What’s your experience of recruitment agencies? I’ve uploaded my CV to a few and I’m currently waiting on a few jobs to feedback. A couple I’ve been rejected for I know I’m more than qualified (this may mean a CV tweak though).

What’s the general consensus on their effectiveness?

Abysmal in the main.

To be honest, it was like Groundhog Day most of the time. I’d go in, have a lengthy discussion with one of their consultants, fill out a million and one forms, hand them a copy of my CV (in addition to emailing them a copy as an attachment too), then I’d leave.

Then, whenever I returned to their office they’d claim not to have my details on record and I’d have to go through the whole palaver again!

In the end, I abandoned any real hope of getting a job through any of them. So I just started calling into the one with the quality filter coffee, and the attractive girls in pencil skirts and stiletto heels on the odd chance that something came up….by which I mean a job. I think.

That was about 3 years ago though when the recession was very evident, but nobody was referring to it as such. Temporary jobs were thin on the ground, maybe it’s better now?

Most companies hate using them, and in my current job search I have opted to not use them this time.

Depending on what industry you are in, they will charge a huge fee to any company that employs you, they may even charge for putting you forward for interview.

You are much better researching the companies you are interested working for yourself and sending them applications.

Recruitment consultants IMO are a waste of time, and are just pushy salesmen who never stop calling you even when you are in a job that they put you in, they still keep calling to see if you are interested in moving so they can make some more commission.

Grrr and indeed Grrr

they may even charge for putting you forward for interview.

Presumably you mean charge the client? In over 20 years of recruitment I’ve never heard of that happening, nice if we could though.

If you mean charge the applicant, we can’t that is illegal.

My experience with them has been pretty good to be honest.

They helped me find a job 7 years ago and I am now in touch with a couple whilst I embark on my current job search.

I guess that it can be very industry and location specific though.

Pook, what sector/market are you in? Up until 1yr ago I was consulting in a niche market and therefore have experience of a number of the more capable recruiters in that field, including the one who got me my current permanent position whilst the rest of the world was experiencing the death throws of a recession!

In my experience they are universally crap.

Hi, I too have had mixed experience.
I was in the social care business..
I ran into some trouble- public difference of opinion with director over funding..he lied I pointed it out..and ended up disciplined and without a job..or ref..in 1990’s
Eventually RS Locums got me work, and back into employment. They were a small medic finder service.
I then had quite a few good contracts thro Reed, but found that one really had to make contact with the ‘agent’ at the office..
Finally also got a limited amount of work with/thro Reliance, not so good as my local (Newcastle) Reed.
I recon you have to work at and with them to get the best service..
Best of luck

I’m in internal communications primarily based on previous training in journalism.

I know it’s one of the more ‘soft’ employment areas that gets canned in recession but there are jobs out there.

It’s a bit galling being well qualified for one just for some ‘recruitment assistant executive’ to deem that others have more relevant skills in the area.

I’ve been embedded in FTSE top 5 comms teams FFS!

I found that the only way of getting any worth out of an agency is to corner them like rats.

Send them a CV, wait 24 hours, then ring up going “hi, just wanted to check that you’d got my CV?” (and get the inevitable ‘I was just about to look at it’ in response)

They see many, many CVs; the only way to get taken seriously is to make sure they know who you are personally. If you’re scared of the phone you might as well not bother.

(In my experience, etc)

Similar to the above, except ring them as soon as you press send on the email. Bear in mind this person between you and a job you are well capable of doing knows bugger all about your industry and skills, you need to sell yourself to them first. I always hoped the internet would kill the need for agencies but it just shows how useless/lazy in-house HR departments are.

Pook, that’s not my specific field but through association I come into regular contact with a few Heavy Industry big hitters (COGAP, AMEC, IIS) and a couple of Technology groups (BAe, Babcocks), I have poc’s within these organisations but they are all based in the NW and predominantly to do with power generation (nuclear, sustainable, power-from-waste etc). It’s a very competitive field but would it match your skills/needs?

My boss has such a hatred of them, he won’t even speak to them on the phone. We have accounts with the job sites – jobserve, monster, etc and pay to advertise on there directly and search uploaded CVs.

We have a policy of paying a bonus (I think it’s £750 or so) to anyone who finds someone for a post that’s going – we’d have to pay even more to a recruiter.

They’re a necessary evil, I’m afraid.

Good and bad as in any industry, but I’ve come across more clueless muppets in recruitment than in almost any other. That said, when you come across a good one, you tend to hang on to them either when recruiting or when you’re looking for your next role.

If you have to use them, please don’t just rely on uploading the CV and waiting for a call-back – you are statistically more likely to be croned the next king of Scotland than be called by an agency on this basis. Instead, I’d submit the CV then call the agent responsible to discuss it, sending them your CV directly as well. Bear in mind that they’re probably getting hundreds of applications for each role, so you need to make direct contact or you’ll end up on the reject pile.

Final thing is that most recruiters will advertise a role and stop looking once they’ve got 20 or so to form a shortlist, so get those applications in early and follow up immediately.

Best of luck!

Really depends on your industry. I am in engineering and you have to have an agency to get anywhere. There are some really good one and i have had some really bad ones. My advice is the smaller ones that are very spcific to your industry are the better ones. You wil have to remind them you exist and are still looking every week or so.

The bigest advantage is they know what are the companies that are good to work at and the companies that like graduates and the ones that look for experience ect. The two agencies i had that were good did so much work on my behalf and ended up with two really good jobs.

be aware that when they speak to you, the objective is as much to find openings as it is to find u a job.

For example, they’ll say things like “tell us about other jobs you’ve applied for to avoid duplication”, which translates as “tell us which firms are taking on so we can put other people forward”.

They’ll also want to know about the job u are leaving, so they can fill that. So be careful about giving out contact details of ‘references’.

That said, I find most of my work through agencies, some are ok and others are a waste of time.

one other thing – they usually deal with the cv that arrived in the past hour, so if you’ve not heard from them in a while, don’t assume they bare giving your job hunt any attention. Keep calling/email them with updated CVs

into the void –

yes it interests me. My big thing is communications, clear comms/marketing etc in whichever market calls for it.

I come from an agency background, so am flexible on area, and in Sheffield so the NW is not a major leap.

IME in the chemical industry, recruitment companies have been universally shit.

I only ever had one interview as a result of using them and they must have been on a per-client basis cos they put me up for a job telling me it was one thing, I got to the interview and found out it wasn’t what they’d told me, it was something else completely. Bombed totally, felt SO embarrassed. Total waste of both my time and the interviewers time.

As per crazy-legs I was told the job was for X position, at the interview told the job was actually Y and we both knew it was way above my skill set, although I do doubt the the interviewer read my CV properly beforehand as she thought as she seemed to think that as I had worked for a large facilities company that I would be an expert on writing M&E tenders, unfortuantly I worked in the office services divison…

In the end after 2 years of various short term contract work to build my skill set up, I ended up going back to my old line of work as after countless interviews the responses were either your over experienced and will get bored and leave (personally most of these jobs were exactly what I wanted) or I was slightly under experienced so no thanks.

Recruitment agencies: like all things in life there are the good, the bad and the ones in between.
But, the way that they make money is by either:
1) getting a finders fee paid to them by the employer if it is a permanent job that is filled
or
2) a type of commission / percentage of a persons wage if it is a temporary job that is filled.
Either way it is only by filling job vacancies that recruitment agencies get paid. So in theory they will be working hard to get you an interview, but that is the limit of what they can do for you.
The rest being up to you in having a good CV with all the right buzz-words and relevant recent experience, and crucially having good interview skills to finally get the job.
Books by Patrick Quinn on interview technique (and advertising copy, ultimately a CV is advertising copy) plus books on CV’s by eg Tom Jackson are worth looking at.
A recruitment agency will only be invited to send CV’s in to an employer if that employer believes that they have people with the right experience, skills etc.
Once an employer thinks that they are just being send any old CV (of people who do not have what the employer is really looking for) then they will stop using that agency.

anyone with the term ‘agent’ in there job title is a wily, dishonest lying shit. FACT.

Agent does seem to imply agenda. Never had a good experience with an agent of any sort.

They can be very useful but you really need to manage them – firing off CVs will result in nothing unless you really stand out head and shoulders above everyone else.

Talk to them every couple of days, ask about jobs coming up (get them before they appear on their site) and so on. They’ve got way too many CVs for you to get any results at the moment otherwise. If you can get them on side and to remember you, that’s a big help.

Oh and most of them are crap, stupid and lying b’stards 🙂 Fine so long as you keep that inmind.

“I’ve been embedded in FTSE top 5 comms teams FFS! “
did it hurt?
I just typed internal communication into jobsite.co.uk and it does exist, admittedly only 1502 matches though.
What does it involve doing? Do you sit in a darkend room talking to yourself? communicating internally?

Most are terrible, a few are okay – like the two I worked for…;-)

My OH’s had more recent dealings with ’em that I have – but I think things have changed a bit with email. Used to be the case you’d talk to someone first, send a cv, ring them to see they’d got it, etc. Now every man and his dog (ok, someone might have to type it in for the dog) can take the scattergun approach via email. Agencies (all? some? – surfmat) – may just search CVs for the correct buzzwords. I’d still go for the call/send/call approach…

mac, it’s the same as a press office role but talking to staff rather than customers in essence. Bit more stakeholder development too. Good fun.

When out of work last year I registered with 6 or 7 agencies, and when I was about to be out of work in 2007 did the same, 3 or 4 then.
The only time I got an interview, was after I sat down looked at there adverts figured out which company they were recruiting for and said, this job is working for X isn’t it, I got an interview and the job, still there now.

You are their means to an end (if they have the nouse to understand what you have to offer, or exactly what their clinet wants).

Don’t expect anything from them, they’re only interested in the relationship they have with their client!

This is a recent e-mail exchange between me and a ‘Recruitment Consultant/Executive/Whatever they call themselves to make themselves sound far more important that they are or ever will be’

From: Them
To: Me
Sent:
Subject: Re:

Many thanks for your application.

This position has now been filled. However we shall retain your details for further vacancies.

In order to help us help you please reply to this email for the following information.

Are ther speific companies you wish to target?

Are there specific inudstries you wish to target?

When was you last interview?

Who did you interview with and for what position?

What locations have you concidered?

Many thanks Regards

—–Original Message—–
From:Me
Sent:
To: Them
Subject: Re:

Hi

In order to help us help you please reply to this email for the following information.

Are ther speific companies you wish to target? YES
Are there specific inudstries you wish to target? YES
When was you last interview? FEW WEEKS AGO
Who did you interview with and for what position? A BLOKE CALLED PETER/MANAGER
What locations have you concidered? LOTS !!!!!!!!!!!!

I am not in the business of supplying you with leads!

You would have been a better help if you had answered/replied to my telephone calls about the job (5 in total). I was promised that you would get back to me by those answering the telephones on five separate occasions. You are obviously far to busy/important. You then have the temerity to ask me to furnish you with potential leads!?

Should you in the future have any positions that are of interest to me, I will apply by sending my CV and following up with a telephone call to discuss further. Perhaps I may actually get to speak to you before the position expires?

Regards

From: Them
To: Me
Sent:
Subject: RE:

Many apologies if I have not returned your call. I was not made aware that you rang, I shall follow this up.

With regards to leads you are 100% right. However this is an essential part of the recruitment process, as you may one day benefit from a lead gathered from a candidate who has not been successful following an interview or application.

It is not mandatory to give details of any information regarding employment opportunities, I can fully appreciate you may well want to protect on going applications, if there are applications where you have been unsuccessful I would appreciate you relinquishing that information, as that same information from another candidate may well be your next role!

We hope to consider you for any future roles you maybe suitable for.

All the best

Regards

From:Me
…
Add to Contacts
To:Them

Many thanks for your considered response.

As you are probably aware, it is very frustrating to find that a job has expired especially as I had shown a keen interest. I am finding it increasingly difficult to plot my next career move. I suppose this speaks volumes about the job market at the moment.

I do take on board what you say regarding information, however (in my experience) it has rarely turned out as you suggest.

I will carry on looking for suitable positions and very much look forward to applying for positions that you may have available.

Kind regards

From the horses mouth, says it all really!

Pook, I’ve been busy and off the site for a couple of days so I didn’t see your response, I’ll PM you tmrw and see if I can assist you

If any of my people sent out a mail like that I’d fire them.

No wonder recruiters have such a bad name. It’s so different if you work on a retained basis there’s none of that nonsense.

Going out for a few beers tomorrow with some placed candidates which will be a laugh and how it should be.

Meh.