Any experience of recruit agencies????

Jack_Flash

Hi Guys,

Currently I'm looking to change my job however all the advertised positions at the momenet appear to be with agencies. My opinion of agencies has always been that they are constantly trawling for candidates to put on their books but not necessarily being too concerned with getting people employed. I have always though they are more interested in the employer rather than that prospective employee? Had anybody had any positive experiences with recruitment agencies?

tribulus

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055011993

Thumpette

I dunno how true that is, at the end of the day having randomers on their books dont make them money, placing people in jobs do- so I think that is their main priority. I would say have an investigate of which companies are good- I would suggest the bigger ones have most of the jobs on and stick with them. We may not like their place in the job getting game- but they are there- best to choose one that will work for you.

Good luck!

AARRRGH

Jack_Flash wrote: »

I have always though they are more interested in the employer rather than that prospective employee

Recruiters are sales people. They are selling to employers. Therefore employers are their #1 concern.

There are good recruiters out there (for example, I would have a high opinion of Net Nation as the owner seems like an ethical guy and posts on boards) but I've come across a serious amount of time wasters.

Eoin

Thumpette wrote: »

I dunno how true that is, at the end of the day having randomers on their books dont make them money, placing people in jobs do- so I think that is their main priority

But having as many suitable candidates on tap is an advantage. They want to be able to have a list they can send immediately, once they get approval from the candidate (in theory, anyway).

Depending on the industry, I don't believe in picking an agency or two and hope they can source you a job. The chances of a great job for you being listed with an agency that you're not dealing with is quite high. It's like looking for a car, but only looking in a couple of garages.

I can't count how many agencies I sent my CV to, and I did get a few cold calls. A polite 30 second conversation on the phone, and that's the end of it. However, I did get my job through an agency I didn't know, so it was worth it.

flash harry

eoin_s wrote: »

Depending on the industry, I don't believe in picking an agency or two and hope they can source you a job. The chances of a great job for you being listed with an agency that you're not dealing with is quite high. It's like looking for a car, but only looking in a couple of garages.
.

Good analogy, but going too far beyond e.g. 4 agencies can be counter productive as if you're continually saying "I've already been but forward for that..." the recruiter will stop working for you as he has a minimal chance of placing you compared to someone working more closely with fewer agencies.

As a recruiter myself I have no problem someone asking "is that role with xyz ltd as my CV is already in there" - I, like most candidates, don't want to waste time meeting up IF I have no job for them. I'll simply say I dont have anything suitable at the moment but will contact you when I do - THEN we meet up.

Eoin

flash harry wrote: »

Good analogy, but going too far beyond e.g. 4 agencies can be counter productive as if you're continually saying "I've already been but forward for that..." the recruiter will stop working for you as he has a minimal chance of placing you compared to someone working more closely with fewer agencies.

As a recruiter myself I have no problem someone asking "is that role with xyz ltd as my CV is already in there" - I, like most candidates, don't want to waste time meeting up IF I have no job for them. I'll simply say I dont have anything suitable at the moment but will contact you when I do - THEN we meet up.

I certainly keep a close eye on what I've applied for, and do take the time to check it out first before applying. There was one job that was not only filled months ago, but listed with two or three people in the same agency.

I think my main point is that I am applying for a job, not to an agency. I will scour IrishJobs.ie (not at the moment in case my boss is reading), and enquire about anything that interests me. Hoping that 3 or 4 agencies have every job I might be interested in just doesn't make sense to me.

This does mean that I sent my CV out loads of times, and most times it came to nothing. It also means that I've gotten a few cold calls, which takes all of 30 seconds to deal with. The end result is that I got my job through an agency I hadn't dealt with before, so it paid off.

BArra

would i be right in saying most of the jobs listed by recruitment agencys do not actually exist?

in fact i am quite sure of it, the majority of them are time wasters and i wouldnt have many good words to describe them to be honest

Eoin

This comes up a bit. When I was looking, certainly a high amount of jobs were filled by the time I rang, but not all.

Recruiters say that they are not able to remove listings from the likes of IrishJobs.ie to stop them re-adding them constantly and bumping them up the list. Apparently IrishJobs.ie have to remove the jobs themselves, which is why so many vacancies are not actually vacant.

That said, I saw a job that was listed three times by the same agency, but with different contact details. The spec was ever so slightly different too, but it was definitely the same job. And, if that's not enough, the job had been filled months, so that was a con job pure and simple.

Before I send my CV in I ask for the salary range, rough location and of course if it has been filled. That's generally all the info you will get without sending in your CV. They may still be telling porkies at that stage, but it can filter out some of the crap.

Cool Rider

Jack_Flash wrote: »

Hi Guys,

Currently I'm looking to change my job however all the advertised positions at the momenet appear to be with agencies. My opinion of agencies has always been that they are constantly trawling for candidates to put on their books but not necessarily being too concerned with getting people employed. I have always though they are more interested in the employer rather than that prospective employee? Had anybody had any positive experiences with recruitment agencies?

Hi,

I will say as mentioned here before that I do think that lot of advertised jobs never exists and they do work more in favor of employer as they get there bread that way. My experience I will say is mixed though I had got couple of jobs through small agencies before and currently in a process of getting a brilliant job through recruitment agency. Though, at the end of day it entirely depends on your cv, experience and capability of consultant you are dealing with.

AARRRGH

BArra wrote: »

would i be right in saying most of the jobs listed by recruitment agencys do not actually exist?

Generally a job will exist, but not necessarily as defined in the job advert.

For example, BigComputerCompany puts a vacancy on their own company website. The agencies notice this and put their own similar job adverts on the various jobsites in an attempt to get CVs matching BigComputerCompany's job advert. (This is why you normally see very similar job adverts from various recruitment agencies - they are all trying to fill the same role.)

The agencies then send in the CVs to BigComputerCompany hoping one of them is good enough for the job.

Lexus1976

Recruitment agencies are a waste of time and space. Go direct it will save you time and the job interview will go in your favour as the company will not have to pay the agency a commission if you get the job.

Eoin

Lexus1976 wrote: »

Recruitment agencies are a waste of time and space. Go direct it will save you time and the job interview will go in your favour as the company will not have to pay the agency a commission if you get the job.

That is often not an option as some companies will only deal with agencies.

By limiting yourself to only a couple of agencies, or none at all, then you are limiting the amount of jobs you can apply for.