Recruitment Agencies Are Useless!!

gettingready

We obviously deal with different agencies.

I work contracts, deal with specialist agencies that work my field - I absolutely do not agree for my CV to be sent to anyone unless I know who the client is so I can decide if I want to work for them or not.

I sign the sole rep agreement (with details of the employer, daily rate, length of contract) with the agency I decide to go with, they send my CV and arrange the interview.

Most of the time they call me - when they have a role that needs my skills.

jbond

CCFC_80 wrote: »

That is completely untrue. In my experience agencies hardly ever told you who the company was working for as They were scared to death that you would go directly to the employer. If that is not the case then why would they refuse to tell you who the job is working for?

What I mean by 'bizzare', gettingready, is that clients are agencies bread and butter so to speak. However without BOTH clients AND candidates, agencies simply would not exist. They're a strange middleman. Whilst I agree with some of what you've said, agencies can only 'hide' their client until interview stage, i.e. once an agency decides that you're 'good enough' to be put forward for a role, and the company wants to interview you, then you're going to find out who the client is. Full stop. If they tell you before that stage who the client is, then you could argue that they've technically lost their purpose. Anyone could just go straight to the company.
And, if you're seriously trying to tell me that many companies will only deal with agencies, then I'd say those companies must be mad, and missing a trick. Why would a company not want to potentially interview a candidate, and offer them a position, if they could avoid paying the agencies fees? After all, irrespective of whether the agency has read or CV or not, the hiring company themselves are going to read it also, interview you as well, and then decide for themselves. It's not like they're not having to put in the legwork as well.
Finally, with regards to the comment above, I have spoken to many agencies in the past, both specialist and non-specialist, who didn't tell me who the client was. Why? Because they know that you can then bypass them of course.
Maybe times are a changing? I've seen one or two job postings lately, where there has been a line at the bottom, "Strictly no agencies"

gettingready

And, if you're seriously trying to tell me that many companies will only deal with agencies, then I'd say those companies must be mad, and missing a trick. Why would a company not want to potentially interview a candidate, and offer them a position, if they could avoid paying the agencies fees?

I think you are completely missing the point and really do not understand much about effective recruitment. more and more companies recruit via specialist agencies only.

I am not talking about some warehouse/retail/factory jobs - agencies dealing with those are low key factories themselves.

jbond

Well, it might just be a bit of a fluke, but I have to say that I've seen a fair few vacancies recently where it's through an agency, and the description tells me who the company is. Never seen so many like that before. I have also seen an increase lately in the number of jobs that have the words "Strictly no agencies" or something similar on the bottom of the advert.
Also rather humorously lately, I came across a site (I can't remember how), where the company had a page dedicated to agencies, basically telling them in no uncertain terms to F*ck *ff (although in a polite but firm manner).

rhodria89

I had a recruitment agency call me the other day, completely unsolicited, to say they'd found my CV on CV-Library and there was a job I'd be perfect for, I have all the experience, they'd be willing to pay me the higher end of what was on offer, really generally excited about me as a candidate. The woman said she was happy to put me forward for an interview, and just needed to contact the client to confirm a time. They were moving quickly, so it'd be in the next few days.

Haven't heard a word from her since, all e-mails have been ignored. Really bizarre behaviour. Can only assume a better candidate came up.

CCFC_80

rhodria89 wrote: »

I had a recruitment agency call me the other day, completely unsolicited, to say they'd found my CV on CV-Library and there was a job I'd be perfect for, I have all the experience, they'd be willing to pay me the higher end of what was on offer, really generally excited about me as a candidate. The woman said she was happy to put me forward for an interview, and just needed to contact the client to confirm a time. They were moving quickly, so it'd be in the next few days.

Haven't heard a word from her since, all e-mails have been ignored. Really bizarre behaviour. Can only assume a better candidate came up.

Recruitment consultants just do not do customer service to the most important people of their trade. Their Candidates.


As For them ignoring your emails. Just say you know of a blue chip company having a prestigious job vacancy and are looking to fill it immediately. They will soon reply to your email or return your call.

kittygirl20

For the main I have to agree they are, usually full of fake tanned blonde bimbos promising you the world.

cavework

kittygirl20 wrote: »

For the main I have to agree they are, usually full of fake tanned blonde bimbos promising you the world.

Most temps are not likely to turn up.. hate working hard.. complain a lot and are not worth the trouble ,that's why they can't get full time employment
How do you like my generalisation (which is untrue)?
Seems you are pretty happy to generalise all recruitment consultants

and there was me, 40 something, mum of 2 who worked a temp desk, bad hair and ended up as surrogate mother to a lot of my temps..
My temps were my responsibility, they worked for me and represented our agency, if they were unfairly treated by my clients I stood by my temps and my clients knew I would do this. There was mutual respect
I had a responsibility to keep my temps in work and that went beyond the 'placement' stage.
Often this was hard as the reality of being a temp is that there is no guarantee that work placements will be long term.. the client can ring and cancel all temp staff with less than 24 hrs notice
I was never a bimbo .. couldn't afford it and I never promised the world.. my aim was to keep the genuine people who registered with me for temp work, in employment.

jbond

cavework wrote: »

Most temps are not likely to turn up.. hate working hard.. complain a lot and are not worth the trouble ,that's why they can't get full time employment
How do you like my generalisation (which is untrue)?

Actually, I would have agreed with you there to a large degree. There will be a lot of people who would fit that description perfectly, however I would definitely expect the majority of them to be of the much younger generation, you know, the ones that can't get up on a morning, prefer to doss about and do nothing etc. (I've seen a LOT of evidence of that)

jbond

You could argue that this is in the minority, but the number of adverts I'm seeing at the moment, that are posted by recruitment agencies, that have obvious spelling and grammatical errors in them, is astounding. Is it really actual employers that are not checking their adverts properly, or is this to do with s*dding agencies again?