Good IT recruitment agents in Surrey?
Discussion
Does such a thing exist?
I'm considering a change of industry having worked in IT in the education sector for the last ten years or so.
It seems like it's very hard to get out of this sector as there is somewhat of a stigma attached to it thanks to the history of numpties working in the sector who have been able to hide their lack of ability...
Anyway - if anyone can recommend a good recruitment agent that'd be great.
My background is predominately 3rd line support, IT manager roles and AD migrations and assimilations!
Cheers,
A
I'm considering a change of industry having worked in IT in the education sector for the last ten years or so.
It seems like it's very hard to get out of this sector as there is somewhat of a stigma attached to it thanks to the history of numpties working in the sector who have been able to hide their lack of ability...
Anyway - if anyone can recommend a good recruitment agent that'd be great.
My background is predominately 3rd line support, IT manager roles and AD migrations and assimilations!
Cheers,
A
pantscat said:
Does such a thing exist?
I'm considering a change of industry having worked in IT in the education sector for the last ten years or so.
It seems like it's very hard to get out of this sector as there is somewhat of a stigma attached to it thanks to the history of numpties working in the sector who have been able to hide their lack of ability...
Anyway - if anyone can recommend a good recruitment agent that'd be great.
My background is predominately 3rd line support, IT manager roles and AD migrations and assimilations!
Cheers,
A
Why not speak to an agent in London?I'm considering a change of industry having worked in IT in the education sector for the last ten years or so.
It seems like it's very hard to get out of this sector as there is somewhat of a stigma attached to it thanks to the history of numpties working in the sector who have been able to hide their lack of ability...
Anyway - if anyone can recommend a good recruitment agent that'd be great.
My background is predominately 3rd line support, IT manager roles and AD migrations and assimilations!
Cheers,
A
Your best bet is to get your CV looking good and get it on Jobserve and Jobsite. You'll have them calling you within hours offering to put you forward for jobs that don't exist and telling you how excellent you are. 
It will then take you a short while to work out who is worth speaking to.
It will then take you a short while to work out who is worth speaking to.
Agencies only see you as a pound sign. They are interested in you for as long as there is a potential role for you (i.e. cheque for them). Even the ones who come across all nicey nicey are the same. I see nothing wrong with that, just so long as you understand the game. Get your CV on Monster and Jobsite with info on what you're looking for - they all use this. Also, Indeed.co.uk is a great aggregator of all the job sites (who steal each others jobs all the time).
Oh, and don't pay for searching for a job - there is a new breed of recruiters who charge candidates. I have not found an open role yet that isn't advertised elsewhere and findable with a bit of delicate googling.
Finally, the IT job market it s
t at the moment. Good luck.
Oh, and don't pay for searching for a job - there is a new breed of recruiters who charge candidates. I have not found an open role yet that isn't advertised elsewhere and findable with a bit of delicate googling.
Finally, the IT job market it s
t at the moment. Good luck.Targarama said:
Agencies only see you as a pound sign. They are interested in you for as long as there is a potential role for you (i.e. cheque for them). Even the ones who come across all nicey nicey are the same. I see nothing wrong with that, just so long as you understand the game. Get your CV on Monster and Jobsite with info on what you're looking for - they all use this. Also, Indeed.co.uk is a great aggregator of all the job sites (who steal each others jobs all the time).
Oh, and don't pay for searching for a job - there is a new breed of recruiters who charge candidates. I have not found an open role yet that isn't advertised elsewhere and findable with a bit of delicate googling.
Finally, the IT job market it st at the moment. Good luck.
You're lying aren't you... It is illegal to charge someone to find them a job.Oh, and don't pay for searching for a job - there is a new breed of recruiters who charge candidates. I have not found an open role yet that isn't advertised elsewhere and findable with a bit of delicate googling.
Finally, the IT job market it s
t at the moment. Good luck.As for agencies seeing you as a pound sign, well I am sorry I do not go to work to help people out free of charge, I am sure you do not go to work to make peoples lives easier for free do you?
Original Poster said:
Most will not make the time to meet you in person anyway, unless you are worth a £10k+ fee anyway..
Seeing as most of them earn 25% of your first year salary .. at least the pimps in the City do .. they must make 10k gross on nearly everyone.edited: because i actually like pimps, especially when they buy me lunch/dinner 
Edited by fido on Friday 11th June 15:48
fido said:
Original Poster said:
Most will not make the time to meet you in person anyway, unless you are worth a £10k+ fee anyway..
Seeing as most of them take 25% of your first year salary .. at least the pimps in the City do .. they must make 10k gross on nearly everyone.Gone are the days of a 25% fee. 15% is the new 25%.
Original Poster said:
Targarama said:
Agencies only see you as a pound sign. They are interested in you for as long as there is a potential role for you (i.e. cheque for them). Even the ones who come across all nicey nicey are the same. I see nothing wrong with that, just so long as you understand the game. Get your CV on Monster and Jobsite with info on what you're looking for - they all use this. Also, Indeed.co.uk is a great aggregator of all the job sites (who steal each others jobs all the time).
Oh, and don't pay for searching for a job - there is a new breed of recruiters who charge candidates. I have not found an open role yet that isn't advertised elsewhere and findable with a bit of delicate googling.
Finally, the IT job market it st at the moment. Good luck.
You're lying aren't you... It is illegal to charge someone to find them a job.Oh, and don't pay for searching for a job - there is a new breed of recruiters who charge candidates. I have not found an open role yet that isn't advertised elsewhere and findable with a bit of delicate googling.
Finally, the IT job market it s
t at the moment. Good luck.As for agencies seeing you as a pound sign, well I am sorry I do not go to work to help people out free of charge, I am sure you do not go to work to make peoples lives easier for free do you?
pantscat said:
Fair enough...
Just wondered if there was anywhere local to me that might be able to add a personal touch... but then again I suppose it's a bit of a far-fetched wish!
I'm in a relatively specialised area of IT, and there's not many agencies that specifically deal with it. One of them did try the personal touch, but that was quite a drive to their offices for what turned out to be a waste of time. They turned out to be a clueless bunch of muppets.Just wondered if there was anywhere local to me that might be able to add a personal touch... but then again I suppose it's a bit of a far-fetched wish!
Overall, unless you're going into something extremely specific, the personal touch won't make a blind bit of difference.
Good luck with the hunt though.
I had a chat with an agency guy last night. We'd played telephone tennis a few times during the day and I eventually got to speak to him later in the afternoon.
We had a quick chat, and the conversation ended like this:
Him: "So do you still specialise in Open Source?"
Me: "Erm, where did you get that from?"
Him: "Erm," <tap on keyboard> "I'm sure it says it on your CV. Ah yes, Linux and MySQL"
Me: "Well, you should see that my CV says I have 'exposure to Linux and MySQL', at no point does it say that I specialise in Open Source".
Most of the agencies know nothing about the industry they are recruiting for. I could tell most of them that I was an expert in Hypervising SQL Matrix Clockspeeds and they'd be impressed.
We had a quick chat, and the conversation ended like this:
Him: "So do you still specialise in Open Source?"
Me: "Erm, where did you get that from?"
Him: "Erm," <tap on keyboard> "I'm sure it says it on your CV. Ah yes, Linux and MySQL"
Me: "Well, you should see that my CV says I have 'exposure to Linux and MySQL', at no point does it say that I specialise in Open Source".
Most of the agencies know nothing about the industry they are recruiting for. I could tell most of them that I was an expert in Hypervising SQL Matrix Clockspeeds and they'd be impressed.
I agree the market is absolutely dire at the moment and has got much worse over the last 6 weeks or so. There are very few jobs out there and absolutely massive competition from other candidates. In the good old days you would have one interview and that would be it. Last job I applied for I had a technical test, a phone interview a few days later, then a 1st interview a week later, then a second interview a few weeks after that only to not get the job.
Employers know they hold all the cards and are now making potential employees jump through hoops. Salaries are also poor at the moment as they know that there are so many people out of work.
I seriously want to get out of I.T as even when you are in a job there is always the threat of your job being outsourced.
As has been mentioned above you are only any value to an agent if they think they can make money out of you. Once they decide they can't make any money out of you they will not waste any more time on you and just ignore your calls and emails.
Employers know they hold all the cards and are now making potential employees jump through hoops. Salaries are also poor at the moment as they know that there are so many people out of work.
I seriously want to get out of I.T as even when you are in a job there is always the threat of your job being outsourced.
As has been mentioned above you are only any value to an agent if they think they can make money out of you. Once they decide they can't make any money out of you they will not waste any more time on you and just ignore your calls and emails.
Wade into another recruitment vs. the world argument, why not?
They/we do not take 25% of your salary, we charge the company a fee equivalent to 25% of first year salary. Although the company might pay more for a direct candidate if you negotiated hard it's not normally the case, and I belive I'm right to salaries are typically higher for candidates placed by agencies than those who go direct.
Fees depend entirely on the market you're in. For executive search firms 30% is not unusual. When I worked in IT 15% was the norm, but with higher salaries it tends to go up, reflecting the fact that highly skilled candidates are a scarce resource who take a lot of work to find.
As for putting your CV on Jobsite/Monster etc, this is a good way to find the worst sort of recruitment consultants who are under the most pressure. Typically they know nothing about IT (which you don't really need to) but going on Jobsite or similar lets them do a keyword search, so they bring up all the CVs with say "3rd line support," "Microsoft" and "network" in them, then call through the list on the off chance that you're an MS Networks guru. Hence the irrelvant questions, inappropriate jobs and so forth. I'm sure good agents do sometimes use these sites, but IMO there are many better ways to find good candidates, and as a job seeker many better ways to find decent recruiters.
If you're contracting sometimes you'll pick up a decent job this way, and if all else fails then it's worth a go. But I think you were more on the right line with your originale approach. If no one actually recommends any agencies then just approach a few of them until you find one you like. Look for honesty and some attempt to understand what you do, not in the technical sense but where you fit into the business, and perhaps most importantly an understanding of what you want.
One more thing, reading your earlier post, I probably don't need to tell you this but berating people, either individually or as a group such as people in "IT for education" would be a big red flag for most agents and employers alike so keep this to yourself in any interview or similar.
Good luck
They/we do not take 25% of your salary, we charge the company a fee equivalent to 25% of first year salary. Although the company might pay more for a direct candidate if you negotiated hard it's not normally the case, and I belive I'm right to salaries are typically higher for candidates placed by agencies than those who go direct.
Fees depend entirely on the market you're in. For executive search firms 30% is not unusual. When I worked in IT 15% was the norm, but with higher salaries it tends to go up, reflecting the fact that highly skilled candidates are a scarce resource who take a lot of work to find.
As for putting your CV on Jobsite/Monster etc, this is a good way to find the worst sort of recruitment consultants who are under the most pressure. Typically they know nothing about IT (which you don't really need to) but going on Jobsite or similar lets them do a keyword search, so they bring up all the CVs with say "3rd line support," "Microsoft" and "network" in them, then call through the list on the off chance that you're an MS Networks guru. Hence the irrelvant questions, inappropriate jobs and so forth. I'm sure good agents do sometimes use these sites, but IMO there are many better ways to find good candidates, and as a job seeker many better ways to find decent recruiters.
If you're contracting sometimes you'll pick up a decent job this way, and if all else fails then it's worth a go. But I think you were more on the right line with your originale approach. If no one actually recommends any agencies then just approach a few of them until you find one you like. Look for honesty and some attempt to understand what you do, not in the technical sense but where you fit into the business, and perhaps most importantly an understanding of what you want.
One more thing, reading your earlier post, I probably don't need to tell you this but berating people, either individually or as a group such as people in "IT for education" would be a big red flag for most agents and employers alike so keep this to yourself in any interview or similar.
Good luck
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