Recruitment Agency/Agents experience - They are getting worse

[Emily]

Fishing for leads, just tell him you were reporting to Ray Pugh, or Tess Tickle, etc. Agent won't realise and it will give the people he calls a good laugh

Love it!!!

[too_many_details]

I started contracting 5 months ago. It was really hard dealing with agencies.

I posted my CV on the various job boards and applied to any that looked interesting.

Out of 10 calls I would get, 8 would be for perm roles when I have stated in my CV that I only want contract.

I would also get agents ringing and talking about a fantastic opportunity that seems perfect - and of course it didn't exist or it did but they saw it and pretended to be involved so they could gather leads from me.

You do find some agents (not agencies, as it depends on the individual) who seem to be ok. I will probably keep in touch with them.

I had a friend who was finding it hard to get a contract as he had been out of the country for 6 months - I recommended him to an agent for a position I declined and he got it.

Bottom line - if you can avoid them and get jobs via recommendations and your network, do so. But in the beginning it is hard.......

R

[BrowneIssue]

The best thing to do is create your own black list of agencies and specific agents , and never ever use them. If you ever get into a hiring role, such a list can be immensely satisfying.

I started producing my agency communication spreadsheet about 8 years ago. It has just under 300 agencies on it. Almost all now have negative comments on them. By 2010 they probably all will. Then what should I do?

Trying to select agencies by quality is like trying to decide: shall I put on yesterday's shoes that are still wet through from walking in the rain, the old ones with the holes in the soles, or the pair from Saturday that are still covered in dog pop.

[chicane]

I started producing my agency communication spreadsheet about 8 years ago. It has just under 300 agencies on it. Almost all now have negative comments on them.

Having come across some agencies with a mix of honest and sleazy agents, I'd be inclined to blacklist agents rather than agencies.

[Devlin]

I started contracting 5 months ago. It was really hard dealing with agencies.

I posted my CV on the various job boards and applied to any that looked interesting.

Out of 10 calls I would get, 8 would be for perm roles when I have stated in my CV that I only want contract.

I would also get agents ringing and talking about a fantastic opportunity that seems perfect - and of course it didn't exist or it did but they saw it and pretended to be involved so they could gather leads from me.

You do find some agents (not agencies, as it depends on the individual) who seem to be ok. I will probably keep in touch with them.

I had a friend who was finding it hard to get a contract as he had been out of the country for 6 months - I recommended him to an agent for a position I declined and he got it.

Bottom line - if you can avoid them and get jobs via recommendations and your network, do so. But in the beginning it is hard.......

R

Put "CONTRACTS ONLY" in your CV file name/title, it seems to cut down unwanted permie calls by about 75%. A lot of pimps don't even download your CV when keywords match their search on a CV database, but they usually see the CV title and/or filename.

[fossunited]

In all honesty, I don't mind my agencies too much. I too tend to deal with agents as opposed to agencies, and I am just really nice to them and they are nice to me. I have had one instance of an agency sending my details out to companies for roles well below what I would normally go for, when I wasn't looking, and my current agent rang me to ask what was going on because she was dealing with them too and my name was on their shortlist. A quick phonecall to them and they no longer have me on their books.

At the end of the day, unfortunately we need them to get the better roles generally. Unless of course we could set up some kind of method of losing the agencies from the recruiting cycle, which would make everyone happy. (It's actually somethign I am looking at doing myself, but not sure how difficult it would be, so I'll probably leave it for now)