Agency prank calls?

[Bee]

I don't answer hidden numbers.

Happened to me several times from a identified number. They show interest in my CV and profile, before hang up they say. "I will send you the job description by email" but they don't send, why this?

[northernladuk]

I don't answer hidden numbers.

Happened to me several times from a identified number. They show interest in my CV and profile, before hang up they say. "I will send you the job description by email" but they don't send, why this?

Do you make as little sense by phone as you do on here?

[Bee]

Do you make as little sense by phone as you do on here?

You are so predictable.

Even if it is true, why do they say they will send the job description?
Don't say it, the same company did this twice.

[northernladuk]

You are so predictable.

Even if it is true, why do they say they will send the job description?
Don't say it, the same company did this twice.

Because they are not allowed to say no thanks we don't want foreigners and It would be rude to say no thanks you sound like a complete idiot. Even though both may be true it's easier just to say they'll send it and end the call.

[Bee]

Because they are not allowed to say no thanks we don't want foreigners and It would be rude to say no thanks you sound like a complete idiot. Even though both may be true it's easier just to say they'll send it and end the call.

Again.

- Why they continue to call.

What you are saying doesn't make sense.

[northernladuk]

<snip>

They call because they have a memory of gold fish and just run keyword searches against roles. You're CV matches so they call you. They won't remember if they've called you before or not.

<snip>

[Bee]

<snip>

They call because they have a memory of gold fish and just run keyword searches against roles. You're CV matches so they call you. They won't remember if they've called you before or not.

<snip>

Black list.

I don't answer the phone calls and I don't apply to theire jobs invitations sent by email.

For me, all of this it’s a lack of respect and I don’t want to work with these kind of people.

[Willapp]

Just a thought but they do have your email address correct, right? Would be sad (but funny) if there was a typo on your CV or they had mis-heard it and been sending you job specs thinking that you're the idiot for never getting back to them!

Just saying...

[wogewwabbit]

Just a thought but they do have your email address correct, right? Would be sad (but funny) if there was a typo on your CV or they had mis-heard it and been sending you job specs thinking that you're the idiot for never getting back to them!
Just saying...

It's nothing like that. They also know my email address, as at the same time they can send me fake roles to collect my updated CV, just to update their database.
I've had a chat with a honest recruiter the other day, he told me that I should start the naturalisation process asap to become a British citizen. Having lived in the UK for 10+ years, working in the top tech industry, suddenly this started to matter more than my experience. Of course this may well just be a speculation. He didn't go into details why, but he definitely thought that this would be a good idea. Unfortunately that process takes months even if I started now, and I can't afford being unemployed for that long.

[LondonManc]

Hi Guys,

I've been on the bench for 4 months now. Every now and then I receive calls from hidden numbers. Most of the time I just cancel the calls, but sometimes I answer them. Most of the time the conversation goes like this:
Got a contract.
Matches what I'm looking for.
Location ok.
Rate ok. No negotiation.
Some questions about my CV, why did I leave this contract, or that contract.
Some nice chit-chat about my expertise.
No phishing questions, not interested in managers, colleagues, nothing like that.

Then I get a promise, that they will send me a jobspec in 5 minutes, and then hang up the phone.

After this I never hear from them again.

This happened at least 5 times in the last 4 months. Always hidden number, claiming to be an agency, sometimes hard to understand, but here are some I actually understood: Gravitas, ComputerFutures and Vivid. Obviously I don't remember the agent's name anymore, so I can't call their reception back.

WTF is this? What is the point of these phone calls? They often waste 30-40 minutes on the phone, and when everything looks ok in the end, they just drop my CV to the bin? I seriously don't understand this.

On another occasion I had a call from a guy who hung up the phone and said goodbye while I was clearly still talking to him. Again, no phone number, no idea who it was.

You don't see the relationship between these two?

Agent Joe is a Cognos recruiter. You're a Cognos contractor.
On your cv is a list of companies who could be looking for Cognos people
Agent Joe goes through your cv to see which are the most likely to recruit; scrubs off Client Y when you say that you were binned off because they were migrating to SSRS/SSAS; passes Client Z to his drinking buddy Perm Agent Chris when he finds out that they binned you off because they were culling contractors in favour of perm.