IT Professionals - Please help me

consultech

I am a junior IT recruitment consultant with a leading agency, and am attempting to do some serious research regarding a potential move to a better one than my current environment.

As you have all most likely had a fair bit of dealings with agencies; The question is:

- In your experience; Who is the best/most impressive IT agency, or agency with an IT department?
- Who came across as the most large-scale, professional/impressive, and who didn't?
- Who had high-calibre client jobs for you the majority of the times they called?... and who didn't?


I would really appreciate any help on this, as things arn't goin very well in my current environment, and I'm trying to get the necessary info to make a potentially life-changing decision

cronos

consultech wrote: »

I am a junior IT recruitment consultant with a leading agency, and am attempting to do some serious research regarding a potential move to a better one than my current environment.

As you have all most likely had a fair bit of dealings with agencies; The question is:

- In your experience; Who is the best/most impressive IT agency, or agency with an IT department?
- Who came across as the most large-scale, professional/impressive, and who didn't?
- Who had high-calibre client jobs for you the majority of the times they called?... and who didn't?


I would really appreciate any help on this, as things arn't goin very well in my current environment, and I'm trying to get the necessary info to make a potentially life-changing decision

http://www.sigmarrecruitment.com/ By the way I hope this isnt aginst the rules mod. I dont work for sigmar I just know someone who does.

ntlbell

they all tend to be awful.

Every now and then you might get one or two decent recruiter's but you can't join a company based on that.

They're all as bad as each other.

grab the best package.

bigbanana

I'm based in Cork now but up until last year I worked for Collins McNicholas in Galway.

Their clients were always of a good quality and I enjoyed it there. They don't focus on IT so they may not be exactly what you're after, but if you're considering getting out of Dublin then you could do a lot worse.

helimachoptor

- In your experience; Who is the best/most impressive IT agency, or agency with an IT department?
For me the 2 who stand out having dealt with a good few are Stelfox & Verkom and to a lesser extent Rescon IT.




- Who came across as the most large-scale, professional/impressive, and who didn't?

CPL = large operation. Have met one really good recruiter from there. Wouldnt be too keen on the rest.


- Who had high-calibre client jobs for you the majority of the times they called?... and who didn't?

Eolas Recruitment, Stelfox have been very very good.

OP A word of advice which I'm sure you've got before. Don't bulls**t jobseekers. From all of the recruiters I've dealt with I can count 3 who I wouldnt class as sharks. These are from Eolas, Stelfox & CPL.

BostonB

ntlbell wrote: »

they all tend to be awful.

Every now and then you might get one or two decent recruiter's but you can't join a company based on that.

They're all as bad as each other.

grab the best package.

Same here. I've noticed no difference.

pog it

I'm starting to believe that agencies (in general) deserve the bad rep they're getting-- for example- One crowd of them called me last week after I had sent my CV in for a position I was interested in. I got a call from them and the recruiter was asking me if I had applied to other agencies and so being honest I just said yeah and then she asked me what companies did they send my CV to...I was vague about this and she actually pressed me for as much info as she could get..

You could say it was because she didn't want to send my CV out to the same employer more than once, but I reckon they were just looking to generate more business for themselves and I haven't heard a thing back from her since which kinda proves something.

I hope they're not all bad..

pog it

I'm starting to believe that agencies (in general) deserve the bad rep they're getting-- for example- One crowd of them called me last week after I had sent my CV in for a position I was interested in. I got a call from them and the recruiter was asking me if I had applied to other agencies and so being honest I just said yeah and then she asked me what companies did they send my CV to...I was vague about this and she actually pressed me for as much info as she could get..

You could say it was because she didn't want to send my CV out to the same employer more than once, but I reckon they were just looking to generate more business for themselves and I haven't heard a thing back from her since which kinda proves something.

I hope they're not all bad..

consultech

pog it wrote: »

I'm starting to believe that agencies (in general) deserve the bad rep they're getting-- for example- One crowd of them called me last week after I had sent my CV in for a position I was interested in. I got a call from them and the recruiter was asking me if I had applied to other agencies and so being honest I just said yeah and then she asked me what companies did they send my CV to...I was vague about this and she actually pressed me for as much info as she could get..

You could say it was because she didn't want to send my CV out to the same employer more than once, but I reckon they were just looking to generate more business for themselves and I haven't heard a thing back from her since which kinda proves something.

I hope they're not all bad..

I consider myself conscientous enough, and have actually taken time out to concentrate on being persistent in finding individual people jobs after they have missed out at final interview on a few occasions. I will give you your point tho, there are a LOT of sharks out there. I concede that at times I have had the scent of money in my nostrils a little too much, but I like to think I'm at least helping people, and the various thank you cards etc over my time vindicate what I'm doing...

Can I ask which agency you are referring to? I don't think it's against the rules to state the truth, is it mods? You can even PM me, Im interested as it sounds like someone in my office!!!

the_syco

consultech wrote: »

I don't think it's against the rules to state the truth

Actually, it's frowned upon, as even though the one person says it, boards may be pulled into court for it, so keep it to PM.

GoneShootin

I'm letting this thread continue because a mature and sensible debate on this topic could make for interesting reading.

But my trigger finger is over the LOCK button....

Jumpy

Can anyone answer the question as to how the recruiters benefit from fake job ads?

qwytre

Jumpy wrote: »

Can anyone answer the question as to how the recruiters benefit from fake job ads?

They can more easily build up a database of candidates and cvs by doing this. Then when they do get real jobs they have plenty of possible candidates to ring.

In my experience of recruiters they are all obviously motivated by money and not your interests. They won't fight for an extra 1 or 2k on your salary as thats not worth much to them in terms of commission to them, even though its a lot to you.

And I only remember hearing from them when they want to fill a job, they don't provide any sort of help or guidance. But then again thats not what they are paid to do and therein lies the problem with recruiters. Motivated to make money just for themselves regardless.

vodkasoda

consultech wrote: »

I am a junior IT recruitment consultant with a leading agency, and am attempting to do some serious research regarding a potential move to a better one than my current environment.

As you have all most likely had a fair bit of dealings with agencies; The question is:

- In your experience; Who is the best/most impressive IT agency, or agency with an IT department?

I have been in Ireland for 7 years and have found the agencies here to be identical to those in the UK. There are a few, a very few, who give a damn about you as a person. Those few will contact you & make an effort to work, on your behalf, to find you work and to get you a good rate / deal.

The majority of them do not give a damn and are in it for the money, which in itself is not an awful thing, after all, it is their job ... However, there is no excuse for contacting somebody, giving them the details about a job and insinuating that an interview is a definite, and then never contacting that job-seeker again ... and there are A LOT of agents that do this !!!

- Who came across as the most large-scale, professional/impressive, and who didn't?

I will not risk shutting this thread down by naming names and pointing fingers at agents and agencies who have pi**ed me off over the years, if anybody wants my personal opinion on them, feel free to PM me. What I will say, is that there is an agent at CPL who has ALWAYS been extremely helpful, polite, courteous and honest with me, since before I even arrived in Ireland !!!

I have recently also found Insight Test Services to be helpful and courteous. They reply to my E:Mails and have kept in touch with me as promised, an extremely important factor when working with an agency.

- Who had high-calibre client jobs for you the majority of the times they called?... and who didn't?

An interesting question. CPL, Eolas, Insight, they seem to work with some big companies. Some other agencies claim to work with big companies but have never backed those claims up, in my experience. As somebody else pointed out elsewhere in this thread, there are a lot of agencies who BS an awful lot just to build up their databases. I have been misled by some of those recently, big time, but you have to be polite to them on the off chance that they do have a job for you one day :mad: !!!

I would really appreciate any help on this, as things arn't goin very well in my current environment, and I'm trying to get the necessary info to make a potentially life-changing decision

As you've probably gathered from my diatribe above, I believe that it's an agent's job to be polite, courteous, honest and helpful at all times. OK, it's not so easy nowadays, I suppose, to keep in touch with and be on personal terms with everybody that applies for jobs, or sends their CV in to the agency, but there is no excuse, none whatsoever, for lying to, or misleading, the likes of me, it's my life and livelihood they are messing with !!!

Hope that helps ...

consultech

Well I've never personally done the fake ads thing - Sure, I've left ads up after the job has has been filled alright, but only usually because I have a number of jobs in the same technical areas, with similar types of companies, and I can discuss these roles with people when they apply.

I hear you loud and clear goneshootin, I won't request that anyone defames any agenies, but again, feel free to PM any individual positives or negatives any of you may have to me.

I usually try get people the max salary I can, it's probably not sensible, but I look at the short term and it's worth more money to me that way. Conversely I will try and direct the attention of my candidates to the career benefits of joining certain companies when a salary offer is below what they are seeking. But people arn't stupid, and will identify if you're trying to put them into a madhouse for €5k less than they currently earn. It's not a situation I'm in all that often tho, as our clients are generally quite decent in profile.

In saying that, I witness some mega tomfoolery on the salary expectations front - and am continually surprised how people who have been out of college for all of two years and once had a pint with a CCNA get so uppity about me questioning their salary expectation of €40k.

vodkasoda

consultech - Have sent you PM ...