Agencies need to get rid of the keyword based search

[jmo21]

I was not personally involved in it tbh. Although I heard them discussing the lack of COM on the cv and they phoned the agent up to ask about it and the agent somehow convinced them that he was a COM expert despite not mentioning it in his cv.

I am not sure I hold the agent entirely to blame. He Probably did not know the difference between coms and COM.

This is where telephone interviews become useful.

[The Agents View]

When I was a lad in it was GIGO....garbage in garbage out

And that would also be far more useful in a professional environment/on a professional forum also

[MrMark]

It's taken me some time to realise this, but I believe that none of the jobs that are mentioned on emails and sent out based on keyword search, exist. It's just a fishing exercise to capture those poor souls who are looking, and are desperate for a sniff of an interview.
If an agent has a genuine role and wants to fill it, they call up suitable candidates directly by phone in order to fill the vacancy (or interview places) asap before another agent gets wind of the position.

[The Agents View]

It's taken me some time to realise this, but I believe that none of the jobs that are mentioned on emails and sent out based on keyword search, exist. It's just a fishing exercise to capture those poor souls who are looking, and are desperate for a sniff of an interview.
If an agent has a genuine role and wants to fill it, they call up suitable candidates directly by phone in order to fill the vacancy (or interview places) asap before another agent gets wind of the position.

I think there are exceptions to this - but you can tell when an email has been written by someone because they think you might be interested, compared to those who are fishing. You'll tend to find that the specialist agents out there don't tend to go fishing (certainly not as much) - whereas your generalists are just casting multiple baited lines, to see which one picks up a bite.

[DodgyAgent]

Becuase it is, as far as they're concerned.

Next time an agent calls you, look them up on LinkedIn. They'll have experience measured in months, following a successful career shining shoes in Streatham or something. Quite a few agencies use software instead to do the same thing. You are at least two steps away from the real recruiters, who don't have time for all that tedious research, and whose bean-couinting management consider to be too expensive to waste on initial sifting.

The market's been commodotised (or, to use another more appropriate word, f***ed) by the agencies. Live with it, unless we ever get an excess of requriement over skills...

FTFY

[DodgyAgent]

Becuase it is, as far as they're concerned.

Next time an agent calls you, look them up on LinkedIn. They'll have experience measured in months, following a successful career selling shoes in Streatham or something. Quite a few agencies use software instead to do the same thing. You are at least two steps away from the real recruiters, who don't have time for all that tedious research, and whose bean-couinting management consider to be too expensive to waste on initial sifting.

The market's been commodotised (or, to use another more appropriate word, f***ed) by the agencies. Live with it, unless we ever get an excess of requriement over skills...

It is not the agents who have "commodotised" the market it is the clients. In pursuit of lower margins and efficient processes the personal touch has gone. This has been been driven by a number of factors one of which is that companies have been under siege from agents, another is margins and the other is the relative ease with which contractors can be found. Technology has played its part too and like many computer systems they work in binary only.

[malvolio]

It is not the agents who have "commodotised" the market it is the clients. In pursuit of lower margins and efficient processes the personal touch has gone. This has been been driven by a number of factors one of which is that companies have been under siege from agents, another is margins and the other is the relative ease with which contractors can be found. Technology has played its part too and like many computer systems they work in binary only.

I might be tempted to agree with you - except that every agency website sells themselves as being a resource provider with a stable of people ready to go, and not as a conduit between requirement and expertise. Your customers are buying a myth, most of the time, and Human Remains are not the best-placed people to understand that.

[Gentile]

Comparing dealing with agents and their 'box-ticking exercises' with dealing with HR Departments and their propensity for asking you to fill in mindless application forms containing such insightful questions as "tell me about a time when you had to convince someone you had a solution to a problem", I know which I'll choose every single time. HR departments are the main reason agencies exist; whilst there are undoubtedly good ones out there, for most companies, if recruitment of professionals were left to their HR Dept, people who can do and people who need doing would never meet.

[blacjac]

Comparing dealing with agents and their 'box-ticking exercises' with dealing with HR Departments and their propensity for asking you to fill in mindless application forms containing such insightful questions as "tell me about a time when you had to convince someone you had a solution to a problem", I know which I'll choose every single time. HR departments are the main reason agencies exist; whilst there are undoubtedly good ones out there, for most companies, if recruitment of professionals were left to their HR Dept, people who can do and people who need doing would never meet.

Couldn't agree more.
My wife once went for a permie interview at a large insurance co (basically a call centre for identity theft insurance).
After passing the first interview, she spent a day on site 'learning' the ropes. The day ended with a HR interview.
She didn't get a job.

She phoned up for some feedback and the receptionist actually put her through to the person who interviewed her, her reason for failing the interview?
"I had a sheet with 10 buzzwords on it and you didn't mention any of them".

[northernladuk]

Comparing dealing with agents and their 'box-ticking exercises' with dealing with HR Departments and their propensity for asking you to fill in mindless application forms containing such insightful questions as "tell me about a time when you had to convince someone you had a solution to a problem", I know which I'll choose every single time. HR departments are the main reason agencies exist; whilst there are undoubtedly good ones out there, for most companies, if recruitment of professionals were left to their HR Dept, people who can do and people who need doing would never meet.

+1 for me as well.