Good IT recruitment companies

abakan

Hi all,

I have been looking for new employment from Tuesday as I have been left off from where I work now(and its IT!!!!!!!)

What recruitments companies would you's recommend for IT jobs.
I have just been dealing with computerfutures and the two guys I talked to in there where tick as s&it.
But I have been dealing with other like CPL(have used them before not to bad)
Allenrec
realtime

any other that are good for an IT job?

AARRRGH

Archer
Verkom

They're good from the employers perspective at least...

kayos

Vantage - really good from my exp. They know how to take care of clients.

CPL - These guys are hit and miss depends on which CPL your in touch with. CPL in Limerick I found very good, prompt and always got back to you.

Greythorn - Currently using these guys, not the worst I've come across.

abakan

cool ill give them an email in the morning and see what they have for me.

I had a recruitment guy onto me today and he said he didn have anything for me- that was fair enough, i understand (while I think his work collougoues by the sounds if it were having a party in the background) I had to repeat myself loads of times to him and then he had the nerve to say if I was going to email employeers directly, to sent him a mail first and he would set things up between me and the company.......Im doing his job for him and he's gets the commission.

Thats my rant over!!!!

Back to the job hunting.

Ta all

Raekwon

Always cut out the middleman and apply directly to the companies themselves.

There are genuinely decent recruiters out there (so I'm told) but the majority of them are glorified sales people who are time wasters and only make the employment process even more dragged out and painfully then it needs to be.

I've had 4 different jobs in IT over the years and even though I have used alot of recruitment companies in the past NONE of them got me a job, I found employment only when I applied directly to the company. Speaks volumes really.

Eoin

Raekwon wrote: »

Always cut out the middleman and apply directly to the companies themselves.

Would all companies take applicants directly, or will some only deal with their agencies?

If you are looking for work, then I don't think there's much point in just picking a few agencies. I just sent mine to every agency that had an available vacancy that I might be interested in. I got my current job through an agency I hadn't heard of, and otherwise wouldn't have sent my CV to them.

Since then I have gotten some cold calls from agencies, but I don't get too irate over it like some people here do. It just takes 30 seconds to thank them for the call, and to ask them to email any roles rather than ring.

abakan

i dont think you were aiming that comment at me - I wasnt getting irate at the call I recieved from the agent - this past few days I have recieved alot of calls from agencies and I have no problems with the ones that are trying to work with me.

The last 2 jobs I have got were through recruitment agents

plans-for-nigel

eoin_s wrote: »

Would all companies take applicants directly, or will some only deal with their agencies?

If you are looking for work, then I don't think there's much point in just picking a few agencies. I just sent mine to every agency that had an available vacancy that I might be interested in. I got my current job through an agency I hadn't heard of, and otherwise wouldn't have sent my CV to them.

Since then I have gotten some cold calls from agencies, but I don't get too irate over it like some people here do. It just takes 30 seconds to thank them for the call, and to ask them to email any roles rather than ring.

Most employers deal with 1-3 agencies for their IT reqs, so if you register with many you will get diminishing returns - i.e. you are going to end up getting calls about the same jobs over and over. If you are ok with this, then fine, but be aware this is what happens. The trick is when you get that call to say you are already covered, but ask do they have anything esle and run through your skills/expectations again with the consultant.

The other (better imho) option is to register with 1 or 2 agencies who are reputable and who call you regularly. Build a relationship with them (i.e. meet with the consultant(s) who work in the area you are looking for. If you have already sent your cv to the agency, they have your details, dont apply to the ad again - ring the consultant.
and yes, imho some companies are near impossible to get a job with without going through an agency, particulalry if you are looking for a contract.

Eoin

abakan wrote: »

i dont think you were aiming that comment at me

It wasn't aimed at you at all

plans-for-nigel wrote: »

Most employers deal with 1-3 agencies for their IT reqs, so if you register with many you will get diminishing returns - i.e. you are going to end up getting calls about the same jobs over and over. If you are ok with this, then fine, but be aware this is what happens. The trick is when you get that call to say you are already covered, but ask do they have anything esle and run through your skills/expectations again with the consultant.

The other (better imho) option is to register with 1 or 2 agencies who are reputable and who call you regularly. Build a relationship with them (i.e. meet with the consultant(s) who work in the area you are looking for. If you have already sent your cv to the agency, they have your details, dont apply to the ad again - ring the consultant.
and yes, imho some companies are near impossible to get a job with without going through an agency, particulalry if you are looking for a contract.

We will have to agree to disagree. I think you are limiting your options by just picking a couple of agencies. Just because an agency is good, does not mean that all their clients are good to work for, or that they have cornered the market on good clients.

"Diminishing returns" implies that there is some overhead in sending in your CV. There isn't really, and I don't begrudge the time it takes to tell cold-callers to email me with anything they have.

If I see a vacancy with an agency I haven't dealt with, I will send an email to check that the job is real / still open, general location, and if it's in the right salary range for me. That's pretty much all you'll get without sending in your CV. If I'm happy with the answer, then I will email my CV to get more details.

Considering how important it is to get the right job, the minor annoyances of dealing with lots of agencies are really quite trivial at the end of the day.

ifah

plans-for-nigel wrote: »

Most employers deal with 1-3 agencies for their IT reqs, so if you register with many you will get diminishing returns - i.e. you are going to end up getting calls about the same jobs over and over. If you are ok with this, then fine, but be aware this is what happens. The trick is when you get that call to say you are already covered, but ask do they have anything esle and run through your skills/expectations again with the consultant.

The other (better imho) option is to register with 1 or 2 agencies who are reputable and who call you regularly. Build a relationship with them (i.e. meet with the consultant(s) who work in the area you are looking for. If you have already sent your cv to the agency, they have your details, dont apply to the ad again - ring the consultant.
and yes, imho some companies are near impossible to get a job with without going through an agency, particulalry if you are looking for a contract.

if you are really interested in job-hunting - do not take this advise - you will miss out on probably 60% of all the jobs out there.

As some previous poster stated most companies will only deal with 2-3 agencies and will not even take calls from other agencies even if they had Bill Gates on their books looking for a desktop support role ! My current position is only serviced by 1 agency - last place only dealt with 3 agencies, other interviews I have gone for only dealt with 2-3 agencies.

best bet is to trawl monster, irishjobs etc and make a list of the jobs (keep it all on spreadsheet to keep track of contacts etc.) - then pick the agency you want to use for a particular role and chase after roles - do not approach agencies on-spec as the person you contact may not have visibility of all the roles they have on their books - this has happened me many times.

mrpink6789

dont put your cv on monster. I advise applicants never to do that as unfortunately there are agencies out there who will take it off the website and send it to loads of companies without your permission.

galway008

I would avoid Archer, they treat candidates terrible, worse than any of the rest of them I have dealt with.

I have found CPL and Rescon to be very good.

MIN2511

galway008 wrote: »

I would avoid Archer, they treat candidates terrible, worse than any of the rest of them I have dealt with.

I have found CPL and Rescon to be very good.

I would avoid Archer at all cost, they have total disregard for their clients. I found out that when i left my last company they sent the HR there possible "employees" to fill my position and rang HR asking after me... getting all chatty, the person also rang my manager:eek: asking about me... Totally UNPROFESSIONAL.

245

I recently used Sigmar - found them to be very professional and helpful. I've used different agencies over the years and reckon that my experience with Sigmar would be as good as any.

the_syco

I've found dbrecruitment.ie to be quite good.

Hays.ie are decent enough. Got a number of interviews with them. Didn't get a job with them, but most of the jobs I applied to seemed real, as I'd often get an interview for them.

CPL are hit and miss. Some of the recruiters know about certs, some just tick the boxes.

Someone said not to apply through agencies: some companies like CPL seem to be the only way into companies such as HP or IBM. There are a number fo other companies who deal with one agency, so not dealing with all agencies may go against you.

RedPlanet

If you didn't particularly want to go through a recruiters, and thought you'd drop your CV into various companies in town, what companies would you go for?
I'm looking for Desktop Support sort of role.

Macha

Would avoid CPL at all costs - they don't treat their candidates well at all.

kayos

taconnol wrote: »

Would avoid CPL at all costs - they don't treat their candidates well at all.

If I was to limit my experience with certain CPL branches then I would agree with you, but I have dealt with agents in some other CPL branches that have been some of the best I've dealt with.

herya

It really depends on what kind and level of job you're looking for, it may or may not make sense to go through an agency.

For entry level general jobs: jobsites are fine, you should have plenty of offers to choose from.

For mid-level jobs or IT jobs in non-IT companies: these jobs are most likely to be sourced through agencies. HR departments would rather use an agency here than do the work themselves - agency databases make the process much shorter plus the company saves a lot of time not having to do the screenings and first interviews themselves. There is so much rubbish being sent to each opportunity published and it does require a lot of time to separate quality CVs from the chaff.

For "big name" IT company jobs you might want to contact companies directly, their HR departments are prepared to do the bulk of the work themselves BUT certain companies do outsource their recruiting to a chosen agency and you can't bypass it. Depends on the company, you need to do your homework here.

For high level corporate jobs it may be very profitable to register with some selected quality agencies and let them do the job for you. If you have a bulletproof CV they may even contact their good clients to notify them of your existence and somebody may create an opening especially for you.

If you contact the company directly you may expect results sooner (good strategy for jobs with not much competition or when you match the requirements perfectly) BUT if you go through a quality agency and they pass your CV to the company after the screening, interview etc and the company has many CVs sent in for this role they may treat your CV as higher quality material, start interviewing with you etc (good strategy for jobs with more competition when you want to stand out).

ETA: if you're now employed and you don't want agencies pestering you, make sure you haven't left your CV in jobsite databases. There is no way to tell who's still looking for a job after a couple of months of looking and who has already found one but left the CV in the database. The same applies to any agency you've been using - they will only know that you're unavailable if they have placed you themselves. Drop them a line and they will cross you out.

DublinWriter

Raekwon wrote: »

Always cut out the middleman and apply directly to the companies themselves.

Sounds great...until you start having to chase the companies for payment. I've worked directly for a handful of Irish SME's and getting money out of them was like getting blood from a stone.

Most agencies might be the work of the devil, but at least they pay within days of invoicing.

the_syco

RedPlanet wrote: »

I'm looking for Desktop Support sort of role.

I assume you mean deskside support? Check out Hays. They are pretty good. CPL if you want to support people over the phone. Avoid Stelfox.

plans-for-nigel

ifah wrote: »

most companies will only deal with 2-3 agencies and will not even take calls from other agencies even if they had Bill Gates on their books

it was me that said that. Don't disregard my advice so quickly - the 2-3 agencies usually consist of 2 of the big players and one "wild card" who is hopeless but is related somehow to the hr person in the company, or 3 of the main big agencies.

You can do the trawling yourself, but why not let the agencies do that for you. Its worked for me on 4 job changes in 12 years...

Be careful who you pick though -no point in registering with a science recruitment firm if you want a job in a bank...find out what their specilty is.

Eoin

It sounds like asking for the names of a couple of car dealers if you want to buy a car, rather than searching the sites for ones that interest you. I can't believe you're not substantially limiting your options by just going with a couple of agencies.

ifah

plans-for-nigel wrote: »

it was me that said that. Don't disregard my advice so quickly - the 2-3 agencies usually consist of 2 of the big players and one "wild card" who is hopeless but is related somehow to the hr person in the company, or 3 of the main big agencies.

You can do the trawling yourself, but why not let the agencies do that for you. Its worked for me on 4 job changes in 12 years...

Be careful who you pick though -no point in registering with a science recruitment firm if you want a job in a bank...find out what their specilty is.

4 job changes in 12 years is not a lot - try contracting and you will know how to find roles/jobs and you will get to know what companies deal with what agencies - one example is most areas of the civil service/government service - Agencies tender for projects/support roles and if you are going into those positions, you can only be placed by whichever agency wins the contract.

pwd

I found rescon good.

browler

avoid cpl

IronMan

Avoid CPL like the plague. As someone mentioned, it can be impossible to avoid them if you are going for an entry level telephone monkey position in HP etc. But after that they don't seem to be up to much, as a publically quoted company they are massively target driven (even more so than the average RA), and will put you forward for shít jobs etc.

For contracts I have found Hays to be good. I also found NetNation to be refreshingly helpful and honest in their dealings with me (albeit that this was a few years ago).

bill_ashmount

I found CPL very helpful. Helped me find a very good paying job too.