Recruitment industry in trouble...

AARRRGH

Anyone else notice jobs.ie now have banner adverts and pop-up adverts? They've also got a blank "work for us" page.

Not a good sign!

From my own perspective (I run a couple of jobsites) I've noticed the number of job adverts out there have halved in the past two months, and I've also noticed drop in traffic from jobseekers. This seems mad, as there have been a lot of redundancies, but my interpretation of this is that people are now staying put in their permanent jobs. (Also, December is always a bad month for recruitment, but I think there's more than Christmas at play.)

It'll be interesting to see if there are any recruiters laid off over the next few months.

Xiney

Or rather, there's a lot of jobseekers that have copped on to the fact that they've never heard ANYTHING back from any jobs website? And that the rumblings are that 90-100% of jobs on websites are fake?


Personally, I don't visit job websites anymore (apart from FAS) because they haven't been worth my time in the past and I've got better things to do. (So what if that's mainly moping)

MagicMarker

Xiney wrote: »

Or rather, there's a lot of jobseekers that have copped on to the fact that they've never heard ANYTHING back from any jobs website? And that the rumblings are that 90-100% of jobs on websites are fake?


Personally, I don't visit job websites anymore (apart from FAS) because they haven't been worth my time in the past and I've got better things to do. (So what if that's mainly moping)

If you haven't got responses from any one of these sites then the problem is solely with you tbh.

AARRRGH

Xiney wrote: »

Or rather, there's a lot of jobseekers that have copped on to the fact that they've never heard ANYTHING back from any jobs website?

How good are your cover letter and CV?

I know loads of people who get jobs via jobsites.

Xiney wrote: »

And that the rumblings are that 90-100% of jobs on websites are fake?

That depends on the jobsite, but yeah, there are a lot of fake adverts out there alright. Saying that though... I've gotten a couple of jobs via agencies, and I know my current employer only hires via agencies. These would be the same agencies with the fake job adverts!

I think you're seriously restricting your ability to find work by only using FAS.

Xiney

Well, I was living in Sligo. After a while it got pretty obvious that the jobs advertised online were from the recruitment agencies in town and not genuine. A lot of the genuine internet advertised jobs are in Dublin, as far as I can tell.

I've found some jobs in Galway advertised online, so I guess it wasn't fully true. Still, sifting through 90% obviously fake jobs is a lot of time out when the real jobs are all in the paper or in FAS anyway.


ETA: I mainly use the paper to apply for jobs. I visit FAS too but there are few jobs in my line of work advertised there - but at least there's a good chance of them being real.

As far as how good my CV is? It's rather hard to be objective about that. I think it's pretty good, and since I'm good with business correspondence I have to assume my cover letter is acceptable, but I don't really know. I'm young and I've only got 2.5 years experience in admin, which when you're going up against women who've been office managers for 10 years.... well yeah.

I know if I get to interview I've got a good chance, because I come accross confident and intelligent. Even if I'm ****ting myself into my lucky undies.

Eoin

All of my interviews have been through IrishJobs.ie. Certainly, I've had to sift through some shìte, but surely your career is worth a bit of research. People probably spend more time researching and looking for their next car.

galway008

I stopped using irishjobs.ie for 2 reasons,
- Alljobs get updated every day so you think there are still live
- There search engine is crap

I now use monster and jobserve, much better

mountainyman

galway008 wrote: »

I stopped using irishjobs.ie for 2 reasons,
- Alljobs get updated every day so you think there are still live
- There search engine is crap

I now use monster and jobserve, much better

every job in Leinster is in Kildare. The location finder is dishonest.

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

Highsider

Xiney wrote: »

Or rather, there's a lot of jobseekers that have copped on to the fact that they've never heard ANYTHING back from any jobs website? And that the rumblings are that 90-100% of jobs on websites are fake?


Personally, I don't visit job websites anymore (apart from FAS) because they haven't been worth my time in the past and I've got better things to do. (So what if that's mainly moping)

Yeap i've unfortunatly heard more of the same regarding jobs on certain sites.

AARRRGH

The Scientist wrote: »

Jobs.ie recruit under the name of the Saongroup, who also own Irishjobs.ie and lots of other recruitment sites.
They are still advertising for people on both sites.

Yep, it sure does look bleak. I worked in Recruitment (Not an Agency) up until i was let go, along with 3 others 2 weeks ago.
The Recruitment & Construction Industries are gonna nosedive further in January.

Well, Jobs.ie normally have a lot of jobs in the "work for us" section. They have only recently (within the past few weeks) been taken down. I reckon it means something.

It makes sense though. No companies hiring = no income = no need for new staff.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Xiney wrote: »

And that the rumblings are that 90-100% of jobs on websites are fake?

Yea and they are have been running for the past so many years on what funding??? Don't say the governments...

Recruitment agencies openly admit that they are in trouble. It makes perfect sence, if there are not so many jobs why would they not be in trouble?

herya

Sydney Uneven Badminton wrote: »

Yea and they are have been running for the past so many years on what funding??? Don't say the governments...

Agree, it costs thousands to have job slots on major jobsites. Surely nobody will waste 90-100% of this and especially not now! I wouldn't be surprised if some agencies were running a limited number of these to harvest "speculative CVs" (we don't do that) but I guess that "fake jobs" is the easiest explanation when your CV is not suitable for the role you apply for.

Xiney

Or, maybe the jobs I was applying for were ridiculously old but appeared new because they'd been made to look as though they'd been updated that day?

Like I said before, my CV is pretty good although I'm young. I don't apply for jobs I'm not qualified for.

ETA: When one only hears back from jobs from a certain source, you start to concentrate on that source. Also, when you hear a lot of crappy things about recruitment agencies and job sites, you start to believe them especially when your experience of them matches.

I'm not saying, "I can't believe they're not giving me a call because I'm amazing!" but there have been some jobs whose job description could have been written with my specific skills and experience in mind and I was pretty surprised not to have heard back.

Saint_Mel

Xiney wrote: »

Well, I was living in Sligo. After a while it got pretty obvious that the jobs advertised online were from the recruitment agencies in town and not genuine.

Arrrgghh, dont get me started on agencies in Sligo! I applied for a job via IrishJobs, via an agency in Sligo ... dare not mention their name but they're in between Toffs and the other new(er) hotel down along the river.

Had the prelim phone interview with the agency and then they said that the company would like to meet me ... in the agencies Sligo office. Thought it was odd as the job wasnt based in Sligo, but hey, I was desperate to get a new job so I took a day off, ploughed up to Sligo where I was greeted by a recruiter who was so fresh out of college she was practicially reading question highlighted in a book. Turned out it wasnt an interview with the company, just with them. They were very reluctant to even tell my the companies name but she managed to let a little bit of detail slip and I knew where she was on about. As it happeded I knew people working in that place so I rang them and it turned out that there was no jobs going there at all but a couple of weeks before the agency in question rang to see if there were vacancies and after being told there wasnt they went on to ask what type of workers they usually looked for. So basicially they made up a spec for a job that didnt exist and dragged me half way around the country to give their newbie a bit of experience in interviewing people

Ah fcuk it, it was ICE Recruitment and they are a shower of shítes

Rant Over ..... for now ...

herya

Xiney, you may be a very good match and still not go through to the next stage now. The economic downturn and the amount of people being let go results in a surge of high quality candidates and where we used to send in one "good enough" candidate now we can send two "perfect match" candidates who not only have the exact experience required but also come from highly desired companies, have all the required courses/degrees and more. Keep looking until you are a "perfect match" for something yourself.

Another reason for "fake" adverts appearing, just a speculation on my side but it's realistic: with some jobsites it costs to take your ad down and then put it up again and it's quite expensive to do (other jobsites just give you a number of slots and you can publish/unpublish at no charge). Therefore some agencies may keep jobs up even if they don't have them at the mo but expect to have them very soon. It may make sense especially if they do mass recruitment for a number of very similar roles - they pay for the ad only once and they keep it advertised.

dan_d

I did read somewhere this week (cant remember where sorry!) that people are now applying directly to companies as opposed to going through job websites. I wouldn't touch those websites myself, but that's just a personal thing.

Eoin

How do people know what companies are hiring? I genuinely don't understand how people think they have a better chance by ignoring agencies and job sites.

herya

Exactly. I can see how insurance candidates can keep checking insurance companies websites but how an IT person learns about a perfect vacancy in a pharmaceutical company? And I've seen so many times how HR posts the vacancy on a jobsite and it's not even mentioned on their own website if the webmaster can't be bothered.

ntlbell

eoin wrote: »

How do people know what companies are hiring? I genuinely don't understand how people think they have a better chance by ignoring agencies and job sites.

all depends on the industry you work in.

AARRRGH

herya wrote: »

And I've seen so many times how HR posts the vacancy on a jobsite and it's not even mentioned on their own website if the webmaster can't be bothered.

Yep. It is impossible to predict what a HR person will do (advertise the job on their own website, advertise the job on a jobsite, use an agency) so you are giving yourself the best chance of getting a job by using all three - company website, jobsite and recruiter.

Mr. Incognito

Now that companies are trying to save money they are tending to avoid recruitment agencies that, lets be honest, do little only fling cv's around.

Emerald Lass

got a response today from an agency:
"Unfortunately, you do not have sufficient relevant experience to be put forward for any positions we have on our books at present."

now bear in mind that the rold is for an admin assistant in ops and sales. I would be what herya calls a 'perfect match' based on skill set and experience. I have over 5 years experience in a similar role (job spec almost identical except in a different industry). The job spec advertised asks for 2-3 yrs experience. So to reply saying I have insufficient relevant experience for ANY jobs on their books is a joke. They don't even offer to keep my details on file!

In fairness, and not blowing my own trumpet, but I have a good CV and write a good Cover letter - In my past role I was responsible for recruitment for my own team, so I am familiar with the process of screening CVs. I also worked for a recruitment co for a while when I was temping - my job was to look at the CV, and decide who it went to (finance consultant, temps etc). The consultant would then assess the CV and tell me whether or not to file it, contact the person or refuse it. SO many CVs were refused or 'filed' never to be looked at again, and these were CVs of a good quality. In fact when a new office manager started and did a check of the CV's refused and filed she went mad and insisted that 50% of them be called back immediately. From then on a CV could only be refused or filed with her say so. So from personal experience I know that a lot of agents don't even read your CV. What hope have you got if you are unlucky enough to be assigned to one of those agents?

AARRRGH

I'd say it's just a standard response they send to everyone. And technically it might be true - you don't have the experience for the vacancies they have at the moment - maybe they have no vacancies!

Emerald Lass

AARRRGH wrote: »

maybe they have no vacancies!

thats exactly what I was thinking! every other agency I have contacted has phoned me and registered me at least!

you'd think with the way things are that they would be jumping on every good CV in the hope of placing people - I mean their jobs are under threat and they work on commission and sales targets!

herya

Emerald Lass wrote: »

I have over 5 years experience in a similar role (job spec almost identical except in a different industry). The job spec advertised asks for 2-3 yrs experience.

Actually it might be the reason, many companies will not accept overqualified candidates on the basis that they will leave very quickly and will not be happy with the salary on offer. I'd expect this attitude to change now (surely people are not job hopping nowadays and usually they have good reasons for looking below their level) but I am afraid it is still in place.

They shouldn't have said insufficient though unless they mention some super specialised type of experience/industry/company in the ad.

AARRRGH

Emerald Lass wrote: »

thats exactly what I was thinking! every other agency I have contacted has phoned me and registered me at least!

you'd think with the way things are that they would be jumping on every good CV in the hope of placing people - I mean their jobs are under threat and they work on commission and sales targets!

Well the problem at the moment isn't getting CVs... the problem is the lack of vacancies.

herya

^ Exactly. They should have registered your CV for future reference though... unless they are going out of business next week.

Emerald Lass

herya wrote:

They shouldn't have said insufficient though unless they mention some super specialised type of experience/industry/company in the ad

my sentiments exactly. Even come back and say we think you are over qualified for this position/the employer is looking for someone to enter at a lower level/ etc. but they specifically said I have "insufficient" experience! I also think I should have at least been put on file.

In fact I even mentioned in my cover letter that although I have a lot of experience, with the current situation that I am happy to enter at a lower level. And I do not have explicit expectations of salary or seniority level. So where do you go from there!?

at least all the other agencies I have applied to so far have called me back and registered me on their system - more than this lot did!

BostonB

I don't agencies have changed how they operated in decades. People looking for jobs haven't changed either. Its simply that the market has changed. Don't take it personally. If someone wants you, they'll contact you. If they don't they won't. End of.