s payroll vendor. Taxes withheld. Often required on enterprise and federal-adjacent reqs.
• C2C / corp-to-corp — they invoice through their LLC or a vendor. Common on US IT contracts. The corp name is not a fake “current employer.” See C2C resume formatting.
• 1099 — independent contractor, no corp in the middle. Many accounts treat it like C2C or ban it outright. Do not assume.

What goes on the resume vs the note

• Resume — legal name, real job dates, real titles. Do not rewrite a C2C person as a W2 employee on paper.
• Rec note / VMS fields — W2, C2C, or 1099; corp name if required; “open to convert” only if they said so.
• JD first — analyze the req. If it says no C2C, pass. A formatted DOCX does not change the policy.

Put the type in the recruiter summary in one clause: “C2C through Priya LLC, open to W2 after 90 days.” Then format onto the client master. The portal will not infer employment type from the Word file.

US staffing desk audit: W2 vs C2C vs 1099 — what US IT recruiters should put on the packet

When a US IT staffing desk submits a packet into SAP Fieldglass, Beeline, Magnit, or Pontoon, the MSP coordinator spends less than 45 seconds checking document structure before forwarding to the hiring manager. If your DOCX has broken floating text boxes from a PDF conversion, unredacted candidate contact lines on a blind req, or inconsistent date formatting across contract stints, the packet gets dispositioned before technical review.

• Zero-rewrite content integrity — Never let generic AI chatbots paraphrase a candidate’s project bullets for w2 vs c2c vs 1099 for it recruiters. Enterprise compliance teams compare the submitted DOCX against the candidate’s LinkedIn and interview answers; use Resume Formatter to lock original wording while standardizing typography.
• 1-click blind PII redaction — Strip personal phone numbers, personal Gmail addresses, street addresses, and LinkedIn URLs when submitting through Tier-1 implementation partners (TCS, Wipro, Infosys, Cognizant) or blind MSP portals.
• 1-page submittal cover sheet — Prepend a structured cover page with candidate full name, current location, visa/work authorization (USC, GC, H1B, H4-EAD, TN), bill rate, availability, and a verified skills matrix.
• Template comparison benchmark — Compare deterministic DOCX formatting against legacy tools in our iReformat Alternative, Allsorter Alternative, and ChatGPT Resume Formatting Alternative guides.

Step-by-step SOP for high-volume recruiting teams

Standardize this workflow across your onshore account managers and offshore night-shift sourcers so every submittal packet leaves the desk in under 90 seconds:

• Step 1: Verify chronology & net tenure — Run the raw PDF/DOCX through Experience Calculator to deduplicate overlapping contract dates and flag employment gaps exceeding 60 days.
• Step 2: Score against the requisition — Check mandatory vs. nice-to-have skills in Resume Matcher so you only format candidates who clear the client’s minimum years-of-experience bar.
• Step 3: Render the branded client DOCX — Select your agency master template or client preset (USA Default, Ametek, Google, Microsoft, TCS, Wipro) in Resume Formatter, toggle blind masking if required, and download the editable Word file.
• Step 4: Attach the 30-second pitch — Generate an evidence-backed submittal note in Recruiter Summary citing exact employers and project dates.