What's Wrong With Recruitment Companies

flash harry

HA HA I've just been asked to write an article entitled What's Wrong WIth Recruitment Companies. It's going to be used in a newsletter for a large agency that will go to all its clients.......so here we go

PLEASE POST WHAT IS WRONG WITH/BAD EXPERIENCES YOU HAVE HAD WITH RECRUITMENT AGENTS. NB If you can avoid cursing or slandering/liabling anyone I may well be able to use it!!!!!!

No rants, keep to the point please and I will not be defending anthing written......

Please could you also mention what sector you are in e.g. IT, Finance, Sales etc

Thanks

Raekwon

HA HA typical recruiter..............asked to do something so gets other people to do it for them instead

In fairness, if you used boards 'search' you would find enough opinion's on recruiters to write a book never mind a news letter.

Btw I work in IT and recruiters in my field should all go back to work for McDonalds :rolleyes:

Owen

Well, you have my issue in the other thread Harry, let us know when it's due to be published, or post a link. I'd love to see the article!

dame

It's all elsewhere on this forum......not returning calls or emails, never in office when you call....if they ever do ring back it's from a private number so you can't contact them again.....fake job adverts.....advertising for jobs that the company hasn't even asked them to recruit for.....losing your details/CV.....contacting you about jobs the other side of the country when you've already said no jobs outside of commuting distance from where you live....never enough details given in job adverts..........jobs still advertised when they've already been filled...foreign receptionists who can never seem to hear your name right or pass on a message properly........

Tom Dunne

Where do I start?

Dishonesty. There's a good start.

My last encounter was dishonest from start to finish, from sending on a falsified job-spec (which I still have, if you are interested), to lies about the contract (saying it was permanent, when in fact it was a fixed-term contract).

To top it all off, they called me three months into the job to see if I was interested in moving job.

It's this perception of used-car salesmen that they have to overcome.

Edit: I'm in IT.

mikemac

Raekwon wrote:

HA HA typical recruiter..............asked to do something so gets other people to do it for them instead

So true! lol
They make such a big deal about their €250 vouchers for referrals but in some companies they give you €2,000 for a succesful referral (ok, you have to wait 6 months)

Ishmael

Some of them seem to be poorly constructed in relation to what the person wants.

I am still getting numerous calls from different agents within the same Recruiting Firm looking for me to go for tech support jobs. I advised the third agent that contacted me that i was no longer interested in technical support Roles as I'm moving towards a different career path but every 2nd week or so a different agent calls me telling me about technical support here, there and everywhere.

It gives the impression of a poorly structured system and lack of communication within their company.

Also as in the other thread - lack of communication with and general disrespect for those who aren't successful in job applications or interviews.

Kinetic^

They make you feel like you're the only one going for the job..........and I shìt you not here but I got an email from one 5 minutes ago with about 30 other prospects emails in the address bar :rolleyes:

kittex

All of the above. Plus, I once worked for a recruitment company where the agency rep to the company they contracted me to, only contacted us by email or text.
I thought this was an extreme example, but having spoken to others, a complete lack of people skills seems to be all too common, often resulting in avoiding people altogether.

Plus, they don't listen. I needed part-time weekend work as a student and signed up with a few agencies. Only one did not offer me full time week day work.

Lying about wages to get you in the door.

Generally, not working hard enough to put the right person in the right job. This is what they're supposed to do but having dealt with a few as both a general/call centre/student employee and a qualified professional, I have found they rarely do.

Stephen

CV harvesting via fake jobs.

*spit*

flash harry

Raekwon wrote:

HA HA typical recruiter..............asked to do something so gets other people to do it for them instead

In fairness, if you used boards 'search' you would find enough opinion's on recruiters to write a book never mind a news letter.

Btw I work in IT and recruiters in my field should all go back to work for McDonalds :rolleyes:

thanks all so far.....

Raekwon - I laughed when read yours!!! Arent recruiters constantly being slaughtred for not listening to the candidates??? Now I give an open forum and Im ridiculed for that :-( Joking aside just wanted a concise list....

rudie-

they wouldn't take me off their mailing list...

digitally-yours

Stephen wrote:

CV harvesting via fake jobs.

*spit*

cant stop laughing

Bitter but true !

ams

Doing sweet f all to get you a job when you're unemployed but calling you A YEAR LATER wondering if you're still looking for work.

AlphaMale 3OO

told me i had a 2nd interview. the guy rings back about 2 hours later: "actually you don't have a second interview". they are sh1theads.

Raiser

Recruitment Rodent Rejects - rampant, rabid reprobates, rip-off, ridicule, renege & repulse

Ishmael

^^

Bitter Much?

There seems to be quite a few that have poor social skills on the phone also, basically getting a bit uptight and snooty when you turn them down.

If they can't handle rejection then they really shouldn't be working in recruitment.

Raekwon

flash harry wrote:

Raekwon - I laughed when read yours!!! Arent recruiters constantly being slaughtred for not listening to the candidates??? Now I give an open forum and Im ridiculed for that :-( Joking aside just wanted a concise list....

Ah relax, I was only joking with you (-ish)

To answer your question, yes recruiters are constantly being slaughtered for not listening to candidates, but rightly so, because at the end of the day recruiters couldn't give a tiny rats arsé about their candidates as long as they get their commission. I actually think that recruiters are from a parallel universe where 'No' means 'Yes' and '€35k plus bonuses' really means '€28k with no bonuses or overtime'.

Soulless cretins the whole bloody lot of them!

Jumpy

Raiser wrote:

Recruitment Rodent Rejects - rampant, rabid reprobates, rip-off, ridicule, renege & repulse

Read by esteemed interviewer, Jonathon Ross

fret_wimp

Not contacting you after an interview, even if you havnt gotten the job. Its just manners to contact you and rude to just dismiss you afterwards. There are 2 agencies I wont deal with again simply because they never call back if you dont get the job. There's no excuse for bad manners in a job that relies on your interpersonal skills.

Lying. I have made effort to visit recruiters, who had no interest in getting me a job, but just kept telling me to refer all my friends and get a referal bonus. Just got me into the building to see if I could help fill their cv database. Also lying about expirience required. Seriously, the amount of times i have emailed/ called some of them about jobs that specified 2-3 years expirience, and then the tell me its actually for someone with 5 years expirience, but i have a nice little job right here for you!!! Thats just baiting and hoping to get lesser expirienced folk so as to pawn off their crappy jobs.

Posting fake jobs to get cv's.

Spam. there are a number of recruiters who, despite me calling them, do not seem to be able to remove me from their mailing list. No matter, it gets deleted without me even looking at it anymore. And I will never use that agency to get a job. If they cant manage their mailing list, they cant be great at anything else.

Lying(again) about salary. you rarely get the salary you see advertised with a job.

Not posting salary at all. Thats a cue i use to disregard an advertised job. If they cant advertise the salary, it must be rubbish.

Calling me refering to a cv i sent them 2 years ago asking if i ever found a job. Seriously. do they think i have been sitting on my ass picking my nose for 2 years???

knowing nothing about the roles they are advertising. Buzzwords is all i ever hear. any recruiters that call me know only words like XML, Dot NET, SQL and ASP. If you ask them for more detail, they just go "emmmmm", theres a pause and they list buzz words again. how will they know a good candidate for a position if they dont undstand the industry they are recruiting for. It may sound like a big ask, but for me, it sounds like a requirement.

Thats my short list, and sorry for repeating some that have been mentioned previously.

Trojan

Adding false information to my C.V.

My advice to people is distribute it via PDF format and add a copyright notice and tell the agent you'll protect it assertively.

fret_wimp

Trojan wrote:

Adding false information to my C.V.

My advice to people is distribute it via PDF format and add a copyright notice and tell the agent you'll protect it assertively.

WOW!!! Didnt think they would sink that low!!! Thats downright nasty!

the_syco

fret_wimp wrote:

knowing nothing about the roles they are advertising. Buzzwords is all i ever hear. any recruiters that call me know only words like XML, Dot NET, SQL and ASP. If you ask them for more detail, they just go "emmmmm", theres a pause and they list buzz words again. how will they know a good candidate for a position if they dont undstand the industry they are recruiting for. It may sound like a big ask, but for me, it sounds like a requirement.

Agreed.

Trojan wrote:

Adding false information to my C.V.

My advice to people is distribute it via PDF format and add a copyright notice and tell the agent you'll protect it assertively.

Any chance of naming who does this, or if you can't do that, what they added?

flash harry

thanks again all

black & white

I worked in recruitment for nearly 10 years and have seen nearly all of the above - didn't ever see a CV being deliberately falsified, "tidied up" yes, but not untrue stuff added on.

To try to explain how this happens, particularly in the bigger agencies, the pressure to deliver is intense. As an agent, you have some pr*ck of a manager giving you a target of CV's to submit each day/week/month etc, amount of phone calls to make, new Cv's to register, revenue to bring into the company, loads and loads of useless KPI's. I am not trying to justify bad behaviour, there is no excuse for some of the things that are done.

I have seen agents sh*tting bricks cuz their output figures were below the set targets. I have seen people picked on, bullied and sacked because they weren't bringing in enough money each month.

The money in recruitment - if you are good and lucky - is very good. After 10 years I realised that is not enough.

Kinetic^

They're so god damn nosy as well!!! 1 rang yesterday and I was like sorry I got a job. She was like oh ok, doing what. I was like doing X. She was like where. I was like X. She was like ah ok. Then a few minutes later she asked me for the company name. Like wtf it's none of your business!!!! :rolleyes:

ToxicPaddy

Hmm where to start..

- Lying about job spec
- Lying about company location
(CityWest is Dublin City Centre according to one agency)
- Lying about salary
- Lying about jobs in general
- Lying to companies
- CV farming
- Not reading my CV properly and sending me job spec for which I have absolutely no skillset for.
- Not returning calls
- Not returning emails
- Promising updates that never come
- Unable to distinguish between permanent and contract
- Not listening to jobs types I'm looking for
- Rude
- Arrogant
- Constantly Spamming me despite repeated calls to stop emailing me
- No knowledge about anything they are recruiting for

To summarise, the majority of recruitment agencies and so called recruitment consultants are useless and a complete waste of space, most of whom would sell their mother to make a few quid..

Hope this helps

Tox

Illkillya

Name and shame. Not all recruitment companies are evil.