Reply to: Agency Sites are miserable!

[Eirikur]

In my experience (and when I've had Premium trials I've hit the campaign trail) I have next to no responses from direct approaches and messaging on LinkedIn.

I have received direct contact from people trying to sell me something.

Agree mostly. Messaging a recruiter hardly ever works and having a premium account (did the free trials as well) makes no difference what so ever.
To stand out from the 100s of likes from mainly Indians to roles advertised by agents on linkedin, if you really believe you are the best suitable person, you should call them, not like the post, reply to the post or message the recruiter.

[LondonManc]

Most roles seem to get advertised on LinkedIn these days. Message the advertiser on there that you are interested, they'll have a look at your profile and ring you if you look like either a reasonable match or someone with decent (i.e. big) clients on your history that they could match in the future. You may have to overcome a bit of fishing from the agency but that can be fended off easily enough.

[hairymouse]

Good point, luckily I don't know that many people and I think he only phoned three out of a list of four. I shall keep my cards close to my chest in future.

How did the permie interview go?

Went fine thanks, believe it or not it has to do with applying AI to messages in Swahili. Commute is miserable though.

I guess I should say that I found the job on a slack channel for a specialist industry tool. Approached the client directly, no agencies involved.

[mb31]

Since you are new, I'll mention that giving a recruitment agent the contact details of all the people you know in the industry is likely to result in those people being hammered with sales calls.

Good point, luckily I don't know that many people and I think he only phoned three out of a list of four. I shall keep my cards close to my chest in future.

How did the permie interview go?

[hairymouse]

I'm new to contracting but won my first contract by talking to an agent and reeling off a list of people I know in my industry. He phoned around and in the space of an hour someone offered me a role without interview.

I don't know how easy it will be in future. The agent has been very helpful so far and is full of promise regarding roles beyond my initial 6 month contract.

I've also been actively approaching new companies to offer my services. One company said they were interested in establishing a long term direct relationship.

I guess I'm more in the WTFH camp on this one but if I hadn't uploaded my CV then the agent wouldn't have called me in the first place. Perhaps you get a honeymoon period when your new on the market.

I hope something comes up for you soon hairymouse.

Thanks for that! I'm sure something will come along soon enough. I am keeping busy and it's not a total wasteland. I've actually got a permie interview this afternoon.

Since you are new, I'll mention that giving a recruitment agent the contact details of all the people you know in the industry is likely to result in those people being hammered with sales calls. Glad it worked for you though.

[ruasonid]

Anyone else finding the above post a little difficult to believe?

In my experience (and when I've had Premium trials I've hit the campaign trail) I have next to no responses from direct approaches and messaging on LinkedIn.

I have received direct contact from people trying to sell me something.

[northernladuk]

Anyone else finding the above post a little difficult to believe?

[Surrey Contractor]

This(ish)

Find a role you're keen on through what ever platform you choose, find the agent on LinkedIn and approach them directly on there with the contact details usually shown, send your CV by email and then follow up with a phone call.

Exactly my approach. 9/10 the recruiters accept and are responsive when you message them in LinkedIn. Opens the door at least

[mb31]

I'm new to contracting but won my first contract by talking to an agent and reeling off a list of people I know in my industry. He phoned around and in the space of an hour someone offered me a role without interview.

I don't know how easy it will be in future. The agent has been very helpful so far and is full of promise regarding roles beyond my initial 6 month contract.

I've also been actively approaching new companies to offer my services. One company said they were interested in establishing a long term direct relationship.

I guess I'm more in the WTFH camp on this one but if I hadn't uploaded my CV then the agent wouldn't have called me in the first place. Perhaps you get a honeymoon period when your new on the market.

I hope something comes up for you soon hairymouse.

[hairymouse]

About the original question, I haven't heard anything back from any of the recruitment sites that I left my CV on. Granted it's only been 24 hours in a horrible market.

[Anonimouse]

My experience is much the same as yours. No agent has ever kept in touch after a gig has ended, none has ever showed interest in maintaining much of a relationship during a contract either.

I had one agent keep me in work for 8 years. The last 7 years I have worked for 3 agencies. My previous one has just approached me about a forth coming role, so hopefully I will roll straight out of this one.

[WTFH]

I swear I'm not having a go at you, just curious because you seem to have a vastly different experience than me.

That’s OK. My experience is that over the last 20 years, I have taken roles through < 10 agents.
Of those, 1 I took to court for not paying up, so they don’t speak to me any more (their loss ). 2 got out of pimping.

Of the 5 gigs that came my way recently, 1 was direct, 1 was through an Indian agency, but I knew more about the role than they did and I knew to avoid it. The other 3 roles came from my pool of agents. In fact one role was suggested to me by a couple of them.

[dsc]

Normally, (which is not in this current market), whenever I re-upload, I would get a flood of calls suggesting that this approach does work. That said, a couple of months ago when I was last moving contracts, I uploaded and the silence was deafening.

Same story here, actually I'm just about to upload a refreshed CV in the next few days, seriously hoping to get at least a few calls :/

[ladymuck]

I swear I'm not having a go at you, just curious because you seem to have a vastly different experience than me.

Anyway, I find that I never develop any relationship with agents, not even the ones that place me for contracts that last years. I just simply never hear from them again, I guess they are too busy moving money they made off of me from one vault to the other with a golden shovel. You'd think that after a 3.5 year contract is over they would be falling over themselves to find me another one.

My experience is much the same as yours. No agent has ever kept in touch after a gig has ended, none has ever showed interest in maintaining much of a relationship during a contract either.

[hairymouse]

Most of my roles are unadvertised, but I haven’t got the roles because I randomly uploaded my CV on a job site or agent site.
It’s because I’ve spoken to agents and then sent in my CV.

Then what happens is I keep in touch with the key agents. They know my availability and will suggest roles to me when they come up. If you’ve just blindly uploaded a CV, how does the agent know whether you are available or not?

I swear I'm not having a go at you, just curious because you seem to have a vastly different experience than me.

Anyway, I find that I never develop any relationship with agents, not even the ones that place me for contracts that last years. I just simply never hear from them again, I guess they are too busy moving money they made off of me from one vault to the other with a golden shovel. You'd think that after a 3.5 year contract is over they would be falling over themselves to find me another one.