Recruitment agents are habitual liars

[MarillionFan]

Good post, but never happened to me.

I have had an agent slam the phone down on me mid-call when I said I didnt have quite the skills they were after - which was damn rude - but thats it.

[Wanderer]

"Who were you working with there, because I dealt with a Melanie Frontage and I'd love to know how to get to see her again."

I've had them try this one but that too was a ruse:

Agent: Ahh, yes the XXXX department. Is Joe Bloggs still running the team there?
Me: No (and there never was anyone by that name).
Agent: Ahh, who's taken over from him then?

So now we all know what to say:

Me: Richard is in charge of recruitment now
Agent: Ahhh! Richard...... Yes, I know Richard. Richard ummm??
Me: Richard Cranium.

You Sir, are hereby immortalised as referee to thousands of contractors from now on. International fame awaits.

[RichardCranium]

I've had my first call from an agent (on Friday). They saw my CV on Jobtulipe and called me. They think my CV is fantastic.

They have a gig in the same sector as my current gig doing what I've being doing here. It is local too. They want to put me forward, but they've got to check one or two things first.

"Can you talk me through your CV?" - (FFS, can't these children read?) talked her through CV.

"What rate do you want?" - told her and this gig is just inside my range.

"What methods have you used?" - told her and this new gig wants the same ones.

"What PM qualifications do you have?" - told her and this new gig needs those ones.

"All I need now to put you forward are two tesimonials from your current client".

It took 25 minutes to get to this point. Yes, she does need names and telnos too.

ClientCo has a sole supplier arrangement (with an agency that is ripping them off). If this stupid child had asked me up front "How do we at F**kwit Recruitment get on the PSL?" it would have saved both of us 25 minutes.

I especially cross since I am working for the ONLY organisation in this part of Britain in its sector, and I am the only person doing what I do - so I should have realised she was making the role up based on my CV.

I dunno. It's as if, well, anybody might think recruitment agents just tell lies out of habit. But that can't be right, can it? Surely these people cannot be habitual liars?

[pmeswani]

I've had my first call from an agent (on Friday). They saw my CV on Jobtulipe and called me. They think my CV is fantastic.

They have a gig in the same sector as my current gig doing what I've being doing here. It is local too. They want to put me forward, but they've got to check one or two things first.

"Can you talk me through your CV?" - (FFS, can't these children read?) talked her through CV.

"What rate do you want?" - told her and this gig is just inside my range.

"What methods have you used?" - told her and this new gig wants the same ones.

"What PM qualifications do you have?" - told her and this new gig needs those ones.

"All I need now to put you forward are two tesimonials from your current client".

It took 25 minutes to get to this point. Yes, she does need names and telnos too.

ClientCo has a sole supplier arrangement (with an agency that is ripping them off). If this stupid child had asked me up front "How do we at F**kwit Recruitment get on the PSL?" it would have saved both of us 25 minutes.

I especially cross since I am working for the ONLY organisation in this part of Britain in its sector, and I am the only person doing what I do - so I should have realised she was making the role up based on my CV.

I dunno. It's as if, well, anybody might think recruitment agents just tell lies out of habit. But that can't be right, can it? Surely these people cannot be habitual liars?

As part of the "I like to keep an open mind" thinking, I have started to consider going back to the dark side. So one agent had put me forward for a role (without sending me a Job Description she had promised) and the client appeared interested. When the Agent called back to tell me this, she promptly sent me the Job Description. She also told me that the client had issues with my commitment as I had come from a contracting background, at this point I was a bit annoyed, especially as I had not consented to my CV being put forward prior to seeing the Job Description. The Description was partly way over my head, but I decided to walk away from the role citing "The client won't seriously consider me for the role as he has already cited issues over my commitment". The agent was a bit miffed and told me that she would not consider me for any more dark side roles. A few days later, she called up with another perm role and a phishing exercise.

so to answer your point, some agents are liars, or at least incapable of keeping / sticking to their word.

[malvolio]

Not liars, merely lazy and often incompetent. When you get a wally call, look them up on LinkedIn and see just how qualified they are to judge technical CVs.

As for lazy, I had three calls this year wanting to put me forward for the job I'm already doing, and for one of which I was the hiring manager (that was fun - gave her my name and my desk phone as the contact. She called me about four minutes after we finished the original call. "Can I speak to Mr Malcolm Volio please...")

[nomadd]

Not liars, merely lazy and often incompetent.

Nope, some of them plainly and simply are liars. They just act on the assumption it's the contractor who is lazy and incompetent...

[norrahe]

Nope, some of them plainly and simply are liars. They just act on the assumption it's the contractor who is lazy and incompetent...

Or they just manage to catch you at that vulnerable moment whereby you've been on the bench for a while........

As soon as you see private number, you just have to take a deep breath and break into those stores of cynicism you save for the pimp on the end of the line.

[MrMark]

As soon as you see private number

yep. If it's a withheld private number, it's either a pimp or a sales call.

[pmeswani]

As soon as you see private number, you just have to take a deep breath and break into those stores of cynicism you save for the pimp on the end of the line.

Funny you should say that. My mobile is set up to hide my number unless you are on my contact list. My mum likes the idea of using up my free minutes on my phone, but I don't want the hassle of someone calling my mobile asking to speak to my mum and not understanding that I am at work and they have called the wrong frigging number!

[norrahe]

yep. If it's a withheld private number, it's either a pimp or a sales call.

Thankfully I only get called by pimps, I can just take it out on them if I'm having yet another bad day