Reply to: Recruitment Consultants

[dude69]

Bin them unless it is hot looking woman, then might interview just to see them in the flesh
(Just interview though, no job unless they have the skills) Would normally say here "photo's are for permie CV's", but even there they are not recommended unless it is for a role where image matters

I would say here "apostrophes are for contraction and possession, never for pluralisation". HTH

[zamzummim]

Don’t you hate it when they call you just for a chat, as if they are your long lost friend?? The they ask you :How are you finding the market nowadays? What do you think of the situation?? WTH??

I jsut tell them to call me back when they have something to tell me!!

[EddieNambulous]

If only there were some sort of globally searchable resource you could use. Something which could be accessed from anywhere.....

I have this idea for an INTERnational NETwork of computers to do something like that.

Gonna call it...ummm...Orange Wednesdays.

[nomadd]

Yes there are lots of people applying for roles.
Frankly agencies are not the most effective method of getting work - some are good, most are not.

Being freelance since 1997, I'm looking at permy roles too as I'd like to step back in and develop career in management.

Saw a great role and applied and phoned agent. He told me though that he "automatically deleted details from contractors applying for perm roles" as he had "been burned too many times".

That's the kind of climate we are in.

Lots of fishing going on too of course - "I need to build up your profile and need two references to complete it". No thanks I said - lets not work together. He had no roles for me anyway.

Yep, the scum of the agency market is certainly showing through in the current climate. I've just put the phone down on one.

You know the type: Wants to know everything about you, but gives nothing away about the job he has. After a loonnng struggle, it turns out to be a job I was put forward for yesterday by a much more polite and professional agent. I finally got tired of his attitude and asked him to stop arsing around; at this point he became shirty, so I just put the phone down on him. Who the hell wants to work via someone like that?

Problem is, of course, is it's Friday and the sun has been shining. So all the scumbag agents have been sat around getting pi55ed all afternoon. Now all they can do before reopening time is phone around contractors trying to drag out each conversation for as long as possible with a huge amount of "fishing" involved.

I hate most agents, most of the time. But particularly Friday afternoons when they are so pi55ed up and can't even hold a coherent conversation.

Fortunately, for now at least, there still seem to be one or two decent agents out there. How long that remains the case, well..

Nomadd

[rb621]

Agent automatically deleting emails

Yes there are lots of people applying for roles.
Frankly agencies are not the most effective method of getting work - some are good, most are not.

Being freelance since 1997, I'm looking at permy roles too as I'd like to step back in and develop career in management.

Saw a great role and applied and phoned agent. He told me though that he "automatically deleted details from contractors applying for perm roles" as he had "been burned too many times".

That's the kind of climate we are in.

Lots of fishing going on too of course - "I need to build up your profile and need two references to complete it". No thanks I said - lets not work together. He had no roles for me anyway.

[Not So Wise]

Pictures of the conntractor (concerning),

Bin them unless it is hot looking woman, then might interview just to see them in the flesh
(Just interview though, no job unless they have the skills) Would normally say here "photo's are for permie CV's", but even there they are not recommended unless it is for a role where image matters

Typo's (not good when you can't be bothered to check)

Auto binned, we all make spelling mistakes, but on CV, something that is the first impression a client will get of you?!?!

they focused on the wrong skills for the job they were applying for (a PM role in banking and you send an engineering PM CV with no attempt at offering transferable skills)

Be more annoyed at agent on this one, either sending wrong people though or not advising them to tailor CV to something closer

CV's that were waaaaay to long - some 8 pages (a riveting read!)

Will accept 3 pages at a push, never more. Don't want your life history or to know what you were doing 15 years ago (or a detailed list of every little project you might have done for one client). Anything more than 3 pages is wasting my time

[malvolio]

I don't like long CV's either - with 30+ years in IT, 13 as a freelance, I could easily fill out 8 pages as well. I don't, because the first page says who I am, what I can do and what I have done worthy of note (to this role, that is!), the next two talk about the last five years, which are all that really matter, and the rest of the freelance work is on the last page as a series of one liners. Permie work history is irrelevant and is ignored.

[expat]

Ok, some perspective needs to be found here. Fact is, as a previous hiring managers for contractors as well as having seen some of the 100's of CV's for jobs applied for (my friend is a a pimp and showed me the CV's that applied for the same role as mine) of the CV's I looked at, some were complete rubbish.

Pictures of the conntractor (concerning),
Typo's (not good when you can't be bothered to check)
they focused on the wrong skills for the job they were applying for (a PM role in banking and you send an engineering PM CV with no attempt at offering transferable skills)
CV's that were waaaaay to long - some 8 pages (a riveting read!)
Awful italics and mixed fonts / sized (hurt my eyes!)
Too much info about hobbies (I don't care if you walk every weekend)

Essentially what I am saying is, look at your CV - if someone is reciving 100's of this crap then the first ten they find, they will select and save themselves a pain. People with the dodgy CV's may be great, but if you can't send a CV that is good, then really, your not going to impress anyone.

Hmm. I am puzzled.

Pictures of the conntractor (concerning),
What is concerning about that? It is common in a CV, and in many EU countries obligatory. If you don't put a picture on your CV in France they will wonder why not, as they bin it.

Typo's (not good when you can't be bothered to check)
OK, you mean like "typo's" for "typos"? Sorry, hard to resist.

they focused on the wrong skills for the job they were applying for (a PM role in banking and you send an engineering PM CV with no attempt at offering transferable skills)
Perhaps they felt that PM experience itself was the transferable skill? Wouldn't you want to ask? Whoever is qualifying the CVs should look into that if they're doing their job.

CV's that were waaaaay to long - some 8 pages (a riveting read!)
I've done 16 contracts, and 4 permie jobs of which 2 were in software houses with over 10 clients in my experience there. How short should I make my CV? I have often cut my CV down to less than 8 pages, only to be told "I don't see your XXX experience here". Somehow my reply that I cut it out for brevity doesn't often go down well.


Frankly I feel that your attitude is part of the problem, your experience seems not to have given you a wide enough insight.

[foggo]

We are not all the same.. what the article was missing what the real motives are for doing this and it is not to have a good database it is purely messuring to see if the market is picking up, it is a terrible way of conducting business in the market place it looks like its the only way. If it makes contractors feel any better the industry has let go over half of the recruitment consultants in the market place but the unfortunate thing about it is the people that have been laid of are the morale people that actually did the job properly and not lie..

I hope they (shed parasites) all sod off into AOR music middle-market-place where their degree of productivity will fit right in the bell-curve

[lightng]

You must have read about some interesting hobbies DodgyAgent. Care to tell us about any that made your hair stand on end? And were you inspired to take it up?

Probably something like...

Interests: President of the Gay Paranormal Society. We meet regularly and put the w1ll1es up each other.

IGMC

[DodgyAgent]

You must have read about some interesting hobbies DodgyAgent. Care to tell us about any that made your hair stand on end? And were you inspired to take it up?

Much as I would like to share some of the many sometimes funny, but often a bit sad snippets, I would not want to embarrass any contractors who might recognise their own CVs being laughed at on this site.

[KentPhilip]

Anyway I like reading about contractors hobbies

You must have read about some interesting hobbies DodgyAgent. Care to tell us about any that made your hair stand on end? And were you inspired to take it up?

[DodgyAgent]

Ok, some perspective needs to be found here. Fact is, as a previous hiring managers for contractors as well as having seen some of the 100's of CV's for jobs applied for (my friend is a a pimp and showed me the CV's that applied for the same role as mine) of the CV's I looked at, some were complete rubbish.

Pictures of the conntractor (concerning),
Typo's (not good when you can't be bothered to check)
they focused on the wrong skills for the job they were applying for (a PM role in banking and you send an engineering PM CV with no attempt at offering transferable skills)
CV's that were waaaaay to long - some 8 pages (a riveting read!)
Awful italics and mixed fonts / sized (hurt my eyes!)
Too much info about hobbies (I don't care if you walk every weekend)

Essentially what I am saying is, look at your CV - if someone is reciving 100's of this crap then the first ten they find, they will select and save themselves a pain. People with the dodgy CV's may be great, but if you can't send a CV that is good, then really, your not going to impress anyone.

A lot of CVs that are sent are done so speculatively often on the back of a job for which the candidate is not suitable. Whilst I agree that there are a lot of poor CVs floating around, it is our job as agents to ensure that you guys dont see them in the first place.
Anyway I like reading about contractors hobbies

[SneakySimon]

100's of Applications

Removed.

[Scary]

Got this one through today:
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The system architecture consists of a wide range of technologies with predominantly C++ components on Windows server platform, with some components written in C#, Java and VB, and running on the Linux platform.
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Running VB components on Linux...

P.s. I know there are ways and means, but you just wouldn't...