Recruitment agent sales tactics and annoyances

starsinmycrown

ihatebt wrote: »

Encountered the same thing. Agents are sales people, nothing more, nothing less. They fob you off with total crap. "I'm sorry, I can't tell you who the company is at this point" type rubbish. They just build up a big database of cv's, so they can boast that they have x amount of cv's on their books.

And yes, one did ask me who I'd had interviews for. I won't say the company, but his name was **** (4 letters for shortened version, 7 letters full version). They ask because they will then pester that company to use them as agents.

As for working in IT, if you're just a tech support bloke, you'll find there's a lot of us out there looking for too few server and workstation type jobs.

There are a lot of high-end skills in demand that they can't get people for that pay big salaries, but problem is that you can't learn these sort of skills overnight, and some of it is pretty obscure so you wouldn't be able to find a teach yourself book.

sorry to nip in here- what kind of skills? oh wants to do a degree in artificial intelligence and programming but i'm worried if there will be any jobs!

msflowerfairy

I am also out of work, and have been looking and applying for three jobs a day for the last month and a half. That was my mission.
I have registered with the onsite job agencies, and my C.V is also on show.
I finally received a call from an agency the other day asking me if i would be interested in being out forward for a position, that was on the Thursday afternoon, and by the Friday morning i received a call telling me the client would like to interview me on the Monday. (since rescheduled to Wednesday on my part)
Yes i have also been let down by agencies ringing me about jobs that i am not even qualified to do, but i have also spoken to some very proffesional individuals.
Maybe i was lucky being offered this interview, maybe i was in the right place at the right time, who knows?
The jobs are out there if you are prepared to do the ground work, and agencies do sometimes help although i agree they also call just to pull you into a false sense of security. I have been on the receiving end of these calls too, but i really don't feel that all agencies should be tarred with the same brush. There are some good ones out there.

koolcat

I had to just laugh, https://www.shiftshack.com must be one of the poorest sites I have come accross as far as freelance or temping sites go. Lacks content and looks like it took half a day to slap together. Im sure is just a scam. Some clever guy getting in 99p per desperate looking for a job ill do anything sod. Think about it if he gets 100 000 job seekers which is nothing these days in todays climate, he smiling just made £99 000. Just look at the guy smiling on http://www.shiftshack.com/EmployerMain.aspx

mmm gives me a idea. Maybe I should create a similar site. Ill call it https://www.shiftyour99ptome.com. I got the know how. Watch this space people.

koolcat

Im so glad that there is a real recruitment agenent in this thread. Tell me sexki11en how you exactly match the jobs to the exact candidate. What is the selection process? Surely you dont go through 400 cv's for just one role. I know you use some sort of software that you put key words in and feed your cv's on file and from that it gives you a possible 50ish or so that will have these key words you asked for.

When you advertise for a position, are these new applicants just added to your list of cv's mixed in with the old candidates that you got already on your books and fed into this software? or are these given priority as they are from genuine candidates replying to your ad.

What do you mean when you say someone is blacklisted. Is that just for your agency or is there some sort of candidate registar that all agents have access to?

Dish the dirt and tell us what really separates a strong candidate from a crappy one.

jopwo_87

Funnily enough i rung my recruitment agent up yesterday due to getting another email from him telling me what a perfect job it would be for me. I explained that id had troubles with people not calling me back etc and just downright poor customer service.

And i got told this... basically in this current climate, i am lucky to even have a recruitment consultant, especially as i have done 1 job for them before so i can be referenced quicker and therefor puts me higher in the list than other candidates who havent. When i ring them and cant get through to the person i want to, its not cos there on a lunch break/meeting client/generally out of the office as i usually get told by someone else, its cos they are on the phone literally all day to employers trying to get us jobs. remember I am not the client and he is under no obligation to treat me as such, he works for the company who is recruiting, not me. When i leave a message requesting a call back, it will under no circumstance be done, im pretty much wasting my time and credit. My RC is farrrr to busy on the phone to bother ringing me back.

He did however offer me the email addy of someone else in another branch who may be able to help me. I of course emailed straight away and am yet to even get an aknowledgement.

How these people get work i dont know. Im willing to travel up to an hour from where i live, im even willing to relocate for a permanent job yet im being treated like im a !!!! poor candidate who has no chance.

rich_months

koolcat wrote: »

What do you mean when you say someone is blacklisted. Is that just for your agency or is there some sort of candidate registar that all agents have access to?

I very much doubt that all agents have a blacklist that they share, although I can believe that a single agency might have a list of people they would never work with again due to ineptness, rudeness to staff, not turning up to work etc.

sexki11en

rich_months wrote: »

I very much doubt that all agents have a blacklist that they share, although I can believe that a single agency might have a list of people they would never work with again due to ineptness, rudeness to staff, not turning up to work etc.

This is exactly right. Koolcat - I will come back to your questions to me later - I feel an essay coming on lol.

SK x

cue

this is called lead generation.

Half the jobs agencies generate come from market knowledge provided by candidates. It works for candidates not against them.

1. From a client perspective - they want the best person for the job, that may be you or it may not.
2. From your perspective I assume you want the best job/salary possible - whatever your drivers are, location, work environment, company, benefits etc.
3. It's a bit underhand and says something about the company if they are only phoning to find out who's recruiting, but generally it should a be a trade off i.e. you get to find out about a genuine, well matched role and they get an interested candidate who they know MAY end up pulling out of their role (which they won't get any fee for if they don't fill it) as they have other irons in the fire.

A good consultant should come off the phone with you knowing what you like for breakfast. The more they know about you the more relevant jobs they will find for you. Also, having owned Consultancies myself I can stress that candidates that are difficult don't win any favours for recruitment consultants - they're ruthless and if they ain't going to make money on you then you ain't got a hope in them finding you a role unless you fill a finite niche that they have.

You have to remember that they are not social workers or the job centre - they don't 'have a duty' to find you a job, their duty is to the end recruiter - they pay the bill. they have to come up with a suitably good candidate that will get them a fee.

cue

Having actually now read a bit more more of the thread I back exactly what sexki11en says.

Everyone on most databases, new and old applicants, are matched against the role using a number of factors;

1. manual keywords entered by the consultants- industry, job type, mgt level - many many variables
2. CV search - most rec software's trawl through your cv and match against the consultants search criteria
3. hot candidates - they will also have manual systems, based on candidates they've registered, ones which are 'very placeable'
4. you will all be ranked, yes, whether you like it or not, people move around in the recruitment industry and there must be some way of new consultants telling how good you are in comparison with people of similar experience.
5. their interview notes - you were half asleep at their reg i/v - then don't expect many perfect jobs to come your way. - The first gatekeeper will be the agency/consultancy - you much up their interview and you reduce your chance of being contact when the ideal job comes up.

Perfect example: a Paper buyers role in Sheffield, £25k, Cips qualified with experience of spends of £500k min pa etc etc - fairly basic person spec; a quick search of our database brings up 110 candidates.

2nd search narrowing the field - maybe within a 35 mile radius (no relocation package) and you know the company only takes on the cream of the crop - so you add a ranking of >4 (1-5 scale 1 being dosser who turns up to work to mess about and gets fired from most jobs, 5 being the next Alan Sugar - you get the idea) - this reduces it to 10 people.

You have a quick look at their reg i/v notes, yep 8 seemed suitable - you speak to the 8 find 4 have got jobs and not told you, 4 are interested - yippee.

arrange 4 i/v's - one doesn't turn up, no matter how long you spent qualifying their interest, confirming attendance. client likes 2 out of the 3.So 2 go forward to 2nd stage, offers 1 candidate... brilliant. Candidate then turns round and says either they've been bought back (again you qualified why they were leaving and they insisted a month ago that they wanted out) - bought back means their current company have said £5k and a promotion if you stay - yep they take the money... then 6 months down the line and they remember why they were looking to leave - they hate the director who keeps bullying them... so they contact you again to find them a job... no way mattey.

Anyway, you're client control is sooo good you've managed to convince the customer that their choice isn't right, you'd recommend the other guy because of x y & Z, they mull it over and either agree - show me the money, or more likely so , no we'll start again.... therefore you've wasted 2 weeks and several hours on non productive work so you don't eat this month..... Well most consultants will be able to eat but their M3 payment will be missed this month.

You get the picture, it's dog eat dog. Work with them and be open and they'll actually work for you. Work against them or have a hidden agenda and they will drop you like a stone.

sexki11en

Cue, you beat me to it lol.

I have 2 databases currently. One with registered candidates and another i've recently set up for non registered candidates. I'll search the registered candidates first, then if I have no one suitable or not enough suitable candidates, I move on to the non registered candidates. Only difference with this is, I will then book them in for an interview to meet them BEFORE I put them forward. Any agency who can meet you (i.e is close enough and you are not held by work commitments) should meet you or else they are just in it for themselves. How can you match someone to a job if you've never even met them?

Only once i've exhausted these options will I place an ad as 1) it costs money and 2) it's not fair to the candidates i've already commited to helping.

I'm so fed up of the agency bashing on this forum - I might start a candidate bashing one (not literally - although sometimes I wish) because it works both ways you know. I bet some of the whingers on here were candidates that have s*** all over me after me and / or other consultants who were trying to help them!

Cue is right - we are not obligated to help anyone and if you show attitude - most consultants will very gladly tell you that. We don't have to submit you for anything we don't want to. We are doing a job. Nothing more. Treat us as you would want to be treated yourself and you might just get somewhere with us.

Remember, if we place you in a job you like, chances are we'll be making money - you're happy, we're happy. Why does that make us the enemy?

SK x