Meeting with recruitment agents

Faith

Is it standard practice these days to meet with recruitment agencies or just submit a CV online? I have a mate looking to move into a slightly different field from what they're in now, and they're getting disheartened by the lack of responses when they apply for jobs. I feel like it could be useful for them to meet with a recruitment agent to talk things through in detail, but in the past when I tried to sign up to recruitment agencies, I tended to be totally ignored.

Are there any tips or tricks that are useful for getting recruitment agents to pay attention to you?

screamer

I find recruitment agencies are very self interested, better to go direct to the company. The best thing for your friend to do, would be to get their CV reviewed. Today, C.Vs are much shorter, bullet pointed even, laying out relevant experience etc. and of course, you have to craft your CV around each role you apply for, a one fits all approach here will definately not work. Does your friend have a linked in profile? Have they included it on their CV? It's all about building your brand and selling yourself to potential employers.

Jimbob1977

Depending on the industry, some recruitment agents like to meet candidates face-to-face.

I'd expect the reason is two-fold:

1) Simple 'meet and greet' and to outline all the relevant job prospects in their portfolio.

2) To check out how the candidate presents themself, i.e. are they articulate and confident? Would the candidate embarrass or let down the recruiter in an employer interview? It's to weed out the risky candidates.


It's great to apply directly to an employer if you can (eliminates the commission they have to pay the recruiter). However, I get the feeling that many 'blue chip' companies use recruitment agencies to identify the best candidates and filter out the unrealistic applicants.