Evolution Jobs

WPN

In regards to recruitment and scams... no one is ever going to knock on your door offering you a job. We have all heard it so many times, you have to go out and find a job, one wont come to you.

Many websites exist these days where you can simply upload a CV... not just for a specific job application but one where any recruiter (that is any business with money regardless if they have any jobs going, this includes agencies) can access (subject to privacy controls where applicable) - which is why if you ever use these services dont use your real CV. For example, use email instead of real address; initial instead of first name etc. (An employer can decline you for this but if they want to employ you they will just ask you for it)

Unemployment is high - jobs are on a take it or leave it approach... if you stall your interest... they will look for the next person. They will not keep chasing you with a sales pitch. Agencies need jobseekers - not just clients; people vary in skills and experience levels... so some jobseekers will be extremely more desirable than others. Its your needs which you need to satisfy, not theirs!!

Whether this is a scam (in regards to data theft by compiling databases of details to store information and sell them on to third parties), legit or account stuffing (overinflating their database of jobseekers to increase desirability (and price) for future clients) is uncertain.

What is clear... from the main website there is no terms at all. Also, there privacy policy is a little too basic for my liking. In a nutshell they claim not to disclose your information other than to clients, without your consent. Whether later in the process you are tricked into not ticking the opt out box, I dont know. For a business trading for over a decade (I am assuming by domain age, not sure about company) under that website, I would expect a LEGAL terms and/or privacy policy. These can be purchased as a template from solicitors requiring just the name and address to be modified etc. and where applicable certain clauses.

The Sophie email messages are automated and it appears there is a GUID per an email (I clicked the link, it called me Donna!! haha) which I assume they have already created you an account but want you to confirm details as being correct (to get round limited details I specified above with the encouragement that you could gain employment from confirming your details).

I would be surprised if they are harvesting your data (they seem established and I would have heard allegations by them by now) however I think they are just boosting their membership count. I don't think you stand much chance of getting anything through them.

Just noticed the original post is rather old. Find it funny how (allegedly) a Director posted a comment (2 months after almost) acting as if he is independent to the company. In response to turner etc. most these bad agencies do this, totally fake adverts elsewhere, to get you on their books and then send you everything else but the one you were interested in. Estate agents do similar things too.

playforkeeps

Join the club everybody; I too had a very strange and rather probing telephone call from them today. All sounded a little "fishy" so after a little Google time I stumbled upon this forum post. Anyhow to continue I then received the following email from them:


Many thanks for your time.

Please click here to enter your references from your most recent employers. It would be good, where possible, to show them to companies that are interested in you. This will really help you get the position you want as it creates credibility with your application.

Ideally the references you give will be/have been, your direct line manager at the company. Include your current/most recent employer; however they will not be approached without your prior written permiss ion.

In addition, in reply to this email, it is important that you keep me updated with any details of where you have sent your CV and where you have been/are going for interview. This includes company applied for, location, role applied for and manager's name if possible.

This is so that any applications I make on your behalf will not damage any pre-existing applications, this will save wasting your time and help me work faster.

Finally, please keep me up to date with your employment situation i.e. interviews or job offers as it would be unfair to put you forward to anyone should your situation change.

Speak to you soon,

(The Consultant)


My reply:

Dear (The Consultant)

I forgot to mention that I have an interview next week at "Captain's Log, Stardate 43198.7" with

Mr James "T" Kirk
Hollow deck 9
The star ship enterprise
Milky Way
Universe
RA 10:30:45.1

Job position: Energizer Bunny

If you require any further information please do NOT contact me as I will be busy actively seeking a real job
here on planet earth

Best Regards

Me

Evilm

I think they are just getting the emails from Jobsite with new uploaded CVs and automatically contacting people to add them to their database.

Annoying. I just ignored it when I got it.

Newby_Jobseeker

Hi everyone,

I recently registered my CV on TotalJobs.co.uk and received this email the following day from Daniel at Evolution Recruitment Solutions Ltd:

Hi
TotalJobs have just notified Evolution that you are looking for a new job!

If you could click here and enter some extra details (it will take you between 1 and 2 minutes), we are statistically 78% more likely to find your ideal job - so this genuinely helps everyone!


So very similar to the original email in this discussion thread, many months later. I tried calling Daniel to discuss, but they said he wasn't available and he didn't call me back.

Since I haven't managed to get any other agencies to help me in my job search, I was going to complete their form anyway and give them the details they asked for re. references and other applications, but having read this thread, I'll be ignoring it.

Thank you all!

GarretNew

Be careful with Evolution jobs))

suchagrass

Hello,

I think they probably knew something like this would happen. I used to work there but thankfully I have moved on to better things. They sacked me as I was not hitting the targets they had set. So, if this means now you think that my view is biased, fair enough. Im not here to slander the company. What I am here for is to explain the actual way Evolution works.

Firstly, Evoultion will probably read this. I want to take this chance to say I am not slandering the company or employees in any way, shape or form.

Lets answer the 1st question... ''should I use them?''

Answer..... it depends. If you have alot of experience in your field or your skills is suited to a niche area of the market, then yes. To be fair to Evolution, if you are a good candidate and there is a job available for you to fit into, they WILL work harder than any other company in the UK to fit you in that role. I know this for a fact as most of the people there work 11 hour shifts mostly. A few even 12 everyday. We are told to work from home (via gotomypc) to search and source jobs. If the consultant sees your CV and thinks you have a brilliant one, your classed as a ''hot candidate'', the promised land. They will bend over backwards to find you a role.

On the other hand, if your credentials are not very strong for whatever reason, be it experience lacking, qualifications etc.... They will ring you just to see where you are applying in the market.

The basic way everything works

I would have a patch - a specific type of technology in a specific part of uk (such as JAVA specialists in the north west)

I would use this bespoke program designed to pull CV's from all the main jobsites and call candidates (thats you). I would say I found you CV seemed quite good. Now, weather I have a possible job or not, I would probably bend the truth to make you believe I have a job thats perfect for you. I would go through all the normal questions (how much money you want, what kind of role do you fancy ect) - then I would come to the parts I really want know - WHERE HAVE YOU APPLIED FOR...? - this one question (asked 100's of times a week) is the one sentence that makes these guys literally £1000's of pounds a month.

I would then say ill be in touch in the next week with some potential job specs of clients.....weather i had a role or not I would ring you the following week and ask the same question again, and the week after that, and that....im sure you see the idea.

The jobs you have been for and told us about are called ''leads''. If you provided managers names then thats even better news for them! This cuts through the red tape of finding the ''decision maker''. Also, we would ring your previous jobs and ask if there is any jobs going. There are loads more things but I simply cant be bothered to explain them all...

Evoulution do find jobs. They do. Just like any other rec company, they have client contracts and also they call every job posted on the job boards that are IT specific. They are a multi million pound company, who will make millions more, with or without you providing your interview details.

There is what you may call a ''dark side''. And this is why I quit. We are at the back end of a recession. And I predict in the next couple years we will walk into another one. When someone looses their job, alot of the time, that means they may have lost their life as they know it. Having to tell the wife/husband that they can no longer contribute financially for their family. Asking banks for extensions on loan agreements, not being able to support kids, mums, dads, cancelled holidays....the list is endless. Out of the approx 500 people i would speak to a week, I would only set up interviews for maybe 2 of them. And yet ive given false hope to the other 498 that im going to find their ideal role. I would call them back, week after week and pretend Im sourcing jobs specific for them, this was obviously not the case. This just didnt feel..... (have to choose my words carefully)....ethical. *this is an opinion of myself and in no way ment to be taken as bible*

SO, in closing. Evoultion will open doors for you, if you are a good candidate and co-operate. Is there anyway of knowing weather your one of the people they want to take things further with? NOT A CHANCE IN HELL!!! its a double edge sword. All i could reccomend is play them at thier own game. so only mention places you didnt want to work at, or have been unsuccesful for. dont mention anywhere you actually desire to work. as it has happened plenty of times that someone mentioned where they was going for a interview, they told evoulution, who ten rang the company and set up interview with people more qualified than the person who gave evolution that lead in the first place. I just wanted to air this to somewhat get it off my conscience. I hope this helps make your decision of weather you want to use them. If your good, then you should. if your not, then dont. Simple.

happy job hunting guys!

suchagrass

p.s, i made sure i didnt comment on how it is to work there as thats where it could get legal as some of the things I would say would be classed as slander lol

NevG

And I won't be answering. The previous job I had was temporary in Cryptology with the IT arm of a large bank renewing Verisign and CA3 certificates for apps, servers and websites, a very lowly but important job.

This doesn't make me an expert in Cryptology so the email has been consigned to the spam folder.

The other Company similar to this is reed.co.uk they call themselves the number 1 jobsite but every email I get is full of adverts for services like CV writing, Courses that cost an arm and a leg. All the seem to want to do is flog you something - Reed, I'm unemployed you idiots where do you think I can get a couple of grand for a course that will get me nowhere in finding a job at 57:mad:

They have now be un-subscribed but I bet I'll still get email.

Mandog

Nearly a year after the last post on here I've had an identical email to Newby Jobseeker's after updating my CV on CWjobs.

This company has just come out of nowhere to 2nd in The Sunday Times' list of the 100 best small companies to work for. The list is based on an employee survey.

All quite dodgy, avoid.

Mark_S_

I'm also having a negative experience with this company. I believe they obtained my details from my CV on Jobserve, which is a practice undertaken by countless other organisations (who thankfully have a more professional approach to personal data and generally remove it when asked).

Rather than just emails, I am also inundated with spam text messages from Evolution Jobs which have continued despite my replys asking (nay...begging) to be removed. I even looked on their website to see if there was any way of removing my details and laughably their data retention policy is as follows:

Data retention policy
If no data activity such as updates or changes occur within 12 months then your information will be transferred from our database to an internal company data store.
On request, we will provide information in writing about your information stored on our database. If you do not wish us to hold your information, you are entitled to tell us at any time and we will remove all such information from our database.

So, I requested that my details were removed and guess what....? More texts!

I've now had enough. If you're still reading this post Nick Elliot (Operations Director) you should be aware that your company is fast growing a poor and unprofessional reputation because of the disdain you show towards our data and your unwillingness to comply with data protection standards (and your own website's policy!). You should also be aware that over 9 and a half thousand people have viewed this post - perhaps people are starting to Google "Evloution Jobs" and "Spam"? For your information I have just reported you to the Information Commissioners Office for unsolicited Spam text messages and will look at Tony's suggestion of contacting Trading Standards. If I continue to receive emails or texts I will start posting on your Facebook and other Social network sites about how low my opinion is of you, and how anybody looking for work should proactively avoid you.

So please Mr Elliot, JUST check the replydp @ evolutionjobs co uk inbox containing my email asking for my records to be removed (amongst many similar others no doubt) and get on and do it!

BP

I've been receiving emails from Evolution for the last few days - about 40 in all, mostly based on the same template, and confirming everything that has been said about them so far in this thread.

Quite possibly I've found a new problem with them: they are sending "job specs" which are clearly just job descriptions extracted from the CVs of other users! This wouldn't be so awful (though it is worse even than what suchagrass described about) if it didn't include the person's name and enough information for me to actually identify the innoncent individual in question (I am looking at his linkedin page right now and can see that it matches!)

Surely this is a major data protection breach? Unsolicited, I'm being sent CV information from private individuals. Is there somewhere this should be reported?