Got a call before from a recruitment consultant, told them I had already applied for said job through another recruitment consultant and not to bother. Checked my email they have sent my old and incorrect CV to the company without my permission. so have probably fecked my chances as this was a rough copy with inncorrect dates. How muh do you think my chances have been reduced

C@ck, W@nker B@lls

Oops!

Sorry, you could be fecked. Speak to recruiters the manager face to face and ensure they know how p1ssed off you are. Do not use them any longer. These people enrage me sometimes.

Not at all, recruitment companies always do this sort of thing. Presumably your new cv has additional info on it so they should be able to tell the difference.

probably very little, mention this to whoever you got to send your cv in and get them to have a word, or help them answer any questions they get from the interviewer

Have contacted the original recruiter to inform them of the situation and provided correct cv to idiot recruiters. Cant be arsed to shout untill after any offers of interviews in case they f it up even more. It was a very good job as well and having been unemployed since uni 3 months ago i could almost cry.

EDIT

The cv idiot recruiters had was a pile of crap that one of there staff cobbeled together from some info I gave them and included incorrect dates and missed out important jobs for this post. Basically if the employer reads both side by side there not gonna bother.

There goes my £25k , company car, great job and opportunity for my APC

If this is the case you should ask for the recruiter to email the client telling them of the mistake copying you in. Or, ring the client direct and apologise for the ineptitude of the recruitment agent in question and stressing your position.

If it is a big firm where the recruiter is dealing with the HR or internal recruitment team you will be fine as the 2nd CV will probably just be binned and the actual hiring authority will never now.

As a recruitment consultant myself I know the pressure that other consultants are under to achieve their goals BUT in my opinion under NO circumstances should another CV be sent if the client already has it…. Unless, the first agency is not on a PSL and the 2nd agency is? No excuses on old CV use though!

I would now ask for a full list of other firms that your CV has gone to. You may be surprised/shocked that it has gone out to many without your knowledge.

Bereavementmonkey is that user name specificaly for me.

It is a medium size company, but I'm worried that if i highlight the problem futher it may create more problems

ha ha ha no not just for you.

Personally I would speak to a Manager at the rec cons company and let them know that you are a little unhappy with the service and also make sure that rec con number 1 is talking to the client.

Did you originally apply through bad rec cons website? If yes then they may have some T&C text on their site which says that they can do what they want with your CV without your permission! maybe.

Was in discussion with bad RC about any forthcoming positions, applied for the positon which I saw advertised through good RC who contacted me the next day. Bad Rc phoned later and proceeded to act at will.

In my recent experience they're as bad from the other side too – cheekiest thing I had a RC do was a couple of weeks ago – he cold called me in the office saying to reception (who screen all my calls) that it was 'Tony' and a personal call. It was still processing that this eejit wasn't my friend Tony and I couldn't quite get my head around the cheek of it when he then proceeded to tell me that he had just had a coffee with a candidate who we'd just the day before interviewed and turned down for a role in my team. Said that in his opinion he could find me far superior people than that weak candidate and that if I let him pop down to the office for a coffee he'd be happy to sort it all out for me.

What a load of twoddle. Anyone who thinks that lying to get me on the phone will win them any business is a complete idiot.

I've dealt with 4 or 5 agencies when trying to fill the position and only one of them would I recommend. The rest have been pretty useless at best – not returning calls, not chasing interviews, sending wholly inappropriate people through regardless of the job spec, sending cvs and covering letters full of grammar and spelling mistakes. I could go on…

Unfortunately because you are just starting out in your career you are subject to having recruiters who are just starting out in theirs.

They get better as you do!!

im 27, it was a masters at uni.

at least i'll have a point for the honesty and integrity question.

This may sound odd but the best thing you can do is name and shame people and companies like this so that others don’t fall in to the same trap.

I myself work for a Search Firm operating in the £60k to £160k bracket and know full well that the success to any recruitment process is developing a good relationship with the client rather than going for the quick win. 95% of our business is repeat and one must always remember that candidates of today are client of tomorrow.

ok the company was independent appointments – leeds office who claim to be "specialist recruitment agency for jobs in insurance, financial services, legal, call centre & loss adjusting"

the marvelous company i would like to work for is Merlin Claims

It is unfortunate you have found yourself in this position but hopefully your chances wont be damaged.

Owing to the pressures inherent in any recruitment firm many will quite happily shank their grandmothers for a bill.

Glad I work for me really!

Dunno how you think with no experience your going to get 25k + car doing claims work.

I been doing it ten years, personal injury for nine, and am only getting iro £25k with overtime at the moment.

Good luck.

What was the position?

I have experience as a trainee insurance surveyor and have just qualified as a building surveyor, the job would be as a ***** technician.

My experience with recruitment companys has always been poor. Where I can I try to go direct (when applying for jobs) and prefer to do the groundwork myself when in a position to recruit (I literally had hundreds of CVs 'speculatively' e-mailed to me, all from Recruitment agencies, which collectively got deleted, un-read whether we were recruiting or not)

I have had very similar experiences to both the OP and Woffle. I tend to take the attitude that I am the expert in my line of work, NOT some faceless 'consultant' ticking boxes, who has memorized some industry buzzwords.

Do yourselves a favour and cut out the middleman!

Sorry for silence (actually went out on my bike) Lots of valid points above but only about bad RCs… Good ones save time money and sometimes face!

Nothing like having someone to blame if the process went sour!

Seriously though I had a beer with a client 2 weeks ago who had advertised to fill a role, added in the spec CVs and over a long weekend he had over 400 CVs for 2 roles. Now taking into account his time (as billable), the time of his secretary (as he pays her by the hour) and the advert costs it cost him just over £12,000 to recruit one person on a salary of £18,000 and offer (turned down) another at £25,000. Now even if that person had taken the job and at my TOP fees of 20% salary it would have been less than £8,000 and he would not have had the loss of time. Currently that would cost him £4k…

He is a little more educated in the process now and is actually aware of what good recruiters do in the background. It is not just see an advert and send a CV that so many employers think.

JacksonPollack you say cut out the middleman! How then would companies go about recruiting numbers of skilled people on short notice if they have just won a job and need to staff up sharpish? Flip side is how does a small outfit who are so busy working find time and resource to recruit properly.

All of the above is based on having a good recruiter who the employer gives respect to by getting into the business so they KNOW what the business requires… Partnership not master servant relationship.

Sadly there are a lot out there that have tarnished all of us… But please keep in mind that there are some very good ones that want to succeed not just because of the com but because they like good service themselves!

My mantra and others I am sure…… Do unto others and all that.

Yeah, in certain circumstances it can aid filling positions at short notice. However on the whole it is in recruitment industrys interest to 'talk up' the advantage to business.

My sister was a Recruitment Consultant (until she was made redundant) so I am all too aware of some of the practices that go on.

Over the past few years there seems to have been a proliferation of these 'professionals', so I suppose there must be a market for it, but it does beg the question, how did these company's fill positions in the past? and how are they so busy that they have to delegate what is an essential part of running a business?

My father was MD of an SME, he would use temp agencies for unskilled head count but for skilled positions he invested time and resource and took responsibility for the recruitment process. He would get a 'feel' for the people and invariably recruited people who 'fit in' and stayed with the company.

I'm sure you provide a good service and good on you for doing so, in my experience though you are a rose amongst thorns! 😀

JP sadly lots of redundancies in the industry because of the fat cats needing to stay fat…. I actually left my long term 10years management role to set up a firm that partners firms in the long run not knee jerk hiring. Essentially we are outsourced arms for a small number of key clients not everything to everyone. Lots of my competitors brag about dealing with 90% of the top 100 in the industry! They must think that their clients are stupid 'paying peter after robbing paul' if you will?

Of course it is in the recruitment industry best interests to talk their industry up! Surely everyone talks up their industry/service/offering/product so that they can do more business. Does this mean that Trek,Spec, C'dale and Marin have to get together and agree all wording and pics that will be used trying to sell there product?

Why are there so many 'recruiters' now??? easy Lazyness and the bubble before the recent burst. 2 years ago a client could spend 2grand on a private advert and get no response so would then have to go to the agencies who have the knowledge and in some cases skill to network for the right people to do the job. Problem solved!

You will probably have noticed that there are also a lot less agencies out there now! And coming out of the bad times (fingers firmly crossed) the good ones will still have good relationships with their clients in some cases probably a lot better.

I actually came to it from running a large bike shop in Bristol and have actually found that the best rec cons come from a specialist retail background, i.e. when you have to listen to someone, question them THEN respond with the solution to the problem not just the box tickers.

Anyway enough warm and fuzzies about this… I am off to bed need some specialist recruitment sleep!

Oh and last but not least Woffle said back in this thread "he cold called me in the office saying to reception (who screen all my calls) that it was 'Tony' and a personal call"[i] He probably said it was a Personnel call???? Old ones are the best!!!! 😀

He probably said it was a Personnel call????

Still a cheeky fecker, whichever way he played it!

We're a small company (financial, London) and a small team (backoffice IT). We take the whole recruitment process very seriously – it's a large investment (not only financially) but in terms of time invested; there is a good 12 to 18 months before a new team member is anywhere near up to speed. In the past it's been very much a candidates market but when we started looking back in August all the agencies boasted about how many decent people there were looking.

What I went into the process not expecting a great deal from a RC:

1. Vetting of candidates. I don't want to see 100's of cvs – I don't have the time to read them and weed out the best. As a RC your job is to be able to judge how appropriate a person is for a role.

2. Understand the role on offer. Ask lots of questions above and beyond asking for a job specification. How can you do a. without fully getting a handle on what the job involves? I'd have though it'd be useful to get a handle on the company culture, the team size and dynamic etc etc.

3. Feedback. Preferably both ways – it's good to know what someone thought of the company, the team and our interview process. I'd expect a call after an interview to see what we thought (obviously) but at the same time it's constructive to hear what the candidate thought.

4. Professionalism. Don't send me cvs wrapped in your company logos and standard covering letters that are full of grammatical errors and spelling mistakes, it smacks of laziness as does pleading that your spellcheck is broken – it's only 2 pages FFS and if you can't be bothered to proof-read the cv of the person you're putting forward, neither can I. If you say you'll call back, call back. Just plain courtesy and common sense would be nice.

And that's about it – not too much is it? Only one company came anywhere near doing all of the above – Huxleys (as we're naming and shaming). As BM said there are supposed to be a lot fewer agencies out there as the wheat is sorted from the chaff but it amazed me how bad some of them are (which made the good one stand out even more).

We're going to try again in 2010 with Huxleys and a new set of different agencies so any recommendations gratefully received…

Woffle,

In a nutshell that is what you should get! And you are right in saying not too much ask! In fact that should be the bare minimum. My shortlist of CVs is generally 3 maybe 5 at a push per role, often said it is like a woman and shoes 'give her a choice but not too many!'

I used to work with a guy who is now in the Finance division of Hudson (big agency) and he was always excellent if you want his details drop me a PM and I can pass them on.

Have fun.

Checked my email they have sent my old and incorrect CV to the company without my permission

Contravention of the Employment Agencies Act. Get 'em prosecuted!

Ha ha Idiot recruiter must read STW as I recieved a rather apologetic email this morning before I had a chance to bollock him. And Balfour Beatty asked me for an interview this morning, maybe my days of unemployment are finally coming to an end.

Thanks for everybodies advice and help.

Balfour Beatty asked me for an interview this morning

Oh dear.

why do you say oh dear?

why do you say oh dear?

sod what he thinks concentrate on aceing the interview

To be honest , I would work for the Nazi's at the moment!

Thanks for the encouragement tails.

Nice one…

Good luck in the meeting and remember to stay positive.

Well i got the job!!!

Start in the new year not quite as much pay but they are going to pay for my APC so no complaints.

Thanks for your support

mike