Recruitment Consultants – Is it worth going in to visit?

martin_ivan

ianianian wrote: »

Morning all,

I’ve been applying for a lot of jobs lately as of redundancy before Christmas and am now looking for a project manager role. Whilst I’ve done well(ish) applying directly to companies, recruitment consultants have been a real stumbling block (i belive this is partly due to the number of CV's they receive and partly as jobs seem to be left online after the positions have been filled).

I wondered what your thoughts were on whether it is actually worth going in to visit a recruitment consultant to make yourself stand out from the crowd and prove you’re a good candidate?

Some time ago, my girlfriend applied for a temp job and had to visit a recruitment agency. I sat in reception and watched person after person turn up in an embarrassing state (for example an hour late or with their CV crumpled up in their pocket). As I’ve been told that so many people are applying for jobs, I wondered whether a quick visit would set me apart from these candidates and if, due to the number of job seekers these days, a recruitment consultant would not be able to afford me the time for such a meeting.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Ian

If you are talking construction I can give you few tips as an ex consultant I had 8+ s/m, p/m working for me through last couple of years.

cavework

Perhaps the people who are so quick to slate those who work in this area of employment ( and it is employment ) should spend a couple of weeks doing this job?
Quit the arguing .. take the advice that is on offer and make up your own mind
No one is forced to register with an agency

zenmaster

I've dropped in on agencies a number of times in the past, if I was in the vicinity of their offices. Most times we would have a coffee and a chat though sometimes it was not possible. I consider it "networking" and on the whole I have found it a positive experience.

At the very least you have a face to the voice on the phone and they do too.

diable

Ian where are you based as IT project managers in London seem to on £300 pd upwards.

Start building a professional profile on LinkedIn and add any contacts that you have dealt with in the past, get a CV done to match the roles that you are going for and todays CV's are not the same as what was the norm 10 years ago.

Stylehutz

I found going to recruitment agencies a complete waste of time. I previously registered with several of them but eventually found a job off my own back.

When I first registered with them they all appeared to want to be my best buddy. Most of the staff however would just lie to you through their back teeth and just feed you with a lot of b

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about jobs you were applying for with them.They would always keep you in the dark after applying for a role with them and showed a complete lack of customer care to myself as a candiate. I think many of them needed to go on a customer care course as customer service to the candidates including myself was abysmal. I am fortunate enough now to no longer need or use their services or in my case their lack of services.

Sammyantha

diable wrote: »

Start building a professional profile on LinkedIn and add any contacts that you have dealt with in the past

LinkedIn, brilliant. I use it all the time and have done for a while. It's such a good tool for finding the people and companies you wouldn't otherwise find, or finding out more about them.. and helping THEM find YOU!:D

ianianian_2

Thanks for all of your replies and apologies for not responding sooner, I assumed the thread had died due to a bizarre ongoing argument!

My PM work has been in construction, but because the industry has taken a hit, people seem to be more interested in the team leader work at a call centre/ IT desk a few years ago. This mix means I’m having to look everywhere as opposed to just the specialist agencies people have mentioned.

I've had a few issues with recruitment consultants so far, but I think this is just because so many jobs require you to go through them. When I consider it, I’ve had the same issues going through a companies HR teams or even through a business manager, so I can't place the blame on recruitment consultants. One particular reoccurring example is someone getting in touch with me to say how good i am, asking whether I’m free for an interview on XXX day and then disappearing from existence. When you're spending all day searching and applying for jobs this is sooooooo disheartening

Just a quick rant - One of my pet hates is applying for a job and then finding out the position was filled months ago but the job is left online to collect CV's!!!

Wellery82

ianianian wrote: »

Just a quick rant - One of my pet hates is applying for a job and then finding out the position was filled months ago but the job is left online to collect CV's!!!

Hi Ian, agree it is massively annoying. Having worked in an agency before it may help to give people a heads up on why there are so many "non existent jobs" - when you apply for something you look ideal for any get no reply. I'm not trying to give a right or wrong, but maybe help people understand the process a bit more. None of the below is great practise from an agency, but in my experience it is a common occurence, especially from fairly new consultants.

From a permanent job point of view an agency will often cold call new companies for business and when they get a sniff of a job will be asked "send us some CVs then". At this stage they may not have agreed Ts and Cs and the company are looking at them as one of a variety of options. What happens is the agency advertise for the role and then find -

• The company have said the same to twenty agencies and can't be bothered notifying them the job is filled - thus the agency keep advertising thinking if they get better CVs maybe they can fill the job.
• Someone has blocked the use of agencies so all their CVs aren't considered but the agency are left chasing up feedback with no response - unsure if the job is closed or not
• There is a delay while Ts and Cs are considered or they apply to be an official supplier which is ultimately rejected, or happens after the job is filled.
• The company have asked an agency to advertise for a role as a contingency as they feel someone may leave - thay way it isn't them falsely advertising and the agency is blissfully unaware. Then all goes quiet or the agency find out there was no job
• As the agency is payable only on success the employer often tries to get the agency to continue advertising until the new employee has started and fitted in - it doesn't cost them anything and if the person leaves there is a pool of new candidates available
• The agency simply want to keep collating CVs - although i genuinely did not witness this myself - it was a waste of resource to get CVs unless we had roles for people

1984ReturnsForReal_2

Jimavfc82 wrote: »

• The agency simply want to keep collating CVs - although i genuinely did not witness this myself - it was a waste of resource to get CVs unless we had roles for people

That was quite rare wherever I worked.

There were one or two managers that supported such methods but most consultants ignored it because, really, would you want to sit down chatting to people for no real reason whatsoever? Its a waste of everyones time including the consultants.

professionalaccountant

IMHO you absolutely have to go see a recruitment agency even though, in reality recruitment agents are load of absolute _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ . I can remember reading an article on Dooyoo a while back by someone called yackers1 about recruitment agencies, I think it was something like "a necessary evil" which I totally agree with. Check the article out it makes for great reading.