Recruitment agencies

I would be interested to hear of STW members perception of recruitment agencies.

I have been in the same job for the last 14 years as a civil engineer (now project manager) working on the development of ports/harbours/shipyards. Work is stale, no promotion, low morale in the office. I am thinking of moving and am approaching companies that I wish to work for.

The question is whether going through recruitment agencies brings any benefits. Although the net of potential jobs will be cast further afield I am concerned that a recruitment agency may diminish my chances. I worry that it shows that I am only looking for a change, as apposed to a direct approach from myself where I could identify a more committed application.

I realise I am speaking from the fortunate position of having a stable job, but any pointers would be gratefully received.

Recruitment agencies = Blood sucking leeches with complete lack of morals

ok, any positive experiences out there or don’t touch with a sh*** stick.

Dont even get me started..

Failed Estate Agents……..

Useless, incompetent, clueless would be the first few words that come to mind…

If you are still in work they will call you whenever – even if you ask them not to.

They will also put you forward for any job that matches 3 words in your CV (including the, and & GCSE…) as they get paid for sending to interview along with on completion.

But like estate agents they do have access to a lot of potentials…

Probably a necessary evil in some ways, if you can find one that is specific to your industry (potentially staffed by people from your industry) it can help.
Add in that any job managed by them also gets your CV your probably going to end up registered with 5 or 6 fairly soon after you start looking.

What Liftman said. Scum of the Earth.

Like any service provider, there are good ones and bad ones. If you can, approach one that’s recommended to you – a good one will have far more contacts in the right places than you could achieve on your own. Failing that look at job adverts in your area and speak to the business that has the most that look interesting to you. Just make sure you tell them you want to know where your cv is being sent in advance. If you get a bad feeling from one just back out and speak to another.

I speak as someone who has been an agency recruiter, and in-house, and a candidate- a good recruiter will add a lot of value to your job search.

Pointers appreciated. I have one agent who I know personally, an acquaintance rather than a friend, though who is a one man band and a “specialist” in engineering fields.

I may go to him and stop there. Comments appreciated.

I had 7 people from the same agency contact me through linkedin. each then rang me in turn, hassled me in turn and bombarded me with emails. Eventually I chose one and asked her to tell the others to do one. She then bombarded me with impossible deadlines and irrelevant tasks until i gave up and ignored her. I didn’t even want the job, they were chasing me!

My last experience with an agency was all promises and lies as well.

I had multiple agencies contact me (16 in total) within 2 days when i posted my CV onto a careers website. Most were hopeless but a couple were very good and i got a job after my first interview. Problem is, when you have that many agencies contact you, they never leave you alone even after telling them that you are now in employment.

Linkedin is another useful tool. I get contacted by recruiters quite often and my present job was through a connection on Linkedin.

Remember the fat kid at school with no friends who just about had enough intelligence to not be sent to special school?
They became a recruitment agent.
It’s not a job it’s a disease.

I had one tell me I wasn’t qualified enough to work in an office. I called him a nasty word and hung up the phone. I had another one tell me they had found me a perfect job only (bearing in mind I was looking for a full time permenant position) to discover it was a data input job for 8 hrs a week at just over minimum wage temporary for 1 month!

Idiots

Nice bunch of people on here, eh?

Some agencies are terrible.
Some agencies are atrocious.
Some agencies might be just about OK.
A tiny number of specialists might even be competent.

However, they are a necessary evil. Large company HR departments are often incompetent at recruitment. Small companies often don’t have the time / experience necessary to sort 200 CV’s they will get from an advert.

I had a conversation with one recently who differentiated himself from the rest because, “we work for the employer not the candidate”, eh, no – you all work for yourself and will make money any way you can.

Linked In is definitely a useful tool – I got head hunted into my current role via it.

When I got made redundant after 11 years (a few years ago) I was somewhat apprehensive about finding a new job. I found recruitment agencies made my life easier. I hardly had to look for jobs – they bombarded me with what was out there. Sure some of their operatives are pushy and a pain but they just need managing by yourself.

Remember the fat kid at school with no friends who just about had enough intelligence to not be sent to special school?
They became a recruitment agent.
It’s not a job it’s a disease.

Bitter, much?

They aren’t all bad.

I work in construction in the south west and though I haven’t changed jobs frequently, I’ve got to know a couple of consultants over the years and they are decent people who are good at what they do.

I think in the technical world, where consultants have a specialism, they are more likely to put people in the right role – they have their reputation to protect and in my region that’s really important – everyone knows everyone!

Sometimes they’re a neccesary evil. Sometimes they’re unneccesary. I worked in IT for one of the largest IT recruitment groups in the UK. A lot of the recruiters were really unpleasant people who hated the people looking for jobs but likewise a lot were really nice people.

As an employer, I find their services are really variable and often not worth the % they charge. As a job seeker, they became less useful when job-boards started taking direct ads from companies rather than the old-boys-club approach they had before then.

Personally I have a handful I know well and deal with them when I get a chance but if the job is right, I go with whoever is advertising it.

To be totally honest though, what does it cost you if you’re looking for work. Contact some and see what you get back.

Pointers appreciated. I have one agent who I know personally, an acquaintance rather than a friend, though who is a one man band and a “specialist” in engineering fields.

I was a consultant, a very shameful year of my life. Most of what has been said above is true.

However, they make money from filling jobs. Therefore, they are generally quite good at knowing about jobs and ‘selling’ people into jobs. If you know someone you think you can trust, then not much harm can come out of it. Try and keep in control though, check the CV that he pulls together, talk to him about posts and companies that he is sending it on to.

Remember, the role of RC is very similar to that of a pimp, just make sure he doesn’t own you. Companies (clients) pay the bills, not the candidate (you). His priority will be to the client, that is why you can never trust a recruitment consultant.

When I’m looking for work I try and avoid them these days. Been pushed towards too many inappropriate roles & companies, too many times had important details about the company not mentioned (like the major insurer whose business model was broken and was in crisis) and generally felt patronised and my preferences ignored. In 17 years of using recruiters, only once do I think the job I got was the one I was expecting…

Use your network, use Linked In – making a contact through someone you know is a powerful tool when job hunting…

hh yes, the recruitment agencies question, I like this one.

So, cards on the table, I work in recruitment, have done for 10 years, so I’m biased. But hell, I’ve got a bit of time today so let me both answer the OP’s question and also perhaps explain a few things. Apologies in advance if this is a long post. I have a feeling I may regret this…

Q. “Will going through recruitment agencies bring any benefits?”.
A. Possibly. It depends on a few things that I will try and explain. Firstly, are you looking for contract or permanent work? If you’re looking for contract then most companies will not engage with you directly so agencies worth talking to in that case. If you’re looking for permanent then there is argument that you can send your CV direct to the company and ignore the agency. This is a fair argument but it assumes you know where to send it and also that you know how to manage the process once it is sent. A lot of companies have horrendous HR departments that receive CV’s, file them and promptly forget about them, if your CV goes to one of these departments you have wasted your time. A good agency will know who to send the CV to (someone relevant and who actually reads it) and will also follow up with the recipient to make sure they have it and know what to do with it. They will send you across for a specific role and not just throw you into a bottomless pit of CV’s. This is obviously a good thing.

Second, if you do talk to agencies then make sure you talk to the right ones. Most big companies have PSL’s (preferred supplier lists) and will look at CV’s provided by people on the PSL first. If the agency you talk to is not on the PSL of the company they are discussing with you then it is safe to assume (irrelevant of what they say to the contrary) that your CV will be towards the bottom of the pile. It’s also not unreasonable to assume that the further down the pile you are, the more likely it is that they will have found someone before they get to your details. For what it’s worth, most recruiters hate PSL’s as they often remove access to the hiring managers which leads to roles being badly clarified, this means the wrong candidates are submitted which annoys everyone in the process, the candidates more than anyone.

Thirdly, are you actively looking around? If the answer is no then a more low key approach direct to the companies you know may work as you retain all the control. By talking to an agency you are giving some of the control to them, it is them who will manage the process, them who will submit the CV and them who chase the customer for news. It is also worth noting that, contrary to what has been said above, most (99%+) agencies get paid when they place someone, they don’t get paid for a shortlist and they don’t get paid for interviews. The few that do get paid up front work in a very different way and will generally only work on £100k+ roles. With this in mind, there are few things more frustrating for an agency than someone successfully interviewing then deciding they never really wanted to move jobs anyway (note this is very different from deciding the new job is not the right job for you).

As a final note, and I think this is an area that causes a lot of disgruntlement, it is worth pointing out that most agencies are driven by their clients and not by candidates, generally they are finding the right people for a specific job, not the right job for a specific person. If you don’t like how an agency is working report them to the REC (recruitment and employment confederation) and/or quote the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations at them. They won’t be chuffed about either but it will focus their mind. Good agencies are a real value to a lot of industries but, as with every industry there are good and bad, you just need to make sure you’re dealing with a good one.

So there you go, rant away.

Bitter, much?

No. I am self employed so will never have to engage the services of one, I have however met a few and they have all been cretins with no redeeming features. (I have never met Lunge ^ though he may be a charming chap)

MrSmith, I too know plenty of cretins in recruitment, I also know plenty in retail, in teaching, in surveying, etc. There a good ones out there, just as there are in every profession.

Good agents are pretty rare, and can be very useful,if not essential. In the industry I work in (engineering) there are a few guys who have a good reputation, are trusted by clients and treat candidates well. The majority are hopeless, but once you find your feet, it’s easy to work out which are the ones to avoid, as they will usually give themselves away within the first phone call.

I don’t have much time for the commonly held view that they are all leaches…IME it’s not true. There are good ones and bad ones, and if you treat them all as ars******, you will end up dealing with the bad ones, and it becomes a self fullfilling prophecy.

IME decent clients eventually find decent agents, and the same goes for candidates.

In the OP you ask if there any benefits of using an agent, and in many cases, its a moot point…the client won’t deal with you directly as they hired an agent to find someone for the role. Aside from that, a decent agent can negotiate hard for you, give you a market overview one outline options, filter out the bad clients, give you a constant stream of work and manage the client if you want to move on.

You say you know someone, I’d go and talk to him. Also talk to other people in your industry to get a feel for what’s about and who are the decent agents. Agents are a classic example of something where you want a small number of the good ones, not a big number of the average ones.

I’ve never had a good experience with them, but then I’ve never used one to find a job so my only contact is probably with the worst ones who cast their net really wide in order to catch something rather than concentrating on actualy doing their job well.

No. I am self employed so will never have to engage the services of one, I have however met a few and they have all been cretins with no redeeming features. (I have never met Lunge ^ though he may be a charming chap)

Self employed eh, me too – in recruitment 8)

Lunge thank you for your note above. I have started looking locally but does not seem much out there that I am after.

In answer to your first question I am after a permanent post.

Your points are noted. I will aim to keep my contact under a short leash – I am sure easier said than done.

Self employed eh, me too – in recruitment

Oh you poor thing, hope it goes well. 😉

To weigh in on the other side of things, my one experience with a recruitment agency was superb. So much so that I used them for 5 years to find me jobs whilst I was a sole trader/self-employed.

Paid near enough double the rate of the rest of the agencies in the same field, straight-talking recruitment guy, I was paid on 95% of occassions within 3 days of submitting my invoices and the other 5% within 28 days. Never had an issue at all.

As a civil engineer I have found matchtech to be one of the better agencies. Far from perfect but who wants to think of themself as a commodity. If you have skills to sell then you’ll be fine.

Self employed eh, me too – in recruitment
Oh you poor thing, hope it goes well.

Well its been 24 years now…

Haha, nice one king tut 🙂