Recruitment agencies and consultants - the sharks of this er
Discussion
Following on from the so called employment saga that employers and employees are facing, I thought I'd highlight my views on the sharks that call themselves professionals, recruitment people.
Many years ago, to be head hunted was exactly that. Someone, usually from an industry knew of another person, approached them and it went from there.
For years people have been labelling head hunting as little more than some sharky commission based person trawling through LinkedIn or indeed and casting their net far and wide. Basically if you didn't already know this, submit your CV to one of these sharks and they effectively block you from getting that job.
Always go direct. Always.
If I had two candidates, one direct and one through a shark, and the sharky one was marginally better, the extortionate fees might just poke me to give the other person a go. I say might, that's exactly what I've done a few times.
These bottom feeders have spilled over to the most basic of entry level jobs and all they do is suck up CVS and send them to employers blocking that person from joining that company for years.
They even send me Cvs of people I've known for years and try to claim they should get finders fees.
Literally sharks ... And the sooner that industry goes pop the easier it will be for folk to find work.
Many years ago, to be head hunted was exactly that. Someone, usually from an industry knew of another person, approached them and it went from there.
For years people have been labelling head hunting as little more than some sharky commission based person trawling through LinkedIn or indeed and casting their net far and wide. Basically if you didn't already know this, submit your CV to one of these sharks and they effectively block you from getting that job.
Always go direct. Always.
If I had two candidates, one direct and one through a shark, and the sharky one was marginally better, the extortionate fees might just poke me to give the other person a go. I say might, that's exactly what I've done a few times.
These bottom feeders have spilled over to the most basic of entry level jobs and all they do is suck up CVS and send them to employers blocking that person from joining that company for years.
They even send me Cvs of people I've known for years and try to claim they should get finders fees.
Literally sharks ... And the sooner that industry goes pop the easier it will be for folk to find work.
Mr Spoon said:
Basically if you didn't already know this, submit your CV to one of these sharks and they effectively block you from getting that job.
Mr Spoon said:
If I had two candidates, one direct and one through a shark, and the sharky one was marginally better, the extortionate fees might just poke me to give the other person a go. I say might, that's exactly what I've done a few times.
Mr Spoon said:
In a nutshell, if a cv lands on my desk from an agency it generally gets binned regardless.
Hmm.Mr Spoon said:
They even send me Cvs of people I've known for years and try to claim they should get finders fees.
If you hadn't asked the people you already know to apply, and didn't know they were looking, then what is wrong with that? If you already know they are unsuitable, then no finder's fee would be paid.I've been 'head-hunted' twice. The first time by an agency I hadn't worked for, but the manager at the old company had asked for me in particular. The second time a former manager phoned me directly, but as company policy was to only employ contractors through agencies, the old agency did call me. 10:30am call to my mobile, "GliderRider, Bloggs & Co want to know if you would go back? Manager X asked for you in particular."
Me: "I'm already sitting next to Manager X's desk, I arrived at 7:00am, before he did".
The fact that I had had a long, expensive holiday earlier in the year, then the Summer off meant the needle on the current account gauge was firmly on 'E' with the orange light on, explained my enthusiasm. Getting the extra £5/hr I asked for, because I had the knowledge/experience learned the previous time I was at Bloggs & Co was just icing on the cake.
Many years ago I was involved with recruiting new employees at a company I worked for.
The candidates that came via an agency had their first year starting salary reduced by the amount of fees the agency wanted to charge, so that it was cost neutral to the company. The candidates were effectively paying the agency fees themselves, albeit unwittingly.
Thinking about it now, I'm not sure if such an approach would be lawful nowadays.
The candidates that came via an agency had their first year starting salary reduced by the amount of fees the agency wanted to charge, so that it was cost neutral to the company. The candidates were effectively paying the agency fees themselves, albeit unwittingly.
Thinking about it now, I'm not sure if such an approach would be lawful nowadays.
My view is that the term Head Hunter is one that has become abused and is applied today to wider scope of endeavour than originally intended.
I've use one, twice over 20 years and on each occasion they proved worth their weight it gold finding people to a calibre and capability that we didn't think existed. On each occasion, they only put forward one candidate and by the time we got to interview we knew we'd offer them the job. The profile they'd researched was astounding.
That's very different to someone signposting a job to somebody and inviting them to apply.
I've use one, twice over 20 years and on each occasion they proved worth their weight it gold finding people to a calibre and capability that we didn't think existed. On each occasion, they only put forward one candidate and by the time we got to interview we knew we'd offer them the job. The profile they'd researched was astounding.
That's very different to someone signposting a job to somebody and inviting them to apply.
Don't get me started on recruitment agencies, I've managed to piece together a lot of the stuff they do and why they do it, but some things still make no sense at all. Suffice to say, whatever they do, whatever the trick is, it's to meet targets of some sort, you the candidate don't even rank on the list of importance.
The biggest revelation to date is that they send unsuitable candidates as unwitting spies to interviews so that they can find out what questions were asked and better prepare their "real" candidate (wasting some poor sod a 50 mile round trip), but other stuff is equally as snake like.
Like anything, there's good and bad recruiters.
Most roles in my industry (software dev) are filled by them. I've got along OK with a few over the years and found them to be pretty good to work with. Equally there's a lot of terrible ones out there.
You'll pay a fair chunk of change to get them to fill a role for you, but if advertising yourself isn't working then sometimes it's the only option.
Most roles in my industry (software dev) are filled by them. I've got along OK with a few over the years and found them to be pretty good to work with. Equally there's a lot of terrible ones out there.
You'll pay a fair chunk of change to get them to fill a role for you, but if advertising yourself isn't working then sometimes it's the only option.
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