Reply to: La Fosse Associates - experiences?

[jayn200]

I stopped applying to their job ads as I have never gotten any interest from them even after applying to several hundred of their ads. Probably mostly fake ads as lots have been near perfect matches.

[eek]

The only time I spotted a "blacklist" was one by an agency working with Barclays, it had been store in unsecured file server and was in an excel sheet with no password protection.

Basically listed contractors that were worth rehiring and which weren't.

qh

It had to be available to recruitment consultants - putting it in a secured file server and adding a password would have stopped all the agents from checking it.

[quackhandle]

The only time I spotted a "blacklist" was one by an agency working with Barclays, it had been store in unsecured file server and was in an excel sheet with no password protection.

Basically listed contractors that were worth rehiring and which weren't.

qh

[sira]

If that candidate is crap or has a habit of leaving gigs early wouldn't that affect the agencies ability to make money so better to not deal with the candidate?

Maybe if it happens a few times. Dont think OP's done anything bad enough to warrant being blacklisted by an entire agency.

I know recruiters informally "blacklist" candidates. I cant say for sure, but I feel this has happened to me to me with a couple receuiters because I withdrew my interest in roles (and refused to submit my CV), after securing an offer. Some get very pissed off and some are very cool about it, because they know they'll make money off me in future. Another example - very often the same old recruiters call me periodically to try their luck and push permie roles on me and get hacked off when I consistently decline. Cant please everybody.

[northernladuk]

Why would agencies ever blacklist candidates? Their only goal is to make money. If you're a suitable/good candidate, they can keep making money out of you no matter what. Maybe you wont work for the same client again, but why should the agency care. Especially if your a contractor and move around different clients by nature.

If that candidate is crap or has a habit of leaving gigs early wouldn't that affect the agencies ability to make money so better to not deal with the candidate?

[sira]

Yes, you're clearly blackballed by them. It happens despite people here saying it doesnt.

Ive been blackballed twice in the past, one by an ex colleague who via the old boys network, got himself a senior manager position on the Aspire(?) DWP project years ago and proceeded to load former colleagues into junior and middle manager level roles. Agents were amazed I was being turned down for interview until one who wouldnt take no for an answer got one.

Second time was with the LTSB Group because I turned down their gracious offer of an extension and left on completion of the 3 month contract. Obviously they considered there was MOO (or is it the other way around, I forget now!)!

The best thing is not to bother applying for roles via this agency no matter how tempted you are to apply. Alternatively you can continue to apply via them and just become more disgruntled. Or one day you may strike lucky.

But there's some bollocks spouted on these boards: Oh, I always phone the agent before \ after and I got the job. Yeah, that's really hard to do every time when many agents have stopped giving out phone numbers for you to ring.

Oh, if you dig around you'll find the number. Yes, you might and when you phone you get the 'he \ she's on another call, can they phone you back?

Why would agencies ever blacklist candidates? Their only goal is to make money. If you're a suitable/good candidate, they can keep making money out of you no matter what. Maybe you wont work for the same client again, but why should the agency care. Especially if your a contractor and move around different clients by nature.

[JohnM]

They are fine, I did a short term gig with them recently. Pay weekly on 30 day terms, you normally get an invoice the Wednesday after your timesheet is authorised and then are paid 4 weeks later on the Friday

[spongeym]

I did a gig with La Fosse a couple of years ago, no issues at all. I found the role via LinkedIn, messaged the agent, got a call back straight away to setup interviews etc.

He still recommends me to his colleagues now and I'm in contact with them at least once a month for roles, unfortunatley most are London based and I can't be bothered travelling back there now. Btw, I'm an Infrastructure Engineer.

No negatives from me in terms of landing a role, payments etc. Even met up with the guy for a beer and a meal at Xmas with a few other contractors he placed.

[quackhandle]

Worked with La Fosse about 18m ago. Decent as pimps go, and one of the very few occasions where I managed to convince the pimp to knock the rate *up* before starting at client co.

qh

[Bluenose]

When the market is dead you can always rely on La Fosse to have loads of contracts on the boards with fabulous day rates on offer. They're as fake as they come.

Had the rejection emails within a couple of hours of the ad appearing... "sorry but the job has been filled already" or similar.
I also had the "your CV wasn't a good match this time" when I've had a lottery ticket match.

Glad some people have had some good experience with them, but La Fosse are on my avoid list.

La Fosse, Careerwise and Henlow - running the bait and switch playbook day-by-day.

They don't operate a blacklist, they just know whether they have CV farmed you/pumped your linkedin contact info. for their database previously.

[northernladuk]

My french is a bit rusty but google tells me Fosse means a 'pit' or a 'ditch'.
Quite fitting.

Yes your French is very rusty.

[CheeseSlice]

La Faux?

My french is a bit rusty but google tells me Fosse means a 'pit' or a 'ditch'.
Quite fitting.

[mjcp]

I've had 2 roles (some might say 1.5) with LF, no issues at all.

1st via the Leeds office. straight forward and paid on time.

2nd was a cold call from the London office while on holiday in rainy Cornwall; not very interested 'till the rate was mentioned. Phone call with end client from the car in the campsite car park and offer the next day. Existing client countered and I pulled out of the LF role just as the contract landed in the inbox.
I was polite and stayed in touch with the agent.

2 years on and that agent is managing a team and I get a call from someone in the team every ~6-12 weeks to see what I'm up to / next available / speculative JD etc.

Recently (I'm looking) I've have had my CV off to a few of their roles and had 2 face to face. If they operate a blacklist, apparently I'm not on it!

M

[BolshieBastard]

I'd be interested in fellow contractor's experiences of La Fosse Associates - specifically, the proportion of successful applications have they won through this agency?

I ask, because every single one of my applications that I apply through this agency always results in a polite email response, telling me that my application was received after the closing deadline (which incredibly must have been less than an hour after they posted it, because I sit on Jobserve for eight hours a day), or simply that "I've not been successful this time", with no other reason.

This is noticeably different to the feedback I get from other agencies, whereby (if the role is genuine), I will usually get considered by the agency, and am often fortunate enough to be put forward, if we both agree I stack up well against the job description, rate, travel, etc. This is because I don't apply for every role I can do, just the ones I feel a perfect fit for, and am confident I can win over a hostile ClientCo interview panel should things progress.

(Of course, the end-client will then take a week to review the submissions, another week to organise a telephone interview, another week to process those, another week to book a personal interview.... but I digress)

Now, I strongly suspect that, on the evidence I see, that in fact I may have actually been blacklisted by LF, because some years ago I declined to go to a booked personal interview, as I'd already won a role that same morning as the day for which the interview was booked. LF wanted me to go anyway, but I preferred to cancel as I considered it dishonest - I was no longer in the market. Maybe that wasn't my smartest move, with hindsight, but it was many years ago, I was younger, etc. (Any thoughts on the morality of that would be welcome, too.)

If I have indeed been blacklisted, I would prefer to know, simply so I can stop bothering them and wasting my time, and chalk it up to experience - they're not obligated to provide me with their services. I have asked them directly, and they have told me that I'm not blacklisted - however, the continual rejection by them alone for any and every role I apply for seems incongruous.

So, I'm wondering if everybody is getting this treatment, or just me?

Please can I ask you to keep your responses limited to actual facts and experiences - I have no strong feelings for or against LF personally, and certainly don't want to see anything defamatory about them (or agencies in general) written in any way.

Yes, you're clearly blackballed by them. It happens despite people here saying it doesnt.

Ive been blackballed twice in the past, one by an ex colleague who via the old boys network, got himself a senior manager position on the Aspire(?) DWP project years ago and proceeded to load former colleagues into junior and middle manager level roles. Agents were amazed I was being turned down for interview until one who wouldnt take no for an answer got one.

Second time was with the LTSB Group because I turned down their gracious offer of an extension and left on completion of the 3 month contract. Obviously they considered there was MOO (or is it the other way around, I forget now!)!

The best thing is not to bother applying for roles via this agency no matter how tempted you are to apply. Alternatively you can continue to apply via them and just become more disgruntled. Or one day you may strike lucky.

But there's some bollocks spouted on these boards: Oh, I always phone the agent before \ after and I got the job. Yeah, that's really hard to do every time when many agents have stopped giving out phone numbers for you to ring.

Oh, if you dig around you'll find the number. Yes, you might and when you phone you get the 'he \ she's on another call, can they phone you back?

[ladymuck]

Slight hijack, but I guess this is as good a place as any...

What about Venturi? They seem to post two very similar roles up every day on jobserve but I rarely see anything else. They also ignore me relentlessly when I try to connect on Linked in

No idea, never heard of them