Are recruitment agents jobless in their job too?

tosyn

[FONT=&quot]Have been in contact with few recruitment agents locally and nationally via websites while looking for a new job in admin/managerial posts....

These guys have been driving me nuts, I will share my experience because I do not know whether I am the only one who has had this experience in the last 3-4 months...

..) Whenever I apply for a job via email, 90% of case, they do not respond
..) When I call them to check status - they say the post has already been on hold - again 90% of the case. In rare case, the position has already been filled, which I am happy to hear atleast someone else got the job.
..) After a few weeks, I see the same job coming back again
..) the same process continues - if I call them i get an answer like, oh...we are waiting for confirmation on hold will release blah blah

I wonder whether recruitment agents are posting bogus jobs or even the end-company managers themselves is doing this "bogus recruitment exercise" releasing non-existent jobs for keeping themselves cling on to their jobs.....

This is driving me nuts.... Thanks for listening to my frustration[/FONT]

MissSarah1972

tosyn wrote: »

[FONT=&quot]Have been in contact with few recruitment agents locally and nationally via websites while looking for a new job in admin/managerial posts....[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]These guys have been driving me nuts, I will share my experience because I do not know whether I am the only one who has had this experience in the last 3-4 months...[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]..) Whenever I apply for a job via email, 90% of case, they do not respond [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]..) When I call them to check status - they say the post has already been on hold - again 90% of the case. In rare case, the position has already been filled, which I am happy to hear atleast someone else got the job. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]..) After a few weeks, I see the same job coming back again [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]..) the same process continues - if I call them i get an answer like, oh...we are waiting for confirmation on hold will release blah blah[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]I wonder whether recruitment agents are posting bogus jobs or even the end-company managers themselves is doing this "bogus recruitment exercise" releasing non-existent jobs for keeping themselves cling on to their jobs.....[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]This is driving me nuts.... Thanks for listening to my frustration[/FONT]

It's the same old, same old with agencies. They post jobs that do exsist only to get you to register and have no intention of putting you forward. Their aim is to create the biggest data base of people and if you are on theirs the chances are you are not on anyone elses (or at least believe they will help you).

They work for the client ONLY and not the candidate and do not owe the job seeker anything as we do not pay them.

If you do not get a reply either way it's because they have no read the application as there were far too many to read or can be bothers as its too time consuming to do so.

If you call them out of the blue I bet £100 they will always say 'come in and see us' but for an application you hear nothing. Prrof they will register anyone without having any jobs to put you forward for.

billa_champion

I had a friend who was a recruitment agent. He told me that 90% of the jobs that he advertised were fake just so that they could build up a list of candidates/skills so that when a job does come up, then they can go to their client and say 'I already have X number of CVs that I can send over NOW'.. He left because he couldn't hack the constant lying - to candidates and clients.

Glass_Half_Empty??

The driving agencies in Nottingham advertise bogus jobs. The work is thin on the ground and they still claim to have x.y.z position. I rang one up recently and asked about work at a brewery they were advertising for an immediate start(not wanting the job more for my own peace of mind) and he said they don't need anyone so I asked why he was advertising that along with 10+ other jobs DAILY when they don't have the work and he put the phone down on me and said "you'll never get any work off us" :mad: I think agencies should be banned from advertising personally, maybe set up their own section on job sites and keep the rubbish away from the genuine jobs.

tosyn

I do not mind getting an email saying I am not qualified or not having enough experience...what I see from my experience in the last 4 months is that, there is a lot of bogus and false 'covering up' going on in the recruitment industry.

This leads me to think that there are lot of people trying to cling on to their own jobs by means of creating bogus recruiting!

I went for interviews twice in local govt establishments, later to find out that on one occassion they were doing interview to "comply with the process", because the post was advertised to both external and internal candidates..
One of my friends who is working in the same organisation later said to me that the for post thats already 'decided internal' the interviews are normally done for the sake of formality and documentation required to comply with the recruitment processes.... What a waste of time!
I got a response back from them after a week saying I am "employable" but on that day there were better candidates.. God bless

As I said, this i really driving me nuts...

rabb

Job agencies are essentially a parasite industry, living off the endeavours of others. I like to think of them as being a bit like football agents!

In my experiences recently, unless a niche agency specialising in a particular field (e.g. IT, teaching or nursing) they hardly ever care about registering you when you inquire anymore.

I've just been placed on that Work Programme at the dole office, it seems the company that will be administering it and who I will visit is Pertemps.

Well I tried to register with Pertemps in approx Nov 2011 and the women at the desk completely dismissed my CV and wouldn't even register me!

So when I go to the 1st meeting with Pertemps I will say so you're here to help me find a job? Why don't you get your agency arm of the company to register me then? Surely 3 years experience in service industry, 7 years experience in banking inc call centres, 4 years experience in education + good GCSEs, A-levels, 2:1 degree from redbrick uni & a postgraduate qualification renders me at least capable of being registered by the company.

Hays, Manpower plus a few regional agencies etc are also full of !!!!!!!!, like getting you to go down to their office under the auspices of being put forward for a job only to discover the job was suspiciously FILLED THAT MORNING!

I now largely just apply directly to compnies now, that way you at least know the job is real.

So high street agencies I have zero time for in the main, websites such as totaljobs, indeed.co.uk etc do serve a purpose, generally providing links directly to company website in the main. Though a few !!!!taking adverts do still pop up.

CCFC_80

Recruitment agencies treat you like mushrooms. They keep you in the dark and feed you non stop with B******T

V_Chic_Chick

I like to think of them more as pimps (certainly in hospitality sector, where jobs are often only for one shift).

They tell you who you are going to spend the night with, take their (rather large) cut and pay you a pittance!

PenguinOfDeath

I applied for a position through an agency on a Friday, knowing full well it was probably fake. They rang me pretty much straight away to get me registered first thing on Monday as the position had to be filled quickly. Surprise, when I got a call the next day offering to put me forward for another job (not the same industry, less money, temp contract etc) they said the other job had been out on hold - agency speak?!

Then I get a call re an interview for a company that I had previously dealt with in a former role, didn't have the best impression from then but didn't have anything to lose by going - it was terrible!

I was first greeted by someone 15 mins after the scheduled time after sitting in the reception area being able to hear people peeing in the ladies behind the paper thin wall behind me.

Was shown in by the manager who brought herself in what was to me orange juice, power she took great pains to explain it was just an energy drink she took everyday and it wasn't because she was hungover...ok....

It was supposed to be a competency based interview but I got 20 minutes of her asking me if is worked in the industry (no, but something similar to another of their branches), clearly hadn't seen my cv before and didn't really ask me any of my experience; just what the job was and how repetitive it can get, basically warning me about long hours as if they ve had many people come and disappear again!

Is this normal for an interview from an agency or do they seem to deal with less than competent clients? I've had a few interviews I got by applying directly and all of those seemed to be able to at least carry out a formal interview

InsideInsurance

MissSarah1972 wrote: »

They work for the client ONLY and not the candidate and do not owe the job seeker anything as we do not pay them.

Sorry, they work ONLY for themselves!

They are typical of most people with "agent" in their job title, their allegiances are split and ultimately they are self serving. Yes the company pays them but at the same time they do coach candidates, improve their interivew skills etc and at times manipulate CVs etc all with the intent to increase the chances of their candidate being taken on rather than another agents. That is certainly not in the interest of the hiring company

tosyn

General trend in Local goverment (local/county council etc) recruiting

- Hiring manager(s) usually spends 2-4 weeks writing a job and person specification (basically copy-paste ) and of course 'review' and 'refine'.
- job finally goes out in the public domain via their own website and other channels.
- waits for upto 1 month to receive/close all applications
- spends another 2-4 weeks reviewing candidates/shortlist
- 2 weeks to arrange interview
- another weeks to asses candidate performance and grading post-interview
- and then finally, job goes offered "internally" ....bonkers !!!

- I can certainly say this happens in my local council. And pretty much the same case with other govt departments.

Total time taken = 4 to 6 months using taxpayer money
Now here is a thought - why do the govt need to reduce spending ?