Agencies as a Bottleneck?

[newtopgun]

Hi All,

I have been actively searching for a job for past 2 months and with little success. I am new to UK market and have managed to just get couple of interviews (results for those are still awaited), one thru an agency and one direct.

Of What I have felt in these past two months, is that most of the times agents are acting as a bottleneck and show a lot of resistance to pass on the resume to the company, even if it is matching directly with the job requirements. This is when I have over 11 years of exp and has been well appreciated of the skills at all places, even by the managers who have taken my recent interviews.

My concern here is that let the CV be passed to the company and let them, the people who actually have to hire, decide. But alas, that's not the case, thus depriving me of an opportunity to demonstrate my skills.

My Qs is:
1. Is the same feeling felt by others also?
2. Can I do something more to improve the situation?

Thanks in Advance

[argoran]

I always hold the idea that agencies are a bunch of B£$%£d and they rip you off - I always feel uncomfortable knowing that someone is making easy money out of my hard work by just sitting on their arses.

However as much as we hate 'em we need 'em too; since some companies ( especially the big ones ) would only go through an agency as a first level of screening.

Check out www.jobserve.co.uk & www.monster.co.uk you might get lucky anhd find a company that is actually advertising there - but until you start knowing ppl in the business to get recommendations and tell you the jobs to apply for directly you would unfortunately have to stick with them.

[jmo21]

I think its very typical in the UK that company X says to agent Y "get me 10 CV's to look at". Company X then chooses how many to interview.

If an agent has already picked the 10 they think are best (which may or may not be the actual best 10 people) and then your CV lands on their desk, they may string you along while they wait to find out how the other 10 CV's get on, and also to stop you sending your CV to Agent Z who may also have been asked to source candidates, thus giving their original 10 a better chance.

are am I just to cynical?