messed about by Recruiter/employer

lisnageragh

I recently went for a interview with a recruitment agency for a leading employer back in Febuary for a job.

The interview went really well and I was told that I would receive a answer very shortly. Two days later the recruitment agency contacted me to ask would it be ok for the employer to seek references. I gave my permission.

Well a few days turned to weeks so I contacted the agency to see if they had heard anything. THey informed me they hadnt but as soon as they knew i would.

We are now in May, and the Agency are telling me that they are still waiting for a answer. I have asked them about the reasons for the delay and they say that the employer is still interviewing!

I also had another interview set up by them in March. I went along for two interviews which again went really well. Even the Interviewer said he was really impressed with me and would be able to give me a answer in a few days.

Again I waited a few days, then I gave it a week, so yet again I contacted the agency. I was now told that the job I had applied for had been put on hold! (What ever that means!)

I recently contacted then at the end of April to ask about both positions. And given the same response. The first job they were awaiting a answer, and the second job was still on hold!

Am I being messed around?

And I beleived both interviews went really well, but I still have no outcome!

nesf

How good/reliable are your references?

kmick

Been there got the tshirt. Agency stringing me along saying jobs were on hold etc. Just go to a different agency and stop taking calls from that agency. I know it is wasting your time but you will waste even more staying around. If the company wanted you they would have made you an offer. What is the agency (Initials will do?).

jhop

or contact the company directly. I had a friend who did an interview, the about a year later ran into someone from the company who asked why he didnt accept their offer. Turns out the agency just never passed the offer on.

lisnageragh

No idea what my refs are like, but they should be ok.

Is their anyway you can check?

THe Agency was ACR.

Why do they string you along though? Whats in it for them apart from very Upset clients?!

copacetic

tbh I would be very surprised if any of it was the agencies fault. they get paid only if and when you accept the job and start work.

what possible reason would they have for not telling you about a job offer?
They may string you along to try and get you to wait for an offer but thats all.

how do you not know what your refs would be like? Do you not personally know
your referees?

lisnageragh

copacetic wrote:

tbh I would be very surprised if any of it was the agencies fault. they get paid only if and when you accept the job and start work.

what possible reason would they have for not telling you about a job offer?
They may string you along to try and get you to wait for an offer but thats all.

how do you not know what your refs would be like? Do you not personally know
your referees?

My Referees are all company issue, and are provided by Head offices which are filled out by people I have never met when references are requested.

My References should be OK, but whose to say that a mistake or error hasnt been made.

copacetic

lisnageragh wrote:

My Referees are all company issue, and are provided by Head offices which are filled out by people I have never met when references are requested.

My References should be OK, but whose to say that a mistake or error hasnt been made.

well it certainly seems much more likely that the offer didn't come through than the agency didn't pass it on. possibly there was an issue with your refs but unlikely those company HR type refs never say much either good or bad about people for fear or legal issues.

personally I would never give a 'company ref' or accept one when hiring someone. I'd want to be speaking to the persons direct boss.

eth0_

Generally if you haven't been successful (or perhaps if your references haven't been great), recruitment agents will just put up a wall of silence : refuse to take your calls or call you back. It's happened me once or twice. They really are big babies in that regard.

pwd

agencies can look for references themselves - not necessarily on behalf of an employer.
My current job took about a month to come through after being told they wanted to hire me. My colleague was waiting about two months. Down to internal politics, negotiations about salary, conflicts within the organisation and things like that.

lisnageragh

is there anyway that I can legally check my references?

For instance if im being bad mouthed by an ex employer surely I have the right to know!

Or could I set up a pretend company looking for my own references?

As I said, I dont feel there should be any problems, but its a bit strange as to why Im getting no where!

[Jackass]

Employers wouldn't bad mouth you. Slander, they're not going to say you were sh*t at your job...some companys now won't even give a reference to say you were good at your job as for the legal implications of the next employer not agreeing.

The very basic reference is where you worked, the dates you worked there and what your role was.

They can throw in "reliable" and "trust worthy" the odd time, but for the most part head office refferences are all the same.

If you want to check your references just contact the company directly and tell them you need a copy of your reference as you are currently seeking employment and they will post it to you.

It's not your references though...agencys were created by the devil to waist peoples time and frustrate them or over sell a job to get commision etc.

Sharks. Avoid where possible.

Supercell

I went for job a few months ago after I got cold called by an agency that saw my cv on monster.
Wasn't a bad job at all and thought the interview went well enough. I work in a area where there is a shortage of people with my particular skills.
However never heard back from the recruiter.
During the interview they asked me bout my salary expectations and I told them what the recruitment person told me was the range and they seemed surprised ..maybe that's why I never heard back from the agency.

I notice they still haven't filled the position though, their loss, half inclined, after reading this post, to give them a call and ask why I never heard back after the interview!!

BostonB

Seems par for the course tbh.

flash harry

Could I ask what sectors/industries people who have had bad experiences are working in???

Reason is I feel it may be more predominate in certain sectors (bad recruiters that is)

Saint_Mel

flash harry wrote:

Could I ask what sectors/industries people who have had
had experiences are working in???

Reason is I feel it may be more predominate in certain sectors (bad recruiters that is)

I've only went to agencies for IT related work and found some of them
shocking bad. Worst one was a few years ago, cant actually remember
which one it was but I applied for 1 advertised job and got called about
every job apart from the one I'd applied for. Last conversation I had with
them was:

Agent: This job is for a Java programmer and you'd be perfect for it.
Me: But I didnt do Java in college and have no Java work experience.
Agent: But you said you do computers
Me: Yes, I "do computers" but as you can see from my CV and the
job I actually applied for I'm only interested in roles matching the languages
I alread work in.
Agent: But could you not learn it
Me: I could, but I'm only looking for a job I'm interested in as I want
to progress my career rather that starting on th bottom rung again.
Agent: You computer people are always so fussy

flash harry

thisis (sorta" where I was going on that - the recruiters in the IT field seem to be really bad compared to say finance........

Enda89

meh I went for an interview with an agency and they said they were impressed enough with me and that they would get back to me the following day.

...that was 11 days ago, no phone call :mad:

pclancy

Nick wrote:

...agencys were created by the devil to waist peoples time and frustrate them or over sell a job to get commision etc.

Sharks. Avoid where possible.

There's coyboys in every industry....maybe take some time to research a good one that might actually have qualified, hardworking, intelligent staff working for them that DO have you best interests at heart. Several agencies are ISO certified and have proper compliance and internal audits preventing their staff from doing stuff like ignoring calls, not giving feedback or placing people in the wrong job.....shop around!

OP I dont know which ones giving you the runaround, wouldnt make sense for the agency not to keep in touch, if they actually do want to put you in a job whats the sense in ignoring you? Just move on and find a decent agency that might actually do something usefull for you.

That java one made me laugh, some agencies have qualified ex-IT staff working for them that actually know what they're talking about and have a much better chance of doing a good job as they know the industry, roles, skills and qualifications, often because they're qualified themselves.

Tom Dunne

Oooh, is this another Recruitment Agency bashing thread?

*gets popcorn*

DD

Lots of calls, emails, again calls and emails, they said they will get back to me, but nothing. I dont know what to believe. Are they slow or they don't bother to tell the decision.

monkey24

Saint_Mel wrote:

I've only went to agencies for IT related work and found some of them
shocking bad. Worst one was a few years ago, cant actually remember
which one it was but I applied for 1 advertised job and got called about
every job apart from the one I'd applied for. Last conversation I had with
them was:

Agent: This job is for a Java programmer and you'd be perfect for it.
Me: But I didnt do Java in college and have no Java work experience.
Agent: But you said you do computers
Me: Yes, I "do computers" but as you can see from my CV and the
job I actually applied for I'm only interested in roles matching the languages
I alread work in.
Agent: But could you not learn it
Me: I could, but I'm only looking for a job I'm interested in as I want
to progress my career rather that starting on th bottom rung again.
Agent: You computer people are always so fussy

haha, I worked in IT for seven years and now recruit. I found that pretty funny. I was talking to a guy in relation to a role the last day and he told me a few experiences with previous recruiters. He had some great stories about some of the questions recruiters asked him.
Yeah, the longer i have spent in the role the more stories i have heard from my candidates about some of the people who ring and ask questions like this.

BostonB

I consider all applications to agencies as fire and forget, disposable applications as it were. Its a waste of time chasing them about them. If they are interested they will definitely ring you back. If they don't thats all the feedback you need tbh. If you never get a call back. Change you CV and approach. It doesn't work!

Ditto contact, calls emails etc from agencies to me. If I'm I'm interested I'll get back to them. If I'm not I'll ignore it. It works both ways. Staff rotate so fast no one remembers anyone anyway.

You are your skillset and experience to agencies. Nothing more.

flash harry

monkey24 wrote:

haha, I worked in IT for seven years and now recruit. .

Monkey24

maybe you could answer a question for me - IT sales people , how do they work out commission? what would be typical?

FH