What is your experience with recruitment agencies?

The_ICT_Engineer

The main problem with agency's that I have had in the last few years are the ones that go bust, The last one
was when I was working over-sea's. It was when I discover that I had not been paid for two months and tried to get hold of the agency, That I found it had stopped trading. A letter had been sent to my home address two months before by the administrator's that I was no longer employed by the agency. Leaving me two months worth of pay out of pocket. The over-sea's company had already been billed and payed for my services to the agency.

bevanuk

It is nothing to do with a worker via an agency what your company pays an agency. Your pay rate is agreed and the % is charged on top.

An agency is there to make money, plain and simple. The roles are sales based roles as business generation is key.

But for those who dislike them, don't use them. You aren't paying them, the clients are. They are always going to put through and focus on their best candidates rather than take a punt on people who are of a lower level.

Whoever said its all blue collar labour? Do a little research - the biggest sector for agency recruitment is IT and Finance related roles.

You'll find very good ones, and very bad ones in the midst of it all. A lot of it is about keeping in contact, but if you're someone with no particular specialist skills - they are probably not going to be much better at securing you permanent work than you are.
However if you are looking for temporary work, weekly pay etc to keep you going - there is nowhere else you can go to get this.

Register with them all, you'll soon work out who is giving you good service and bad service.

Reverbe

I'm on the books of about 40 of them - none of them ever seems to have any work. TBH I have had a LOT of work through them but a LOT more time wasting etc. They tend to get paid for bums on seats as it were - ie getting you on their books. Jobs in windows never exist - they are just types of jobs they could offer.I have had them see my CV on Reed online and get me in for registration often quite a distance away at high cost with a view to sending me for a specfic interview /putting me on a specific placement that never materialises..Quite often some of my local high street ones will put a job ad online for something you are perfect for - so they havent checked their books and contacted suitable candidates - and then you get rejected from your own consultant who will then tell you they havent had any suitable roles..

zipady_do

My thoughts on recrutment agencies as a graduate are two fold really.

I think they offer a good service, they got my to interviews and I learnt a LOT from those interviews which I think actually got me my job (no recruitment agency involved). For that I'm pretty thankful.

From the other side, I got really frustrated with their constant false pretences, they'd call me up as if I was their best mate when there was a job on offer. If you succeed in the interviews you get a phone call within 2 hours, if you don't get through the interview then you get nothing for a week, then only when you chase you get the news you already knew.

But hey, they provide a service, take it for what it is & use them, not the other way round.

magenta22

ozma83 wrote: »

What upset me a little was that the lady I spoke to didn't necessarily have to try and discourage me from believing I can get even 20 000 a year - she could have just said "I understand, though consider that right now there are so many people going for jobs and there have been cuts so you might not get 20 000 a year".

The way she said it, it was like she was trying to tell me, whoa there, who do you think you are? You can only get a low-paid job.
When with my current CV I have gotten interviews for jobs that paid at least 25 000 - I presume if they didn't think I deserved that they wouldn't have even called me in for the interview.

I know she has to find cheap labour for companies, and she was trying to stop me from getting ideas, but that wasn't necessary at all. I didn't go there to get them to find me a megabucks job.

I have had that too, my CV is no different except that I have additional temp/FTC roles on it and with that same CV had jobs which pay over £20k pa. Register wit agencies and they are oh is that all you are looking for - you can command much more than that. Then same said agency not so long later says you will be lucky to get £16k pa. Then when you apply for something lower paid - you get you are worth more than that, I'm not putting you forward for it because you're over-qualified!

@ Got to Change.

Had that too, you contact agency to say you are stil looking etc etc and then a day or two later they call to ask... are you still looking?
I've even had that with an agency when I registered with them and literally a day later got a call from them to ask if I am still looking because they were updating their database! When I pointed out that I had just registered with them the day previous they were - oh yes, so you did!