How many agencies are you in contact with?

[Aman]

I'm just wondering how many agencies / direct clients people are in contact with regularly or irregularly and have been in contact with in the past.
Obviously it's better not to use the scatter far and wide method as the primary means of contract hunting, but many of my contracts have came out of the blue, these agents have contacted me before so no harm in updating most of them.

I recently planned to update agencies with new CVs but my e-mail client was in a bit of a mess with e-mails from hundreds of agents, all in the one folder. I'd no idea what revision of which CV I had sent them last.

I created a folder in my mail client for each agency (and direct client or employer) I have received any e-maill from, though I intend to data mine the enquiries book for agencies that call. The date of the last update is incorporated in the folder name.

My mail client doesn;t sit too comfortably with so many folders and crashes quite often (need more RAM) but that's a small temporary price to pay for revision control, a bit of order and being able to identify most frequent and most useful contacts.

A meaningless by-product of this exercise is I have a count of agencies.

5 - Agents who regularly and repeatedly contact me and place me
7 - Direct clients
86 - Local Agencies (various disciplines)
318 - Agencies UK wide and overseas subsidiaries. (various disciplines)
28 - Recent registrations (comms/IT and engineering)
10 - Agencies I can get a quick, no fuss no interview start through ... if they have anything
2 - Stop Listed agencies (unpaid for work)

49 - Job sites I'm registered on (some are aliases of others eg Absolute Comms / Jobsite)


7 Jobseekers
Not sure where they got my e-mail address from but I suspect some newletters, Usenet or an agent not hiding recipents e-mail addresses from each other. I receive a few a week for several months, I wish I hadn't deleted the rest as I could use ideas from other peoples' CVs.

114 Agencies dissolved since 2001.
Rather a lot of them dissolved during the recovery from the telco / 'dotcom 'crash, maybe they were unable to finance their growth?

[Spacecadet]

Obviously it's better not to use the scatter far and wide method as the primary means of contract hunting

Go on, enlighten me. Why is it obviously not better?

[Ignis Fatuus]

3, more or less.

2 that have got me most of my contracts over the last few years.
1 that has had suitable contracts over the years but it just never happened, until the current one.

Then about 3 more that keep calling me with stuff that is usually my 2nd or 3rd choice. Fair enough, if they come up with a good contract I'll go with them.

Then a load of guys that find my CV elsewhere. I take all calls and if someone has a contract I like, I'll take it, but I don't actuall keep their phone numbers.

[RichardCranium]

I do my best to try to get my CV with as many agencies as possible; it has been with hundreds.

I try to keep in touch with about a dozen agents.

I invariably get contracts from agencies calling me.

[alreadypacked]

I'm just wondering how many agencies / direct clients people are in contact with regularly or irregularly and have been in contact with in the past.
Obviously it's better not to use the scatter far and wide method as the primary means of contract hunting, but many of my contracts have came out of the blue, these agents have contacted me before so no harm in updating most of them.

I recently planned to update agencies with new CVs but my e-mail client was in a bit of a mess with e-mails from hundreds of agents, all in the one folder. I'd no idea what revision of which CV I had sent them last.

I created a folder in my mail client for each agency (and direct client or employer) I have received any e-maill from, though I intend to data mine the enquiries book for agencies that call. The date of the last update is incorporated in the folder name.

My mail client doesn;t sit too comfortably with so many folders and crashes quite often (need more RAM) but that's a small temporary price to pay for revision control, a bit of order and being able to identify most frequent and most useful contacts.

A meaningless by-product of this exercise is I have a count of agencies.

5 - Agents who regularly and repeatedly contact me and place me
7 - Direct clients
86 - Local Agencies (various disciplines)
318 - Agencies UK wide and overseas subsidiaries. (various disciplines)
28 - Recent registrations (comms/IT and engineering)
10 - Agencies I can get a quick, no fuss no interview start through ... if they have anything
2 - Stop Listed agencies (unpaid for work)

49 - Job sites I'm registered on (some are aliases of others eg Absolute Comms / Jobsite)


7 Jobseekers
Not sure where they got my e-mail address from but I suspect some newletters, Usenet or an agent not hiding recipents e-mail addresses from each other. I receive a few a week for several months, I wish I hadn't deleted the rest as I could use ideas from other peoples' CVs.

114 Agencies dissolved since 2001.
Rather a lot of them dissolved during the recovery from the telco / 'dotcom 'crash, maybe they were unable to finance their growth?

Are you on the bench?
I apply via jobserve, I get the role or not. Don't keep mails, things change so much why bother.

[Spacecadet]

Are you on the bench?
I apply via jobserve, I get the role or not. Don't keep mails, things change so much why bother.

Even if you are on the bench, there are more better things you can spend your time on!

[MarillionFan]

Go on, enlighten me. Why is it obviously not better?

The scatter gun approach is wrong. Targetted distribution should be the key.

If you send your one CV to thousands of jobs you are bound to fail on the vast majority that do not meet the exact requirements. Once you have submitted your 'incorrect' CV to the agent you have been rejected and it's is difficult to then send a better one / different one. You then over saturate & effectively reduce your chances. It is not a number game!

Specially designed CV's are better. Applying for a BA role, ensure your CV is designed to extol those virtues. Apply for a BA role in Banking, then ensure that Banking experience is highlighted first. Apply for a BA role in Banking where they also want someone with a certain methodology/approach etc, then ensure that it's a BA / Banking / UML / Stakeholder CV.

Be selective.