so far in my job hunt

lemontart

Plumpie I have chased the volunteer peeps several times to no avail.

Plum_Pie

Apologies, that wasn't clear to me from your post.

Good luck!

j1mgg

I would advise when going on about agencies is maybe to try the smaller ones or even hand deliver your cv if you live locally and maybe ask if an adviser is present. With regards to not getting a rejection reply i think it is becoming more and more common and usually if you have not heard back after 6 weeks then you have not been succesful.

Good luck anyway

sexki11en

Reading this has made me really angry. I work for an agency (small independant) and rather than us being 'flipping useless' and all the other names that have been bandies around how about the fact that we have to put up with hundereds of unsuitable applicants every day. People who haven't even read the job spec, they just click on apply and hope for the best. Or how about the 5-10 people a day who once you've lined them up an interview or a job - don't even bother to turn up? Or how about trying to help someone who doesn't even know what they want themselves then moan because you don't call them - with what? You can't tell me exactly what you want to do! Even better, the ones who call you constantly to tell you they are available for work but when you call them, do they answer their phones? Don't be stupid. Then you get abuse because the person you called after them got the job and they missed it by 5 minutes! Oh, I know - the ones who apply for a sales job, you send them to interview and they sit there and tell the client they don't want to do sales!!!

You don't even have a clue about what goes on behind the scenes unless you've done it and let me tell you, we don't sit there all day doing nothing. Maybe have a look at yourselves before whinging. Decide what you want to do, tell the agency clearly what you do and dont (more importantly) want to do, only apply for jobs where you have the relevant SPECIFIED experience (clients tell us what they will accept and there is no way we have time to reply to every single applicant personally)

You can't tarnish all agencies with the same brush - all of my candidates are recommendations from people i've placed already. I don't need to advertise for candidates so I can't be that bad.

looby75

Maybe the agency you work for is a reputable one but that can't be said for all agency's, and when the staff at the job centre warn you away from some agencys (because they know from experience that they are a waste of time.) then that tells you a lot.

cazziebo

looby75 wrote: »

Maybe the agency you work for is a reputable one but that can't be said for all agency's, and when the staff at the job centre warn you away from some agencys (because they know from experience that they are a waste of time.) then that tells you a lot.

I'd ask how many people get jobs from jobcentres and how many from agencies? Don't think in almost 30 years of working I've heard of more than a dozen people get jobs through jobcentres. As an employer, I haven't found them helpful either.

:T :T to sexki11en for speaking up. Yes there are good and bad agencies but people are very quick to blame agencies for their inability to get a job. I've worked for agencies in the past and worked in HR as a direct employer, and using agencies. Agencies do not find jobs for people, they find the job first then the ideal candidate. They work on usually very strict instructions from their client, and if the client doesn't want that skillset, the consultant can't do much about it.

Agencies are only one tool in the whole armoury of jobhunting. If it's the only tool you use you aren't likely to get far.

looby75

cazziebo wrote: »

I'd ask how many people get jobs from jobcentres and how many from agencies? Don't think in almost 30 years of working I've heard of more than a dozen people get jobs through jobcentres. As an employer, I haven't found them helpful either.

I know loads of people who have got a job after applying for a job advertised in the job centre or on the jobcentre plus web site. 2 of my previous jobs, I initially found out about via the jobcentre, and in one of the those companies actively used the jobcenter to advertise all new positions, to good effect. I'm not saying ALL agency are useless, just that in my area the local agencys are so ineffective that the jobcentre staff are as fed up with them as everyone who has registered with them for work.

sexki11en

looby75 wrote: »

Maybe the agency you work for is a reputable one but that can't be said for all agency's, and when the staff at the job centre warn you away from some agencys (because they know from experience that they are a waste of time.) then that tells you a lot.

That's fair enough but the job centre are the worst of the lot. They put hundreds of unsuitable people forward to hit a quota. I advertised for a german speaker once and was told if I didn't accept a candidate who couldn't speak german, they'd have me for discrimination! :mad:

honey_bee1384

I have been looking for a job for about a month and had two really good agencies come to me with jobs. Both have provided me with really good service, i cannot fault them one bit. I got offered two jobs, one from each agency, i refused one as one employer was dithering and I start my new job from the other agency in just under a month. I would use the agencies again.

lisa21

sexkt11en - I think that to say unless we work in recruitment we 'don't have a clue' is a bit unfair - I'm reasonably intelligent and have dealt with many recruitment agencies both through my current role (my company uses them) and in my search for a new one, and am well aware of what they do and what information they need from me to be able to put me forward for vacancies. :rolleyes:

As looby75 said, maybe you work for a reputable agency which is great, but at the end of the day it is a sales job, so there are agencies out there who just want to get as many candidates on their books whether they have something suitable for them or not. I'm sure a lot of people have had pleasant and positive experiences using an agency, however I'm not one of them, along with a couple of others on here, and we are as entitled to our opinion as anyone else.