Getting past the Agencies

Strider590

I want someone who works for or has worked for a recruitment agency to come in here and explain what goes through the minds of these "recruitment consultants".

" Thank you for your application. Unfortunately you have been unsuccessful on this occasion. We have kept your details on file and will let you know as soon as another suitable vacancy arises. Unfortunately due to the high volume of job applications we receive, we are unable to provide feedback on the outcome of candidates that have been unsuccessful "

Im 30years old
Single
Have my own home
Full driving license
Own car

I have great CV, I apply for jobs that im almost 100% suited to and yet it's always the agencies that stand in my way.
Are their decisions based on a set of rules? or is it personal (like him/don't like him)? I'd love to know!
I can apply for jobs directly and provided it does not go through an incompetent HR dept I will always get an interview......

I briefly dated a girl once who worked as a recruitment consultant in the construction industry, she was I have to say as thick as two short planks (hence why it was only once), her decisions based sometimes on the colours or lack of colours in the CVs she received and how nice the candidate seemed on the phone. Being unemployed made you were a "scrotter" and mean't you had no chance.
Surely they can't all be like this???? god help us!

Mini_Bear

Have you thought about puttin ur CV on monster and lettin the agencies contact u?
i never approach an agency and always put my cv on job sites, i find that the recruiters that contact me are genuinely interested and dont waste my time.

Strider590

I just sent a reply to an agency telling them:

" Thanks for your reply, I have however discovered an old colleauge and friend works for the same company at their ******** facility and will be pursuing an application directly via their HR manager *** *********

Thanks again "

I'm so evil

CCFC_80

Applying for jobs through an employment agency is a pain in the a** as I never get any interviews. I have a much higher success rate getting an interview at companies when avoiding these useless agencies. Also find monster.com pretty cra*. The contacts you get are only interested in you in the first couple of weeks when you register even though I refresh my CV regularly. After that they only seem to want to look at newer candidates who register

Strider590

They are in the main, utterly incompetent.

They get through staff soo quickly and end up with school leaver or students working as consultants.... They've no idea about the real world, they don't know what employers really want and they (im convinced of it ) base their decisions purely on gut feeling. Then they get fired for not making enough "sales", because they're sending students and graduates for interviews when the employer wants experience and lots of it. Rinse/repeat....

Louise22

In my experience, they are awful, awful people. Again, I dont wish to generalise, but all of the recruitment consultants I have dealt with are terrible. They are all over you when they think they can gain some commission from you, but if you dont perform well in the interview you manage to get, they drop you like a hot stone, sometimes dont even let you know you have been unsuccessful. They are vile people who play about with people emotions.

If you are unemployed and desperate for a job, you are naturally going to feel a bit low, and I think a lot of the time these people take advantage with that. A bit of manners and compassion only takes moments.

CCFC_80

Louise22 wrote: »

In my experience, they are awful, awful people. Again, I dont wish to generalise, but all of the recruitment consultants I have dealt with are terrible. They are all over you when they think they can gain some commission from you, but if you dont perform well in the interview you manage to get, they drop you like a hot stone, sometimes dont even let you know you have been unsuccessful. They are vile people who play about with people emotions.

If you are unemployed and desperate for a job, you are naturally going to feel a bit low, and I think a lot of the time these people take advantage with that. A bit of manners and compassion only takes moments.

Completely agree with you, they appear to be up your backside as soon as you first register and are invited in for that first interview. The situation at the moment is that if you do not hear anything from them within a week of registering you will never ever hear from them and you unfortunately have to keep chasing them. if you're looking for basic temporary work they will give it out to the eastern european community as in their opinion they work harder and are more reliable.... Yeah right ! !Also if you turn down any temporary work for whatever reason they will bin you for life !

donkeyderby_2

I will be honest with you, i don't understand agencies and how they (in my view at least!) are starting to have major holds on "who gets what" when they get big contracts for supplying temp/perm office or industrial staff.

I understand the financial reasons for not having a stretched HR department bogged down with many, many applications for jobs, but i can't fathom the logic where the recruitment selection process is farmed out to recruitment agencies, where the people who make the selections are not necessarily experienced in HR. Sales, and even a Theatre Degree are some of the backgrounds that agency office staff that i have come across have.

Ok, this does not in any way make them bad people, but when i register at agencies, i always get a feeling that the people who make the selections are not always the best qualified or experienced to make that sort of serious judgement.

I mean, it is people's potential livelihoods at the end of the day, and my major gripe, is that applications are not being taken seriously enough by people with no real talent to make a sucess of their own jobs.

I personally, in the last 3 years have seen a drop in the amount of jobs that require you to write directly to a company's HR department, and to be honest, i do get nostalgic for the days not too long ago where it was send the CV or application form on the Monday, Interview the next Wednesday and a job offer or rejection letter by the time the weekend was over...:cool:

hr100

I worked for an agency for a year, I worked in quite a specific sector so it was a little different.

We always called candidates with ANY experience in that sector and at least had a conversation with the candidate.

I found agencies frustrating to deal with this time round and I believe it must be due to a very very high volume of candidates.

Also they may not be actually be working on that job but just be trying to so if they get a good cv they send it and hope the client will like that more than other cvs received through either a newspaper ad or other agencies, however at the moment this is less likely due to the volume of candidates.

Also, people tend to use agencies as an ease of service, want to see maybe 3 CVs and although yours may be great there simply may be 3 better than that at the moment.

mvengemvenge

donkeyderby wrote: »

I will be honest with you, i don't understand agencies and how they (in my view at least!) are starting to have major holds on "who gets what" when they get big contracts for supplying temp/perm office or industrial staff.

I understand the financial reasons for not having a stretched HR department bogged down with many, many applications for jobs, but i can't fathom the logic where the recruitment selection process is farmed out to recruitment agencies, where the people who make the selections are not necessarily experienced in HR. Sales, and even a Theatre Degree are some of the backgrounds that agency office staff that i have come across have.

Ok, this does not in any way make them bad people, but when i register at agencies, i always get a feeling that the people who make the selections are not always the best qualified or experienced to make that sort of serious judgement.

I mean, it is people's potential livelihoods at the end of the day, and my major gripe, is that applications are not being taken seriously enough by people with no real talent to make a sucess of their own jobs.

I personally, in the last 3 years have seen a drop in the amount of jobs that require you to write directly to a company's HR department, and to be honest, i do get nostalgic for the days not too long ago where it was send the CV or application form on the Monday, Interview the next Wednesday and a job offer or rejection letter by the time the weekend was over...:cool:

It's funny that employers will pay agencies to find job applicants, rather than get it done for free through the job centre. They think they are getting a 'better class of client' through an agency. What they don't appreciate is that agencies simply phone the job centre and place it with them anyway.

donkeyderby_2

mvengemvenge wrote: »

It's funny that employers will pay agencies to find job applicants, rather than get it done for free through the job centre. They think they are getting a 'better class of client' through an agency. What they don't appreciate is that agencies simply phone the job centre and place it with them anyway.

Ain't that the truth lol! :rotfl: