Recruitment Agencies ヽ(ಠ_ಠ)ノ

Snorlaxx

I got a call from an agency back on the 11th June to put me forward for a job.

I still haven't heard anything back but I know the company have the CV.

I have mailed the recruiterto get updates and they advised they dont have an update yet.

It just feels like the rep for the agency is not @r$3d to even follow up and it makes no difference to them if they never heard anything.

What do I do here, or do I just need to be patient?????

antix80

Is this the first job you applied for?

Just an FYI but companies usually contact successful applicants before the unsuccessful ones, if they bother contacting the unsuccessful ones at all. Not saying you're unsuccessful. Just don't get your hopes up and keep applying for jobs til something comes up.

The way agencies work, by the way, is they harvest CVs. They get wind of a job opportunity and then spam the company with CVs. In many cases the company doesn't use agencies so you're just damaging your chance of ever getting a job with that company because if they hire you they'd have to pay the agency a large fee.

Snorlaxx

No not the first job,

First time using an agency yes, this job is a lot closer to home though.

ongarboy

antix80 wrote: »

The way agencies work, by the way, is they harvest CVs. They get wind of a job opportunity and then spam the company with CVs. In many cases the company doesn't use agencies so you're just damaging your chance of ever getting a job with that company because if they hire you they'd have to pay the agency a large fee.

I don't believe this to be true - especially in IT or finance companies. Nearly every such company uses agencies and absorbs the cost of recruiting through an agency as they simply do not have the capacity to sift through dozens or 100s of CVs that they'd receive if they hired directly through public advertisements. They pay the agencies to weed out the un-qualifieds and undesirables. I hardly know anyone who got a job in finance that did not come through an agency so I wouldn't expect it to be hurting a candidate's chance. The public sector is the only sector I know where they hire directly in virtually all circumstances.

OP - I'd hold off on blaming the agency for being incompetent. HR and recruitment processes work at a snails pace as roles need to be signed off even after successful interview stage. Agencies are also at the mercy of how quickly the company gets back to them. Have a bit more patience. I'd recommend you keep your options open and not rely on a single job and/or agency and have multiple applications on the go.

antix80

Agencies are great when they find you work and they frequently do, otherwise they'd be out of business.

Some companies recruit exclusively though specific agencies, others never use agencies. Just do your research rather than wasting time or actually harming your chances.

There's no harm for you to call the agency weekly to ask for an update and letting them know you're still interested.

antix80

ongarboy wrote: »

I don't believe this to be true - especially in IT or finance companies.

I know it to be true. I got many jobs through agencies but the trick is to apply through the right agency. Some companies use particular agencies for recruiting. It's too much of a pain adding obscure agencies to the vendor setup process. Some don't use agencies at all. Anyway.. a little research goes a long way. The priority is getting a CV in front of a hiring manager.

Bit of an anecdote. One job I was in - it was a terrible job - they hired customer service people and internally promoted them to I.T and finance positions because they banned hiring decent staff using agencies. Why? Because recruiting fees got so high, as part of their cost cutting they banned using agencies. I was looking through CVs they received on jobs.ie and noticed the poor quality of applications. I asked why they didn't use irishjobs or monster and was told their fees were too high.
This is the company I had in mind when I gave the op the advice. They frequently got CVs from agencies even through they weren't allowed to pay agency fees, and all the agency CVs ended up in the bin.

Snorlaxx

Still nothing back from this crowd.

Guess at this point assume its dead in the water. Only saving grace is the job is still up on the company's(that the job is for) career section.

rock22

Can you apply directly to the hiring company?

Snorlaxx

You "Could", but it just looks bad if they receive multiple applications from the same applicant from multiple sources.

Just does more damage than good I think.

I've had one good experience with an agency, and multiple bad experiences.
I will do all I can to avoid using agencies when I'm applying for work.

Here's a quick list of experiences:
1. I was contacted about applying for a new job with a new company. Said I was interested, and passed on my cv to the recruiter to review. They replied with a "sample" cv, and said that I should see if I could make mine more similar to their sample. I read through the sample, and it belonged to a woman who worked on my current team. She had been contacted about the same position, and they were handing out her cv, as they thought it was very good, without any consent from her

2. I got contacted about a job with a new company. They told me all about it over the phone, and email. I went for the interview, and quickly discovered, that the role was very different from what they had told me on the phone. Similarly, my qualifications were very different from what they had told the employer. After about 10 minutes of the interview, we had to call a halt to the whole thing. Employer was disgusted with the recruiter, and I was embarrassed as hell

3. Got offered an interview with a large multinational tech company. Interview would be done over the phone, despite them being based in the same city as me. 1hour long phone interview, before they asked me to conclude the interview in French. It had never been discussed in the job spec from the recruitment company, that the job involved working with a team in France, and that I needed to be fluent

4. Working away happily at my desk one afternoon. Busy enough, when my desk phone rang. A recruiter, had rang through to reception, and managed to get put through to my desk phone with a private number. I hadn't been actively applying, or even looking at new roles. Recruiter had the balls to want to talk through how content I currently was, as I sat next to my manager. I gave them some bollixing, and told them under no uncertain circumstances, would I even deal with them again

I can't be dealing with recruiters anymore.

Goodshape

Snorlaxx wrote: »

You "Could", but it just looks bad if they receive multiple applications from the same applicant from multiple sources.

Just does more damage than good I think.

I was told this by a recruiter in relation to a company I really wanted to work with. They assured me multiple times that they had applied on my behalf and were awaiting some follow up.

So I didn't apply directly but I did chance a DM to the CTO, who I'd met a few times at tech meetups, just to say "hi... I'm sure $recruiter has been in touch... Etc".

But the company had never seen my application and the only interaction they had with any recruiter was to tell them they aren't interested in using recruiters at all.

So, two or three weeks after "applying" through the recruiter and waiting for an impossible response, I sent my CV to the CTO. Still working there now, 3 years later. Great job.

I'm sure #NotAllRecruiters but stuff like this certainly isn't uncommon.

Snorlaxx

Yea TBH I'm really tempted to apply directly especially since they posted the job again.
I just don't want the "We already have you're CV on file" response, then i've lost all chance of getting the job altogether

LimeFruitGum

Don’t get hung up on a specific recruiter. I was job hunting this year and my experience was that unless you are a serious front runner for a role, they’re not going to chase you. In the end, I managed to pair up with a recruiter who had a good bit of cop-on. He seemed to actually care about who he put in front of his customer, and he coached me successfully through the process and he was really good at keeping both sides informed.

Remember, recruitment is kind of a sales job and your CV is their stock. There’s no point in them spending time with a candidate if they don’t stand a great chance in landing a job. (And thus no commission). Of course they should have the professional manners to close the loop with unsuccessful candidates, but most of them don’t have time, forget, or can’t be arsed.
Even an automated rejection would do, at least you would know.

Snorlaxx

Yea, All I wanted was some kind of closure to the position.
FINALLY got that yesterday when I called him, job went internally.

I really wish someone would create a Glassdoor type site for reviewing agencies and recruiters. You can be sure the experience would be improved then

spaceHopper

Snorlaxx wrote: »

Yea, All I wanted was some kind of closure to the position.
FINALLY got that yesterday when I called him, job went internally.

I really wish someone would create a Glassdoor type site for reviewing agencies and recruiters. You can be sure the experience would be improved then

Do you believe him if they have it on their site no harm in sending an email asking if it's bee filled