Recruitment Agent completely unresponsive, for a year!

username123

I started job hunting after a period of redundancy early last summer. I found a job within 3 weeks - through a direct advertisement, not a recruitment agent. Its ok but for a few reasons I am still continuing to keep my eye open.

From the time I started job hunting my CV/contact details are with a number of recruitment agents. There is one in particular who occasionally sends me jobs - that seem like great matches for my skill set. Yet every single time I respond to say - yes, this is great, put me forward - I never ever get a response. Its almost a year now and this particular agent has sent me loads of different positions (some not suitable at all), yet never once have they responded to me responding to them.

Its really at the stage that I just dont even like seeing emails from them as they clog up my inbox with what I can only assume are fake roles - or even if they are not fake, due to lack of response, they may as well be.

I really dont understand what is going on here - other recruitment agents tend to be at least marginally more responsive!

Have other people experienced this - could it just be that the jobs dont exist at all?

Nurse2014

Heya,
I get this all the time, i signed up with a few when i graduated and then boom i was inundated. I think the jobs are false anyways, just to lure you in. They send these to hundreds of people every month. i would watch out for the few that are sending more individual emails instead.
My advice unsubscribe! ??
Call them and explain.

Mr. Loverman

Are you sure your e-mails aren't being flagged as spam?

What @domain.com do you use for your e-mail?

username123

Mr. Loverman wrote: »

Are you sure your e-mails aren't being flagged as spam?

What @domain.com do you use for your e-mail?

gmail.com

Id find it hard to believe that an email address that they are actively sending mail to is marked as spam. Plus when they first contacted me I sent them my CV directly while on the phone to them and they got it. Although its not beyond the realms of possibility that they have marked me as spam since.

I think I will ask them to take me off their database, they just generate too much heat with very little light.

Mr. Loverman

username123 wrote: »

Id find it hard to believe that an email address that they are actively sending mail to is marked as spam.

That's not how spam filter work unfortunately! Unless they've added you to a whitelist, their paranoid spam software could be flagging you as spam.

I agree with you that the guys probably just a bit of an arsehole and that is the explanation, but let's keep an open mind to the alternatives.

username123

Mr. Loverman wrote: »

That's not how spam filter work unfortunately! Unless they've added you to a whitelist, their paranoid spam software could be flagging you as spam.

I agree with you that the guys probably just a bit of an arsehole and that is the explanation, but let's keep an open mind to the alternatives.

I might email them from an alternative email address (different domain) and see do they respond. Its a number of different people, basically any mail from the place that I answer remains unresponded to by them.

Lenmeister

Have you ever tried dropping into them?

username123

Lenmeister wrote: »

Have you ever tried dropping into them?

No. I don't even know where they are!

I emailed from a different address yesterday and got an immediate response. They're checking if there's a problem with my gmail address.

Thanks Mr. Loverman for bringing that possibility to my attention.

ongarboy

I'm not sure what type of jobs you are applying for but I'd be kind of wary of any recruitment agency that would not ask me in for a face to face interview so that they can accurately screen me. I've only ever engaged with agencies this way and it shows professionalism that they screen their candidates thorougly this way before offering them to clients for interview. Maybe this doesn't have to be the way for more temp or unskilled/low grade job type jobs, I'm not sure.

The fact that you can't even find a physical presence for this agency makes me wonder how professional an outfit they are. If they have failed to provide you with any satisfaction for over a year or the courtesy of at least one reply, then they are not providing you the service you deserve. I'd block them from my email account if I were you. Focus only on agencies that ask for you to call in to discuss your CV, career aspirations, give you interview tips... I know a lot of the supposedly professional outfits can let you down majorly as well but at least you can phone them and arrange to call in and make physical contact - always better than the anonymity of mails and online CVs.

username123

ongarboy wrote: »

I'm not sure what type of jobs you are applying for but I'd be kind of wary of any recruitment agency that would not ask me in for a face to face interview so that they can accurately screen me. I've only ever engaged with agencies this way and it shows professionalism that they screen their candidates thorougly this way before offering them to clients for interview. Maybe this doesn't have to be the way for more temp or unskilled/low grade job type jobs, I'm not sure.

The fact that you can't even find a physical presence for this agency makes me wonder how professional an outfit they are. If they have failed to provide you with any satisfaction for over a year or the courtesy of at least one reply, then they are not providing you the service you deserve. I'd block them from my email account if I were you. Focus only on agencies that ask for you to call in to discuss your CV, career aspirations, give you interview tips... I know a lot of the supposedly professional outfits can let you down majorly as well but at least you can phone them and arrange to call in and make physical contact - always better than the anonymity of mails and online CVs.

Im a high earning professional currently in a niche area of software development. Ive ~20 years experience in the area Im currently in. However my skill set far exceeds my current role so Id like to move on.

Ive only ever secured jobs from direct advertisment (ie, not recruitment agencies) so Im not overly familiar with how they work. There has only been one recruitment agent who asked me for a face to face - but I declined as I work full time and wouldnt have had an opportunity to go and be "interviewed" by someone who wouldnt have a clue what it is I do.

Usually my experience with recruitment agents has been that they phone me and discuss my CV over the phone. Generally speaking, anyone I know who has engaged with recruitment agents (ie, other people Ive worked with) have NOT had face to face - I wasnt aware it was really something that was done at the level Im at - I could be wrong though.

Just to clarify - the agent I was talking about does have a physical presence, Ive just never investigated where it is!

Jim2007

username123 wrote: »

I might email them from an alternative email address (different domain) and see do they respond. Its a number of different people, basically any mail from the place that I answer remains unresponded to by them.

If you are interested in a position then pick up the telephone and call the agent. The agent is not going to go through hundreds of emails if they have got 7 or 8 good CVs already from the phone to submit to their client. It is human nature.

username123

Jim2007 wrote: »

If you are interested in a position then pick up the telephone and call the agent. The agent is not going to go through hundreds of emails if they have got 7 or 8 good CVs already from the phone to submit to their client. It is human nature.

They have responded to an email from an alternate address, seems to be some issue with my regular email address.

Jim2007

username123 wrote: »

There has only been one recruitment agent who asked me for a face to face - but I declined as I work full time and wouldnt have had an opportunity to go and be "interviewed" by someone who wouldnt have a clue what it is I do.

It is my experience that agents who take the time to meet you face to face tend to be the better agents. And it is not about knowing what you do! It is about building up a relationship with them, so that they have the confidence in you to put you forward for the jobs, so that they will think of you when that interesting position lands on their desk and so on...

Every job I've held in software engineering in the last 15 years has come from agents ringing me, not the other way around. I know 3 agents that I try to keep in contact with, I go have a coffee with them once or twice a year even when I'm not on the market. Networking is an important skill in landing the position you are looking for.

username123

Jim2007 wrote: »

It is my experience that agents who take the time to meet you face to face tend to be the better agents. And it is not about knowing what you do! It is about building up a relationship with them, so that they have the confidence in you to put you forward for the jobs, so that they will think of you when that interesting position lands on their desk and so on...

Every job I've held in software engineering in the last 15 years has come from agents ringing me, not the other way around. I know 3 agents that I try to keep in contact with, I go have a coffee with them once or twice a year even when I'm not on the market. Networking is an important skill in landing the position you are looking for.

Thanks for this. Recruitment agents werent really a "thing" when I started my career. Since then Ive only had 3 roles (ive good longevity!) so not a huge amount of experience of job hunting at all (the longest Ive ever spent looking for a job has been 3 weeks). I was in my previous role for over a decade so had no interest in being in touch with recruitment agents as no plans to move but my department was axed after a take over so it was really last summer was my first time on the job market in well over a decade. Most of my networking tends to be with managers in other companies that Ive worked with. I could have used those contacts when I did go job hunting but I didnt need to as it happened.

Right now I am simply keeping my eye out which led me to wonder if it was a normal thing or a strange thing to hear nothing back at all from recruitment agents over a long period of time.

My comment re agents not knowing what I do was actually based on the experiences of others tbh, Ive heard enough friends claim it was a waste of time being "interviewed" by some kid who doesnt understand the CV of the person they are interviewing - so I may have been unfair in that comment.

I mean, its been impossible not to notice over a long period of time, that most of the roles advertised on job sites are not real jobs at all but recruitment agent placeholders. So given that I wondered if the whole thing was just some kind of scam/fakery.

I dont really know anyone who has secured a role through a recruitment agency but that may be because anywhere Ive worked hasnt used them combined with a lot of people in my own areas have had good longevity in the roles.

The whole recruitment agent thing is a bit of an unknown quantity to me tbh.