Recruitment agencies?

alxkls

Hi, as a man who is not familiar with how stuff generally works in Ireland, I have a question. For years now I've been fascinated with just about anything Irish and I've wanted to move there for a while.

The situation: I am a computer programmer, and even though I can't complain at the moment as a technical lead for Europe in a large and successful company, you reach a point in your life when you desperately need a change. So yeah - I was unbelievably disappointed when I found out that the company I work for does not have an office in Ireland. So I guess a full restart will have to be performed sometime soon.

As I was browsing around tonight, I found out that the vast majority of job offers come from recruitment agencies. And by that I mean more than 90% of them. Which from my point of view is not what I'd call promising, as my last experience with agencies a few years ago proved to be a waste of time. A real life example:
"So you are fluent in C and Python. That is great, but I am afraid the advertised position is not available at the moment. How are your visual basic skills?"
Which to my mind was horror, since the relation between those is similar to the relation between a shark and a hydra - one is a super predator and the other has no idea what it is. They both live in water but that's as far as the relation goes.

So the real question here:
Are recruitment agencies in Ireland like that or do the actual companies prefer to rely on recruitment agencies, as opposed to looking for employees themselves and is what I am looking at real? I mean from what I see there is a high demand, but I have to base that on recruitment agencies. True or false essentially?

Thanks for your time.

alxkls

Sorry for bumping, but this is eating me alive.

strandroad

A lot of the smaller ones operate like this, they just collect candidates to have them on their books when something comes along. They may or may not have something solid but most of what they are doing is speculative.

Companies do use agencies for recruitment though; it will be a smaller number of larger, well known setups. CPL, Sigmar, Manpower spring to mind (please someone correct me if I'm wrong). They tend to have exclusive relationships, process a lot of jobs and are basically the companies' outsourced recruitment.

Start by browsing "employer only" ads and check how you like the demand.

alxkls

I did try the "employer only" option. Quite a few offers showed up, some quite interesting and challenging - bonus for someone who participates in the development of the linux kernel as a hobby. But those offers are just 10% of the picture when I add recruitment agencies to the equation. I could be looking at the wrong places since google is my only point of reference. Which of course rises the question about the remaining 90%. A fake offer in exchange for your CV and name in a database(or excel file on a rusty computer most probably) seems to be quite common all over the globe. This will be the third time I'm moving so I've seen quite a few of those.

But if the offers from CPL, Sigmar and Manpower(despite the fact that the example I gave above concerns them in a different country) are real, if I add them to the other 10% that easily makes the half. If so - awesome. Could this really be the case?!?!?!

I am truly sorry for the stupid questions - I know Ireland only as a tourist and I have no idea how things are setup and organized. All I know is that this was the place where I mostly felt at home of all the places I've been to. Hence the reason why I'm seriously considering this.

freeze4real

Hi

There are lots if jobs here for programmers. Big Financial multinational institutions will pay well for your services.
E.g Susquehanna fidelity investment MasterCard PayPal pioneer investment IBM etc

95% of the recruitment agency are a disgrace. There's a thread about them that mainly negative. What's difficult us finding that 5% that's good.

Advice is look up big financial companies in Ireland.
If you've a LinkedIn account follow them. Then you can see the jobs that the post.


There's a development forum for programmers on boards. You better off posting there as you'll get a better feedback.

pyroger101

Hey,

Just to try and give my pitch from the other side of the fence.

I am a .Net recruiter. (We work in technology verticals) I used to be a developer and technology consultant before this jump to the dark side and I know exactly what some of you are talking about but I would say to try not to paint all with the same brush.

Just spotted this post and have to say there are some cowboys out there alright! But there are some pretty good companies too.

I will keep it very short and sweet but generally I.T. companies like to use I.T. recruitment consultancies for several reasons. The I.T. industry is booming here in Ireland and there are lots of jobs available. Because it is so buoyant there is a very high demand for I.T. staff, these days applicants may be in the interview process with 3 - 4 other companies, competition is tough!

When a company posts a job publicly they get flooded with 100's if not 1000's of spam calls, mail and poor quality CV's, business development / offshore calls, etc. By using a trusted and reputable consultancy they can filter out all of this and in theory only receive the type of candidates that they look for. Also the recruitment consultancy should be taking as much of the interview process on as possible ie. technical test, competency based interviews and other qualifications. The idea is that an agency isn't just supplying a company with CV's but they are supplying them with prequalified candidates allowing HR and hiring managers get about their day to day business.

Few things I would advise when dealing with a recruitment consultancy:

Never allow a recruitment company send your CV without them disclosing the company name to you. Unless there is a unique scenario that they can justify.
Keep track on a spread sheet every company that is discussed with you and if you have been sent there or not.
Only apply for jobs that you are interested in, research the company / specification.
Only work with 2 - 3 agencies at a time if possible. Any more that that can get messy.
If you don't get feedback, follow up. Feedback is very difficult to get these days, some companies are great for it, others not so much(this may not be the recruiters fault in all cases).
Be open and honest, tell them what you really want. Don't keep any surprises until the end i.e. holiday's/ visa's/ the famous "I have to check with my wife" .

I know there are horror stories out there but there are also lots more success stories! I am not speaking on behalf the company I am with, just simply as an I.T. recruiter and trying to stay neutral! In general I havnt heard anything bad about some of the companies mentioned above.

Add me on linkedin (ie.linkedin.com/pub/gerard-kirrane/26/94/757/) or feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

So in summary just because a large number of roles are via an agency at any given time doesn't necessarily reflect on the market. I think you may have been unlucky!

Good luck with your job hunt!

Ger

Mr. Loverman

Apply for both recruiter and employer jobs. If you limit yourself to one or the other you are... limiting yourself.

Put in the effort with both and you will get results.