Where possible, avoid recruitment agencies
Job seeking is always difficult and is under-pinned by other tasks that are time consuming and sometimes frustrating.
Writing, and re-writing, your CV. Trawling the internet for job vacancies. Composing covering letters. Waiting for responses. And all of this before you even get an interview.
Unfortunately this daunting task is often made more difficult by certain recruitment agencies. There are many good agencies out there, however the majority purely have their own interests in mind when they contact you. Here are a few tricks of the trade used by recruitment agencies:
1. Posting vacancies that don't even exist in order to collect CVs. The more jobseekers on their books, the more chance they have of placing people. It is fine to collect as many CVs as possible, but this is an underhand way of doing it.
2. Asking jobseekers for contact details of their current HR manager in order to contact them to provide their services. This is often done by telling the job seeker that they have a fantastic role, but need to check your references before they can put you forward for it.
3. They will ask the job seeker "Did you work for Dave Smith at Company X?" in the hope that the job seeker will reply "No, I worked for Paul Smith". They can then ring Company X to offer their services.
These problems are encountered across all sectors, however the IT sector is particularly rife with this sort of activity. IT contractors especially feel it, with the following issues being encountered by those whose CV is picked up by a recruitment consultant:
- When asking about the minimum rate (this also applies to salaries for permanent job seekers), they will state that they will always aim for higher than that amount. They won't, however. This is most likely the maximum that you will receive, even if the employer is willing to pay more. The difference will go to the recruitment agency.
- Being told that if you introduce the agent to another contactor, and the agent then places that contractor, that they will receive an amount of cash. Usually 250 to 500. In reality, you will only ever get paid this money if you keep tabs on your recommendations. The agent will most probably never proactively contact you to pay you themselves.
If you find a good recruitment agency, then they can really assist in your hunt for a new job. Ideally though, you should apply directly to recruiting organisations. Either try to find out the name of the company that is recruiting, Google them and contact directly. Or use a direct job board, that only posts vacancies directly from employers.
Writing, and re-writing, your CV. Trawling the internet for job vacancies. Composing covering letters. Waiting for responses. And all of this before you even get an interview.
Unfortunately this daunting task is often made more difficult by certain recruitment agencies. There are many good agencies out there, however the majority purely have their own interests in mind when they contact you. Here are a few tricks of the trade used by recruitment agencies:
1. Posting vacancies that don't even exist in order to collect CVs. The more jobseekers on their books, the more chance they have of placing people. It is fine to collect as many CVs as possible, but this is an underhand way of doing it.
2. Asking jobseekers for contact details of their current HR manager in order to contact them to provide their services. This is often done by telling the job seeker that they have a fantastic role, but need to check your references before they can put you forward for it.
3. They will ask the job seeker "Did you work for Dave Smith at Company X?" in the hope that the job seeker will reply "No, I worked for Paul Smith". They can then ring Company X to offer their services.
These problems are encountered across all sectors, however the IT sector is particularly rife with this sort of activity. IT contractors especially feel it, with the following issues being encountered by those whose CV is picked up by a recruitment consultant:
- When asking about the minimum rate (this also applies to salaries for permanent job seekers), they will state that they will always aim for higher than that amount. They won't, however. This is most likely the maximum that you will receive, even if the employer is willing to pay more. The difference will go to the recruitment agency.
- Being told that if you introduce the agent to another contactor, and the agent then places that contractor, that they will receive an amount of cash. Usually 250 to 500. In reality, you will only ever get paid this money if you keep tabs on your recommendations. The agent will most probably never proactively contact you to pay you themselves.
If you find a good recruitment agency, then they can really assist in your hunt for a new job. Ideally though, you should apply directly to recruiting organisations. Either try to find out the name of the company that is recruiting, Google them and contact directly. Or use a direct job board, that only posts vacancies directly from employers.
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