Reply to: Jobserve: same job keeps popping up

[Turion]

Here she blows again.

Came in on my email now...

grrr

http://www.jobserve.com/W388DFC6D456D0F70.job

Java J2EE, Hibernate, Spring and Agile methods. Massive telecommunications company based in the City is looking for a number of Senior Developers with experience in Java J2EE programming required. Other useful experience: Application Server (Weblogic 8.x, JBoss etc, database knowledge (Oracle, MYSQL etc),

And this time i have contracted him. my skills are an exact match, have 6 years experience in telecoms and finance.... and he didnt even mention this job when i talked to him, said he had other positinos he thought i would be suitable for!

Yes, and when you were talking to him he was looking at the client list on your CV and preparing to call them up. Did you give any info to him, like hiring managers names and numbers.

[BarbarianAtTheDoor]

I was phoned up by an agent for this role, and the only thing he was interested in was how much agile exposure I had. It didn't matter to him how good my Java skills or what my previous experiences were, only if I've done standups, coaching, pair-programming and other paradigm-shifting bollocks.

I told him that I don't believe in pair programming (except for special cases) and that I wouldn't be happy working without an established set of requirements, not mentioning being responsible for every useless code-monkey's steaming pile I had nothing to do with.

I believe this is an existing role. I didn't submit a CV for this job before he called me.

[smiff]

Fish, fish, and fish again!

[reddeagle]

Here she blows again.

Came in on my email now...

grrr

http://www.jobserve.com/W388DFC6D456D0F70.job

Java J2EE, Hibernate, Spring and Agile methods. Massive telecommunications company based in the City is looking for a number of Senior Developers with experience in Java J2EE programming required. Other useful experience: Application Server (Weblogic 8.x, JBoss etc, database knowledge (Oracle, MYSQL etc),

And this time i have contracted him. my skills are an exact match, have 6 years experience in telecoms and finance.... and he didnt even mention this job when i talked to him, said he had other positinos he thought i would be suitable for!

[Devlin]

The named agent on that ad is a right tosser. I have met him. He is trawling.

[VectraMan]

I suspect these things are semi-made up: i.e. agent gives the manager the hard sell and to shut him up the manager will agree to look at CVs. The agent finds out the sorts of skills they'd be interested in and posts it as a job, even though there isn't really one. But it's not entirely made up as there is a client, and the agent hopes the client will say yes if they find somebody good enough.

[bored]

Quite possibly genuine. Notice that the ad mentions multiple open positions - some companies recruit 365 days/year.

[shoes]

Often an agency has paid for an advert to run for a particular length of time. If they fill the role before that period is up they will keep the ad up to act as a CV harvest. Either that or they renew the ad when the role is filled, also for a CV harvest.

There is a body that is supposed to police this but it is toothless, if it ever came to any official complaint being made they would just say its an oversight and take the ad down.

From their perspective it makes some sense to keep the ad up, it is after all for a skillset they have placed someone with and they have at least one client with that potential requirement. A candidate with that skill will generally have a useful ex-client list on their cv, which as far as an agents concerned is a list of sites that have a requirement for that skillset. They can then phone with the starter 'We have placed people at X client, we can do the same for you'. As always, treat all advertised roles as potentially bogus until you hear otherwise.

[swamp]

I've noticed this advert (and others) from MA Consulting.

This particular advert probably relates to Sky/EasyNet in Brick Lane. I received about twenty calls from diffent agents about this gig. Never heard from the client once though despite being a perfect fit for the role and doing their (rather easy) up-front TDD Java test.

[Fred Bloggs]

I see this in Engineering a lot. Usually the client company can't decide who or what they want and who ever the pimps send is "not quite right". Either that or the money is capped at an unrealistically low rate. I've seen jobs open for 3 years or more. I think some jobs are never, ever, filled. The organisation just copes and carries on.

In my opinion there is never a true shortage of skilled people. There is often a shortage of money being offered. The two are often reported by the mass media as the former, never the latter.

[Emily]

Is there some regulation that is supposed to prevent pimps from posting fictional ads with the real intention of just fishing for CVs?
How is this enforced? I'm guessing it's not, as nobody could be arsed. Is there a regulatory body that pimps can be reported to for doing this?

I don't think this company are placing fictional ads, as I posted earlier I think they just can't find anyone or as someone else has pointed out, they may have numerous positions.

However, if you did suspect trawling was happening then you could report them to the REC or Atsco if they were members.

[Cheshire Cat]

Is there some regulation that is supposed to prevent pimps from posting fictional ads with the real intention of just fishing for CVs?
How is this enforced? I'm guessing it's not, as nobody could be arsed. Is there a regulatory body that pimps can be reported to for doing this?

[Bumfluff]

Lots of place have quite a high contractor turn over the gig you refer to looks like my last place, recon we had 30 Java contractors across 5 teams so always someone leaving. Edit : Nop not my place just noticed the telecom bit

My last gig is still advertising for my replacement and have been doing so for 4 months.

[PAH]

That'll be it.

My old permie job is still on Jobserve and has been on there for 5 months now.

Spoke to my old boss and they just can't find anyone to fill my shoes so it's probably a genuine ad.

If they can't find anyone, they ain't offering enough.

Could be useful to be able to track which contracts have been lingering for a while, and then see how desperate they've become in terms of rate negotiations.

[miffy]

Could be trawling, but it's more likely they just can't find the right person for the job.

That'll be it.

My old permie job is still on Jobserve and has been on there for 5 months now.

Spoke to my old boss and they just can't find anyone to fill my shoes so it's probably a genuine ad.