Top 15 Recruitment Agency tricks...!!

[LondonManc]

SueEllen is a big advocate of this as well but have to say it sounds like poppycock to me as well. If you are in a situation that resorts to you having to playback phone calls to an agent it's never going to end well. Get it right first time and just get on with it. If it was a tried and tested method of doing business it would be standard practice...

Agreed. When in full on find-a-contract mode, I make a note of who called and when but certainly don't record the calls in the other sense.

[SueEllen]

SueEllen is a big advocate of this as well but have to say it sounds like poppycock to me as well. If you are in a situation that resorts to you having to playback phone calls to an agent it's never going to end well. Get it right first time and just get on with it. If it was a tried and tested method of doing business it would be standard practice...

To be fair my recordings have actually been useful in issues with other companies e.g. utility companies, banks.

Not had to use one against an agent yet. Then again I dealt with some very scumbag agents years ago when I was permanent but most of them had an issue with the written word not the spoken word e.g. copying my CV and posting it as an ad.

[SunnyInHades]

Trick: Copy'n'Paste Middleman, Edit Variant

Following on from my 'Copy'n'Paste Middleman' post yesterday, I've seen another agency trick today - similar but this is the 'edit variant' ...

1) Take an Internet advertised contract/perm position from an end company
2) Edit details, shorten, add a few own words, reformat a bit
3) Post to Job boards as own, I'm assuming unsolicited

Saw posts from two different agencies today - start text different, most keywords suspiciously the same, end location same.

By Google searching an 'Intersection' of both adverts I was able to track down the 'real' advert and the end company quite quickly .... the agencies took out huge amounts for their naughty board postings !

The end site and the one I mentioned yesterday both have 'email job alerts' - I believe consultants at agencies are signing up for these alerts 'as candidates' then performing the 'Copy'n'Paste Middleman' trick (often with a quick Edit Variant) as soon as vacancies hit their inboxes.

[Eirikur]

Trick: Copy'n'Paste Middleman, Edit Variant

Following on from my 'Copy'n'Paste Middleman' post yesterday, I've seen another agency trick today - similar but this is the 'edit variant' ...

1) Take an Internet advertised contract/perm position from an end company
2) Edit details, shorten, add a few own words, reformat a bit
3) Post to Job boards as own, I'm assuming unsolicited

Saw posts from two different agencies today - start text different, most keywords suspiciously the same, end location same.

By Google searching an 'Intersection' of both adverts I was able to track down the 'real' advert and the end company quite quickly .... the agencies took out huge amounts for their naughty board postings !

The end site and the one I mentioned yesterday both have 'email job alerts' - I believe consultants at agencies are signing up for these alerts 'as candidates' then performing the 'Copy'n'Paste Middleman' trick (often with a quick Edit Variant) as soon as vacancies hit their inboxes.

For permanent vacancies it helps very often to google a bit of the text and you'll find the original source, the company who is recruiting. I have done this many times years ago when I was still a perm.
For contracts this is more difficult as contracts are often not advertised on companies websites.

Another trick to find out who the end client is (and the agent doesn't want to tell you) is when they send you a Word version of the job spec. Look in the properties and you can see in many case who the original creator of the document was, including company name.

[SlipTheJab]

I was approached about a contract role a few years back, role sounded a perfect fit so sent off my CV and heard nothing, the junior recruitment agent who pinged me about it told me her boss decided I wouldn't be suitable for the role and wouldn't be submitting me, junior pimp had let slip who the client was and I pinged the recruitment manager at the company via Linked In (nothing to lose), ended up spending over 2 years there on a rate 25% higher than the agency was offering, something I delighted in telling the pimp when he next rang me a few months later with a 'perfect role', lost thousands in commission from me over the time I was there

[DallasDad]

Sometimes Agents can be dead handy even if only by accident.

Me working back in 1996 at a rather well known US parcel delivery service based at Stansted.
6 months in and I was getting physically sick, FLU symptoms Sinuses, Headaches which eventually turned into a bout of Bronchial Pneumonia.
I think I was allergic to something in the hanger so not happy.

Agent rings, how are you getting on etc.
I was expecting his call becauses his 6 months were up so no payback to client of finder fee if he poached me I guess, it seemed quite common practice back then.
So I said not happy.
He said give me an hour.
An hour later ring ring, I just happen to have this role at a big insurer would you know anyone interested?
Yep me I said, interviewed and offered the very next day.
I later found out he had pinched it from the clients normal agencies ad, so his company were doing exactly as you described above.

[Drei]

No idea where we are with the count, so let it be #20:
- What did they ask you on your interview? - Then the more you remember and tell, the more the next candidate will be prepared.
It does happen, if you are the last candidate to interview from the same agent you have a better chance. You should never tell the agent what questions they asked on the interview. NEVER!

Sometimes I provide them with detailed questions and answers if at the end of the interview I realise that either the interview did not go well or that I am no longer interested (two way street, role must appeal to you too). If I know I won't get the job why not help the next guy that comes along and hopefully the agent will remember this and contact me again in the future.


I just got this today:

Thanks for your time earlier, appreciate it.

Please confirm by return email that you give XXXXX exclusive rights to represent your CV for the job detailed below. Please also send the names, contact number and company you worked for them in of your three prior managers so we can secure an interview.

Job title – XXX
Rate – £XXX per day
Availability – XXX
Location – XXX
Length – XX Months Rolling

[northernladuk]

Do you use more than one full stop and possibly a comma or two when giving this information to the agents?

[Drei]

Do you use more than one full stop and possibly a comma or two when giving this information to the agents?

OI! You picked up on my lack of punctuation but not the agents?
Some people have really big lungs and can spur out a sentence without needing commas and full stop.

[northernladuk]

Jesus wept.