Candidates - Things To Be Aware Of When Using A Recruitment Agency

1984ReturnsForReal_2

axomoxia wrote: »

I added some additional information to my question. I thought you might have some difficulty. To summarise....

You suggest to me roles X, Y or Z at A, B, C.
Then I tell you which ones I've been represented for, then you spend two days on the ones I havn't been represented for and hopefully you earn a nice commission and I get a new gig.

In the above scenario, you don't need to know what roles I've gone for. You won't be duplicating me for any roles. So why are you asking for them?

I have no difficulty understanding you or others.

You seem to have seriously problems with understanding the concept of wasting someones time.

RacyRed

1984ReturnsForReal is a troll.

Please do not feed the troll

1984ReturnsForReal_2

RacyRed wrote: »

It was for the role I was being promoted from, so yes, I did undertand it perfectly, that was why I was asked to recruit my replacement myself.

I was the final decision maker.

If you don't know what career progression is you are either in the wrong job or you are a troll.

I asked you what it means.

Now if you can't be bothered to answer just say you can't be bothered.

Because that is a phase that means different things to different companies & different people.

In fact it is unquantifiable.

Do you know what unquantifiable means?

I take it you don't.

1984ReturnsForReal_2

RacyRed wrote: »

1984ReturnsForReal is a troll.

Please do not feed the troll

Of course I am RacyRed.

You are rude,have been from the start & throwing toys.

Its lucky they are nice & fluffy.

Any older & they might hurt.

cavework

axomoxia wrote: »

What are you wittering on about? Its going to cost the client the roughly the same to get a candidate from agency X as from new interloper agency Y, assuming the finders fee rates are roughly the same. As far as I am aware agencies don't charge clients to look at CVs.

What if the new client who reads the CV,s forwarded from the Consultant is not using another agency?
I may be wittering but you are just downright rude .. go sleep it off.:p

gozaimasu

First of all, thank you to the OP for the warning. My experience with recruitment agencies has been limited but I will certainly be careful when giving out details.

I use agencies for temp work and try to avoid applying for permanent roles with them. If I can't find a permanent agency vacancy on a company's direct website I will be forced to apply for it, avoiding where possible signing up to the agency itself. Some of those websites allow you to apply directly but then send you an email telling you that they've registered you on their database and will try and find you work! I think the next time I use agencies I will refer them to this thread...

I'm glad to say that I haven't been near Hays (although I thought they had a good reputation before I read this thread today!) but got caught up with Reed's appalling service. As a result I try to stick to smaller local agencies if I have to use them. I had confidence in Reed though because they had lots of "thank you" cards lined up on the desk when I signed up. Then again I wasn't the most pro-active candidate as I had work leads elsewhere to follow up.

It's really difficult if you are temping because you often have to accept jobs that you don't want just for the money. I feel guilty turning up for one day and leaving (thus why I've never done it) but I've been known to pull out at the last minute of jobs I've agreed to because in the end they just weren't right for me. I realise that doesn't make me the ideal candidate but as it was once explained to me by an agent - there will always be another candidate ready to take that role instead of you. So as much as we may "represent" the agency as such, they always have that chance to redeem themselves by putting forward another candidate in place of one who pulled out.

I agree with the post quite a while back mentioning that incidents of backstabbing are rare but it won't hurt to be a bit more careful in the future. If agencies want to secure repeat business then they have to play fair to a certain extent!

Having said that, reading some of the stories on here about unscrupulous agents, it's tempting to suggest a similar tactic to a temping candidate - go direct to the employer (if you think they like you) and ask them to get you a basic employment contract but pay you 2 quid more by the hour. They are probably paying the agency double that. You gain money, they save money and the agency doesn't get any.

1984ReturnsForReal_2

gozaimasu wrote: »

Having said that, reading some of the stories on here about unscrupulous agents, it's tempting to suggest a similar tactic to a temping candidate - go direct to the employer (if you think they like you) and ask them to get you a basic employment contract but pay you 2 quid more by the hour. They are probably paying the agency double that. You gain money, they save money and the agency doesn't get any.

& for every person that does that successfully there are another 20 that are discounted by the employer because they see it as a sign of being untrustworthy.

liney

jay_1978 wrote: »

So your saying agency's don't advertise jobs that don't exist ? lol

No, i'm saying that A) If they did they wouldn't say it outright to you, although you may have interpreted that way.

The job probably did exist, and had now been filled, but admin have been slow to remove the advert.

C) There are many companies online who "scrape" job sites and take adverts, placing them on their own site. Therefore when you remove your vacancy from your choice of boards, it's still appearing somewhere you didn't place it yourself.

D) The agency may have ongoing contracts with specific companies, especially if industrial, so just because the position is not available this second, they may request more temps later that day: the JC let agencies advertise if this is the case.

E) You will not register and walk away with a job at an decent agency just by filling in a form. What about references?

F) They may have decided, despite being qualified, they don't like you! You are attending an interview, and they are not obliged to give you a job.

G) My favorite one. Client fills post and doesn't tell agency immediately, and sods law means agency finds a good candidate too.

H) Candidates translate "Come over for an interview and to register and we'll take it from there" to "Come over and register and you can start tommorrow"


There are many reasons that agencies may appear to be advertising posts that do not exist, but in reality if you think really hard about it, they wouldn't gain anything by doing so apart from disgruntled candidates and a poor reputation.

I've worked in Recruitment and dedicated HR. Don't expect HR Officers to forget you (in general) acted like an ar5e when they worked at an agency.

It seems to me that agencies become an easy target to lay blame on for people who send in a CV then stamp their feet because 'they didn't get me a job'. Well how many positions were you successful in during the same time frame? And you are offering your services without an intro fee!

liney

jay_1978 wrote: »

I am not saying this is gospel but I heard agency's get a little extra from the government for getting people on the books, Not sure if this is true but from the way they act It seems pretty likely.

And here's another example of candidates hearing what they want to hear.

Employers (not specifically agencies) were given an incentive to employ people who had been on JSA for more then 6 months, at the end of 26 weeks work.

The scheme stopped running about 2 years ago, for the life of me I can't remember the name of it, sorry, and an agency certainly never received a penny for you just registering.

nomoreboomandbust

The thing I find most amusing is that on your first day in a new job the agency will always ring up about 10.00 just to make sure you have turned up

Maybe I am being naive but once an agency tells you over the phone that the job is yours, surely that's a done deal :mad:

So the advice would be not to hand in your notice unless the offer is in writing ? Surely this throws up some potential timing issues whereby a months notice is required. The agent rings you with the job offer and demands a start date straight away, do you start "faffing around" and say wait until its in writing or in your eagerness to please and put under some pressure by the agent you agree a date there and then, he says trust me the job is yours and you hand in your notice the same day- potentially tricky situation .

Another thing, is a word document attachment via email sufficient to count as a binding offer ?

It can work both ways, when jobs were more plentiful how many times would a candidate say yes verbally to a job and then go and take another, I know it was probably a rare phenomenon and could eventually backfire and get you a bad reputation as a potential candidate in the future.