Newbie queries agency tactics...

[TheBigYinJames]

LOL, sorry but its funny, Agent B are "cowboys" because they are using good practice and identifying which candidates are really good for the role, whereas Agent A (in your world) are alright because they just breeze the candidate's CV through?

Sure, asking a contractor to add fake keywords to a CV in order to get it through an automated keyword checker is the height of professionalism.

[Another Dodgy Agent]

Sure, asking a contractor to add fake keywords to a CV in order to get it through an automated keyword checker is the height of professionalism.

Whoaa there, who suggested that? No one? So that is supposition! Agent B is suggesting you pull out the right experience in your CV to get you through HR checks, surely this is of benefit to the contractor, is it not????

If certain key words are required and you have that experience then what is the problem with "shouting from the rooftops" on your CV?

[NickFitz]

It's been a while since I've dealt with agents, but during boom, bust, and boom again the workflow has typically been:

1. See interesting role on JobServe;
2. Email CV to agent;
3. Wait thirty minutes;
4. If agent hasn't already called me in response to email, call agent and bring email to their attention;
5. Get interview;
6. Pass interview;
7. Start work.

I've often wondered why agents get so much money when all they do is wait for me to phone them up and remind them to check their email. I suppose adding all this "keyword optimisation" nonsense into the mix makes it look like they're doing something for the cream they skim

More importantly, what's with all this stuff about passing CVs to an external organisation for analysis? Unless consent for this has been explicitly sought and obtained, that's a clear breach of the Data Protection Act - a criminal offence.

[TheBigYinJames]

Whoaa there, who suggested that? No one?

Time to read the thread again from the very first posting.

They (Agent B) tell me that I need to change CV, because it will go through an EXTERNAL clearing house that search for KEYWORKDS and that I should ensure that I fulfil every single one of the requirments. They also suggested that I basically bulltip my CV with more keywords.

But then perhaps it's too much to expect an agent to do more than skim-read anything.

[Another Dodgy Agent]

Time to read the thread again from the very first posting.



But then perhaps it's too much to expect an agent to do more than skim-read anything.

So I suppose the concept of working your CV in to a design that picks up your best points from previous experience in relation to a new role is a new concept? Gosh, I thought you folks were proper Ltd Co's and not temps? So you wouldn't act like a temp would you. If a consultancy firm were putting someone forward for a role they would maximise the opportunity of the skill of that person for the role, now you being a bonafide Ltd Co I guess you knew all of that, or are you a temp? In which case I am sure you are up to speed with your NI and tax contributions? What was you Ltd Co name by the way??

[TheBigYinJames]

So I suppose the concept of working your CV in to a design that picks up your best points from previous experience in relation to a new role is a new concept?

That's not what he's been told to do, and you know it.

[NickFitz]

So I suppose the concept of working your CV in to a design that picks up your best points from previous experience in relation to a new role is a new concept?

That's not what he's been told to do, and you know it.

What TBYJ said. The OP seems to be describing a situation where the agency is exhorting him to create whatever document might pass the "external checks" with complete disregard for - or at least no necessity of regard for - the truth. (BTW, design has nothing to do with it - words are content, not design. Design is about presentation, not content, and the original question is clearly concerning content.)

It's hardly a new concept for an agent to lie, and exhort a prospective candidate to lie, for the sake of earning a commission, is it?

I myself, in my more naive days, went for an interview where the agent had told me I was "ideally suited" and that a certain technology, of which I had nothing more than a passing acquaintance, was just a "nice to have but not essential".

Of course, the client hadn't actually bothered reading my CV properly because they expected the agent to do the filtering. When the "nice to have" skill turned out to be the primary requirement, I was left looking like an idiot.

And then the agent had the cheek to tell me that the client had said that I was a "very poor candidate" (which I was, for that role) and tell me it was my fault and I was getting him a bad name

I'm not suggesting that you, ADA, would behave in such an unprofessional manner - just that the arsehole that the OP is currently dealing with may be doing so. Either way, you can probably understand from this little tale why so many contractors hold so many agents in such contempt.

[TheBigYinJames]

I'm not suggesting that you, ADA, would behave in such an unprofessional manner - just that the arsehole that the OP is currently dealing with may be doing so. Either way, you can probably understand from this little tale why so many contractors hold so many agents in such contempt.

2nd'd. In this thread, and the other one, you have leaped to the defence of a fellow agent, and that in itself is admirable, since most of them would cut each other's throat for a shiekel.

But please bear in mind when you try to -um- explain away the actions of some agents, that we have very well developed tulip-agent radars, which we earned by believing them in our early days and suffering for it. We are far better placed to advise the OP on which of the two agents is probably a tulip merchant. We may be wrong, you may be right in this case, but we learned how to tell the difference the hard way.

[EternalOptimist]

2nd'd. In this thread, and the other one, you have leaped to the defence of a fellow agent, and that in itself is admirable, since most of them would cut each other's throat for a shiekel.

But please bear in mind when you try to -um- explain away the actions of some agents, that we have very well developed tulip-agent radars, which we earned by believing them in our early days and suffering for it. We are far better placed to advise the OP on which of the two agents is probably a tulip merchant. We may be wrong, you may be right in this case, but we learned how to tell the difference the hard way.

you got to admire his sig though

'I don't want to achieve immortality through my work... I want to achieve it through not dying... '

almost something that Woody Allen might have written

[DodgyAgent]

LOL, sorry but its funny, Agent B are "cowboys" because they are using good practice and identifying which candidates are really good for the role, whereas Agent A (in your world) are alright because they just breeze the candidate's CV through?

What worries me is I may have to deal with you one day and that I may put you forward to one of my clients and the above is your attitude, sorry but it scares me,it really does.

What is all this "Best practice" bo**ocks?" it is effectively a series of dumb processes designed to paper over the inadequacies of agencies resource staff (buzzword recruiters). It is also designed to screw as much information out of contractors as possible.