Agencies to avoid....

[Lance]

I've found a company called "Square One Resources" to be utter tulip. Posting plenty of contract ads on Jobserve that exactly match my skillset. Applied for a couple, agency phoned me on all occasions, talked through requirements, all seemed good. They didn't let off who the contract was with though. Never heard anything back from any of them, yet I still see the same agents from there posting the same / very similar ads on Jobserve. Can only assume they are CV harvesting, strangely enough when I checked for one of the agents posting the job ads, he wasn't on LinkedIn, which I find very odd...

or could it be that they had better people to put forward for the role?

Isn't your CV downloadable from Jobserve anyway? If not then you're missing out as most agencies use the CVs on their books before they pay to place an advert. I've never got a contract I applied for, only ones that agencies have rung me direct based on the CV they've downloaded from Jobsite/Jobserve.

[LondonManc]

I've found a company called "Square One Resources" to be utter tulip. Posting plenty of contract ads on Jobserve that exactly match my skillset. Applied for a couple, agency phoned me on all occasions, talked through requirements, all seemed good. They didn't let off who the contract was with though. Never heard anything back from any of them, yet I still see the same agents from there posting the same / very similar ads on Jobserve. Can only assume they are CV harvesting, strangely enough when I checked for one of the agents posting the job ads, he wasn't on LinkedIn, which I find very odd...

At which point I'd insist on not being put forward. I don't want to be put forward to places that I don't want to work. Part of that is the consideration of expenses and hassle - is it near a station, what's the drive like, etc.? In Manchester, you can pay anything from free to £14/day for car parking and being wrong side of town can add 30 minutes to your journey. Jobs at Barclays in Cheshire are sometimes advertised as Manchester too, which it certainly isn't. Not only that, but the client may be in an industry that's just beginning a downturn, so you may not want to waste your time.

As for the job poster, I can imagine that they're using dummy posters because of the volume of applicants these days. A dummy dolly bird profile on LinkedIn doesn't mean much either.

[Eirikur]

Last time I dealt with square one they scheduled me for a phone interview, nobody showed up, they rescheduled it and no one showed up again. Not their fault, but the endclient's I told them to tell end client to f€k off if they treat their candidates in this way I don't want to contract with them.

[logozz]

Square One Resources

...I think I am considered a "pioneer" in my area of specialisation and almost always win the interviews I am put forward to. I also do a lot of recruitment for the clients i work for and would definitely be interested in outstanding profiles such as mine.

I have responded to TONS of ads from Square One that were SPOT ON and NEVER EVER had any sort of real response.
There is no doubt in my mind that all they do is sending speculative CV:s where there is no explicit requirement, and/or mine CV:S for leads.

I have stopped sending them CV:s as it is statistically a complete waste of time, and I don't want to help liars with their business.

Same goes for Nigel Frank - a completely dodgy firm (Not member of REC), that apparently pushes their (young and inexperienced staff) to flood job boards with fake job ads.

A pattern with Nigel Frank, though, is that I often receive LinkedIn invitations after me responding to their ads. I am absolutely sure that they just want to crossreference my CV with my LinkedIn connections so tha they can spam hiring managers with LinkedIn messages...

[I just need to test it]

There is no doubt in my mind that all they do is sending speculative CV:s where there is no explicit requirement, and/or mine CV:S for leads.

I have stopped sending them CV:s as it is statistically a complete waste of time, and I don't want to help liars with their business.

Blimey. At the risk of appearing to protest too much, this is so far from my experience with SQ1.

[Eirikur]

Same goes for Nigel Frank - a completely dodgy firm (Not member of REC), that apparently pushes their (young and inexperienced staff) to flood job boards with fake job ads.

Yes totally agree with Nigel Frank and their useless sister company Mason Frank. they claim to be CRM specialists, yet they don't have their own CRM system (which they confirmed when I asked them) because if they would have it they would see they call me twice per week asking me to send my CV and already have a million copies of my CV in their database. I've blocked their numbers on my mobile

[Andy Hallett]

Four letters that will bring music to your ears in 2018: GDPR

If you haven't heard about it, Google is your friend.

[RasputinDude]

Four letters that will bring music to your ears in 2018: GDPR

Yup, it's going to a biggy and very lucrative

[Andy Hallett]

Should give the PPI folk something to do post 2018.

[Agent]

...
Same goes for Nigel Frank - a completely dodgy firm (Not member of REC)..

Trust me, being a member of of a 'paid for' body means absolutely nothing. Zero.

APSCO is a little better as at least they reference the agencies but even then, they do zero regulation. I know of an agency that got many complaints and were members of REC. What happened from REC, nothing, they just renewed their membership, paid the annual fee and got a new REC sticker to put in their window.