Recruitment Agents are officially Dicks.
Discussion
Especially London bases ones.
I have found two perfect jobs today.
1) Won't answer the phone (but I've had dealings with these guys before and they never do)
2) UK wide sales role based from home. "Excellent, you seem to fit the requirements perfectly, where are you based", "Manchester Area", "Oh we don't cover there" CLICK!!!
Absolute useless w
kers the lot of em.
I have found two perfect jobs today.
1) Won't answer the phone (but I've had dealings with these guys before and they never do)
2) UK wide sales role based from home. "Excellent, you seem to fit the requirements perfectly, where are you based", "Manchester Area", "Oh we don't cover there" CLICK!!!
Absolute useless w
kers the lot of em.Had one ring me the other day, god knows where he'd picked up my CV.
Him: So what do you do now?
Me: I'm a mergers and acquisitions research analyst
Him: So you fix cars? (!!)
Me: No, I track merger transactions in the UK market and transpose the information into a database.
Him: Oh you fix PCs?
Me: Goodbye.
Turns out I was actually this guys team leader about 3 years ago. We had to get rid of him because he could barely manage to multiply 2x2.
Him: So what do you do now?
Me: I'm a mergers and acquisitions research analyst
Him: So you fix cars? (!!)
Me: No, I track merger transactions in the UK market and transpose the information into a database.
Him: Oh you fix PCs?
Me: Goodbye.
Turns out I was actually this guys team leader about 3 years ago. We had to get rid of him because he could barely manage to multiply 2x2.
I am finding it similar, especially Reed I am sorry to say, a company I once had repect for.
Rude, Arrogant, dismissive, Cannot be bothered, Discourteuos, Marlow/Reading office.
I have had to send my CV 4 times and despite confirming reciept on the phone each time. They still dont have it. and Im on the third person!
Promised call backs that are never recieved and then I am questioned when I call them!
Personally I will be advising never to use them as a agency for any company I have involvement with, and they will never get any of my business.
how can they be assessing candidates and offering the right people to their clients...
If you cant be bothered why take the job, they are not fulfilling their role.
Rude, Arrogant, dismissive, Cannot be bothered, Discourteuos, Marlow/Reading office.
I have had to send my CV 4 times and despite confirming reciept on the phone each time. They still dont have it. and Im on the third person!
Promised call backs that are never recieved and then I am questioned when I call them!
Personally I will be advising never to use them as a agency for any company I have involvement with, and they will never get any of my business.
how can they be assessing candidates and offering the right people to their clients...
If you cant be bothered why take the job, they are not fulfilling their role.
when i worked in construction one of these fellows let slip that every time they ring someone and offer them the job they would then carry on offering the same job at lower rates to other people.those that had accepted the job were in reserve until they could not find anyone to take it at the lowest rate. nice
It's unfortunate that the numbers of dicks that are recruitment agents outweigh the good guys by a huge factor.
It's the reason I've stayed with the same agent for 6 years now. And why I've recommended 7 or 8 long-term contractors to them in the same period.
I've been fked about by quite a few of them, this being the most memorable:
http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0...
It's the reason I've stayed with the same agent for 6 years now. And why I've recommended 7 or 8 long-term contractors to them in the same period.
I've been f
ked about by quite a few of them, this being the most memorable:http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0...
sleep envy said:
Iain, any chance you could drop me a PM with their link please
currently tearing my hair out with my current crop who are more interested in sending me to the Falklands, Abu Dhabi or Perth
Hell, I'll post it here for everybody to see.currently tearing my hair out with my current crop who are more interested in sending me to the Falklands, Abu Dhabi or Perth
www.fircroft.co.uk
Top notch guys, can't recommend them enough.
cazzer said:
JonRB said:
Oh god, here we go again. 
If it bothers you Jon, don't read the thread.They really are getting worse though.
t gets trotted out again and again. Much the same as "Porsche vs TVR" threads, "Motorist vs Cyclist" threads, "What car for £5k" threads, "All Coppers are Bent" threads, and all the other perennials. There are good and bad agents, there are good and bad candidates. Agencies are a necessary evil for me to get business with clients. I don't like it, I resent them being the man in the middle, but they are in business to make money just like I am and if I want to do business with clients that insist on using an agency then that is what I do.
All that's going to happen is people are going to b
h about their bad experiences with agents, then the PH Recruiters, if they can be bothered, are going to come in here and defend themselves and it will all descend into the usual slanging match.Edited by JonRB on Wednesday 21st October 13:08
I think it's just the environment we find ourselves in at the moment. A few years ago if you saw a job you really fancied and you were messed around by the recruitment consultant (and yes there are good and bad as any industry as others have said) you could just brush it off as there was plenty more work out there so just moved on to the next opportunity.
People are understandably more desperate for work with mortgages etc on the line so feel a lot more pressured which magnifies any grief caused by being 'messed around'
I remember reading threads years back about people saying the same about estate agents as they were desperate to find a house as they were shooting up in value over night and people wanted to get on the ladder before they were priced out of the market.
When your livelihood etc is at stake it's understandable in my eyes to want to have a rant.
People are understandably more desperate for work with mortgages etc on the line so feel a lot more pressured which magnifies any grief caused by being 'messed around'
I remember reading threads years back about people saying the same about estate agents as they were desperate to find a house as they were shooting up in value over night and people wanted to get on the ladder before they were priced out of the market.
When your livelihood etc is at stake it's understandable in my eyes to want to have a rant.
Just this morning I had a random, unsolicited text message that reads:
"Personnel York:Spring Personnel - We currently have an immediate start on a production worker position - temp with a view to go perm - in Knaresborough - must h...."
I'm a structural engineer in the West Midlands who is in employment and not actively looking for another job. And this was on my work mobile phone.
Who they are, how they got my number and why they think I would be interested in a temp job, miles from home, that is half-texted to me I have no idea.
Still, if anyone near Knaresborough is looking for a job, shout up and I'll pass you the number!
"Personnel York:Spring Personnel - We currently have an immediate start on a production worker position - temp with a view to go perm - in Knaresborough - must h...."
I'm a structural engineer in the West Midlands who is in employment and not actively looking for another job. And this was on my work mobile phone.
Who they are, how they got my number and why they think I would be interested in a temp job, miles from home, that is half-texted to me I have no idea.
Still, if anyone near Knaresborough is looking for a job, shout up and I'll pass you the number!
One of things that winds me up a bit is that many of them know fk-all about the jobs they are trying to fill.
Obviously, they can't be experts (because they wouldn't be working in recruitment) but I expect a project services recruiter in the oil & gas indutsry to know the difference between a Contract Administrator, a Planner, a Cost Engineer (although I hate that phrase), an Accountant, a Hydrocarbon Accountant, an Estimator, a Market Analyst, a Business Analyst and a Finance Analyst.
k-all about the jobs they are trying to fill.Obviously, they can't be experts (because they wouldn't be working in recruitment) but I expect a project services recruiter in the oil & gas indutsry to know the difference between a Contract Administrator, a Planner, a Cost Engineer (although I hate that phrase), an Accountant, a Hydrocarbon Accountant, an Estimator, a Market Analyst, a Business Analyst and a Finance Analyst.
Lefty Guns said:
One of things that winds me up a bit is that many of them know fk-all about the jobs they are trying to fill.
Obviously, they can't be experts (because they wouldn't be working in recruitment) but I expect a project services recruiter in the oil & gas indutsry to know the difference between a Contract Administrator, a Planner, a Cost Engineer (although I hate that phrase), an Accountant, a Hydrocarbon Accountant, an Estimator, a Market Analyst, a Business Analyst and a Finance Analyst.
similarly the clients aren't doing themselves any favoursk-all about the jobs they are trying to fill.Obviously, they can't be experts (because they wouldn't be working in recruitment) but I expect a project services recruiter in the oil & gas indutsry to know the difference between a Contract Administrator, a Planner, a Cost Engineer (although I hate that phrase), an Accountant, a Hydrocarbon Accountant, an Estimator, a Market Analyst, a Business Analyst and a Finance Analyst.
I've been chasing a particular job over the last seven days which fitted my CV;
high end retail - check
high end resi - check
commercial - check
PFI - check
BSF - check
civils - check
only down for me was that it was 1.5hr commute each way but I was more than prepared to do it
they rejected my CV because I didn't have any social housing experience
the client forgot to mention to the agent that all agents must have covered all bases before they'd even consider an interview
looks like they need oil and gas, rail and f
king space station constructionaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrgghhh!
sI got a call the other day about a position as a component obsolescence engineer in the defence industry.
On my CV is a period of time when I was a component engineer in the automotive industry.
The recruiter had gone no further than see the words "component" and "engineer" on the same line. Hadn't read my CV and matched it to the job in the slightest.
It's an annoyance but thankfully not a major one.
The big annoyance is agents who forward my CV to a recruiter with my agreement, then refuse to answer the phone or email once the recruiter's rejected my CV.
I completely accept that I won't be contacted if I'm not suitable to be proposed, that's fair enough. But once I'm a potential candidate I think that to leave me in total silence and wondering WTF is happening when they could drop a single line or give me one minute of their time to let me know, I think is very unprofessional.
Again thankfully it's a minority but seemingly a growing one.
On my CV is a period of time when I was a component engineer in the automotive industry.
The recruiter had gone no further than see the words "component" and "engineer" on the same line. Hadn't read my CV and matched it to the job in the slightest.
It's an annoyance but thankfully not a major one.
The big annoyance is agents who forward my CV to a recruiter with my agreement, then refuse to answer the phone or email once the recruiter's rejected my CV.
I completely accept that I won't be contacted if I'm not suitable to be proposed, that's fair enough. But once I'm a potential candidate I think that to leave me in total silence and wondering WTF is happening when they could drop a single line or give me one minute of their time to let me know, I think is very unprofessional.
Again thankfully it's a minority but seemingly a growing one.
sleep envy said:
similarly the clients aren't doing themselves any favours
I've been chasing a particular job over the last seven days which fitted my CV;
high end retail - check
high end resi - check
commercial - check
PFI - check
BSF - check
civils - check
only down for me was that it was 1.5hr commute each way but I was more than prepared to do it
they rejected my CV because I didn't have any social housing experience
the client forgot to mention to the agent that all agents must have covered all bases before they'd even consider an interview
looks like they need oil and gas, rail and fking space station construction
aaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrgghhh!s
Recruiters are very firmly of the opinion that they can be very fussy and still get a choice of candidates. From what I can see (as someone who never used to have a problem getting a role as there are few of us working in a niche specialism to choose from) they must be right: I'm getting forwarded for very little at the moment and that can only mean lots of candidates out of work and prepared to downgrade the role or wage or both.I've been chasing a particular job over the last seven days which fitted my CV;
high end retail - check
high end resi - check
commercial - check
PFI - check
BSF - check
civils - check
only down for me was that it was 1.5hr commute each way but I was more than prepared to do it
they rejected my CV because I didn't have any social housing experience
the client forgot to mention to the agent that all agents must have covered all bases before they'd even consider an interview
looks like they need oil and gas, rail and f
king space station constructionaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrgghhh!
sFNG said:
Recruiters are very firmly of the opinion that they can be very fussy and still get a choice of candidates. From what I can see (as someone who never used to have a problem getting a role as there are few of us working in a niche specialism to choose from) they must be right: I'm getting forwarded for very little at the moment and that can only mean lots of candidates out of work and prepared to downgrade the role or wage or both.
sorry I don't followthey're getting little response because they are so fussy or they are being deliberately fussy to cherry pick the candidates therefore are getting little response?
Marf said:
Had one ring me the other day, god knows where he'd picked up my CV.
Him: So what do you do now?
Me: I'm a mergers and acquisitions research analyst
Him: So you fix cars? (!!)
Me: No, I track merger transactions in the UK market and transpose the information into a database.
Him: Oh you fix PCs?
Me: Goodbye.
Turns out I was actually this guys team leader about 3 years ago. We had to get rid of him because he could barely manage to multiply 2x2.
Anyone I'd know? Him: So what do you do now?
Me: I'm a mergers and acquisitions research analyst
Him: So you fix cars? (!!)
Me: No, I track merger transactions in the UK market and transpose the information into a database.
Him: Oh you fix PCs?
Me: Goodbye.
Turns out I was actually this guys team leader about 3 years ago. We had to get rid of him because he could barely manage to multiply 2x2.
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