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

Sammyantha

LilyDeTilly wrote: »

You did not say that. You matter-of-factly said "change your line of work then" as though it is as simple as that.

Has the poster looked for work outside his chosen field?
What specifically has he done to find work *within* his field?
Has he tried broadening his search and improving job search skills?

Youngsters under 25, women, and those in the construction industry are currently worst affected by the job shortage. If you fall into one of these categories then I sympathise with you. Even so, there are options such as going freelance, contracting, advising, setting up a service from home, as well as jobs available both through agencies and private companies. If a candidate wants and needs to work, there are options open to them. They may not be the preferred options, but they exist nevertheless.

cavework

1984ReturnsForReal wrote: »

What the one that said that you are not here to HELP anyone.

And should be BANNED

That your deliberately try to cause ARGUMENTS

And your behaviour is DESPICABLE

All pointing to the fact that you have your own WARPED ADGENDA




That one or this one?


The one that said next you will be labeling recruitment consultants CHILD ABUSERS as well as calling them all LIARS

This is the post you are refering to?
And yes someone did actually compare RC's to child abusers..
You also implied I had a warped mindset but I will let that go as being a heat of the moment thing that we may be both guilty of.:)
The fact remains that this could be an excellent thread for people looking for work and for RC's to work together..
Don't you think?

1984ReturnsForReal_2

cavework wrote: »

I have added my Thanks more than once and will do again and believe me I have thought VERY carefully about adding again to this thread.
The reason why I have added my thanks?
Because this person you refer to has more experience and knowledge in Recruitment than you will ever gain in a lifetime.

Two lifetimes


Or knowing the OPs' level probably around 5 of her lifetimes.

jay_1978

I will never say all agencies are bad, For all I know I might find one and have find some great work through them but I have registered with a few and that's all been bad so far so I don't know, anyway's its friday so time to chill and continue this on Monday :P

alanshave

Coeus wrote: »

The posts have opened my mind to how fortunate I was and, should I ever move jobs, what game to play in the current economic climate. Cheers all.

I wouldn't say it's to do with this economic climate, more to do with there being an inconsistency in standards & performance across all recruitment agencies in different sectors.

Much like every industry in the world.

You have to find a good consultant who works at a consultancy that allows them & encourages them to do their job properly & ethically.

I hope any 'candidates' find that, as hopefully then they will return to this thread to discuss their positive experiences.

It shouldn't be us vs them, we can all be of benefit to each other.

RedSoleShoes

Unfortunately this thread got a little out of hand so, if you have some time on your hands, take the time to read through and you will find some useful info (from both sides).

To all my fellow candidates and the RCs who have taken time to write some informative posts, have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

:xmassign: :santa2:

cn123_2

Always_Harassed wrote: »

My personal opinion is that they practise a lot of discrimination. People who have the correct experience and qualifications don't get put forward because they are too old or not of the correct origins.

I think that's definitely true. One of my relatives is a recruitment consultant and resigned from his previous employer on a point of principle, after his boss made gave orders to deliberately not employ English workers on the basis that "they are all lazy".

liney

cn123 wrote: »

I think that's definitely true. One of my relatives is a recruitment consultant and resigned from his previous employer on a point of principle, after his boss made gave orders to deliberately not employ English workers on the basis that "they are all lazy".

I think what you ment to say was: 'The agency my relative worked for practised discrimination' Lets not go back to generalising.

Of course I must take the opportunity to say that it's not only Agencies who would be guilty of discrimination. Look at the ethnic groups employed as casual agricultural workers, hotel kitchen workers and cleaners to name just two who have disproportionatly high levels of economic migrant workers.

We know discrimination exists pretty much everywhere.

cn123_2

liney wrote: »

I think what you ment to say was: 'The agency my relative worked for practised discrimination' Lets not go back to generalising.

You are of course right. Like everything I've found some good agencies and some bad agencies; it's just sadly my experience that the number of fibbers outnumber the good ones!

You are also right that discrimination exists everywhere; I have a relatively minor disability and it was only in attempting to find work when I found out exactly how little notice some employers and recruiters pay to the Disability Discrimination Act.

Two particular examples spring to mind - one employer who explicitly stated "I would give you the job but I don't think we can do it with your disability" (it didn't directly affect the job, but at least he was honest!), and another employer seemed incapable of going through an interview without mentioning my disability every 30 seconds (and on this occasion it had even less impact on the job!).

Jerryjerryjerry

Excellent thread. Thank you for the warnings. I trust them even less than I did before, after reading this.

I have an agency who phones me up almost every other day asking me how I am doing in my current job (permanent, got through rare newspaper advert). I wish I hadn't told them where I was working. However, no probs yet.

The same agency used to phone me every week before I got this job offering me a temporary booking here or a temporary booking there. They'd spend ages telling me about the job, then asking me if I'd be interested. I'd say yes, and then I wouldn't hear fom her again. She'd ring the next week with an entirely new job and start the whole spiel again (it was almost as if she was reading from an auto que). This happened about 24 or 25 times and then I finally found a permanent position (which i'm not happy in, unfortunately, but that's another story).

In my experience of these agencies, they never phone you again if you ever dare to leave an assignment early for whatever reason. We are nothing but cattle to them.

They're two faced sugar sweet coated so and so's.

Also, when you go on Reed dot co dot uk most of the jobs are through an agency. Here where I live, there are probably only about two secretarial jobs advertised on that site a day by actual companies.

The local papers are almost bare of jobs.

I can't stand dealing with agencies. Don't trust them at all.

After discussing the information on this thread with other colleagues, I haven't found a person who actually likes using agencies. Also, another great way to look for jobs is to go to company websites directly. I'm finding a lot of jobs are only advertised that way.

I love the companies who say: Agencies need not apply. Good for them!