Reply to: Rude agents

[Antman]

I sent an email a year later asking if there was any news.

Still waiting.

Boom-boom!

Reminds me of that joke where the woman is making an emotional appeal for her husband who disappeared a year ago when he went to buy a pint of milk. Did he have a message for her husband?

"yeh, if they don't have full-fat, get semi-skimmed"

[TheFaQQer]

Surely it has to be worth giving them a call....

I sent an email a year later asking if there was any news.

Still waiting.

[kevpuk]

When I was looking for my first contract, I had an agency line up an interview with a client for me, to take place at 11am. I asked if they could change it to 930 so that I could get there, interview, and be back at work for the afternoon. I left it with the agent saying "I'll check if they can change it and give you a call back".

I'm still waiting for confirmation of the new interview time

Surely it has to be worth giving them a call....

[TheFaQQer]

When I was looking for my first contract, I had an agency line up an interview with a client for me, to take place at 11am. I asked if they could change it to 930 so that I could get there, interview, and be back at work for the afternoon. I left it with the agent saying "I'll check if they can change it and give you a call back".

I'm still waiting for confirmation of the new interview time

[MaryPoppins]

Water off a ducks back for me too.

If they want you, they'll be on the phone in a nanosecond!

Do you think phoning/emailing them they'll be like "tulip, I forgot about you mate, you got that role, you up for it"

all you'll get is "just waiting for client to get back to me" etc, or some other bulltulip.

+1. I never 'chase' an agent; if they are interested, they will call. If not, they probably won't. So what?

[curtis]

When I have asked for job specs to be sent through most of the time I have then get told that they don't have one just yet as its a new role. Then they just carry on.

Now I know that's probably the sign that it does not exist but when I'm there on the bench I can't help but think maybe it might be the case as I have had a few jobs where there has been no job spec but there has been an actual job as I either got an interview or got the job.

I suppose rule of thumb is if the job is real they will mainly talk about the role if they focus too much on everything else then it is probably not real. I have had some very rude agents and I get annoyed with myself for letting them get to me so much after!

[northernladyuk]

Agents clever?

Oxymoron?

An oxymoron is what you get when an agent breathes oxygen.

[rocktronAMP]

OK. So agent contacts me, tells me about a contract and asks for my CV and promises to send me a job spec. Then contacts me again to ask a few questions. Then I ask where job spec is, agent ignores me. Then I ask if this is still a goer and whether I'm going to be put forward, agent ignores me.

Anything wrong with my behaviour so far NLUK?

Speculation. But the behaviour is typical of the less than average agents, even for permanent roles.

Sounds like the agent did not have a full CV of yours.
Then when he or she received, your CV did not quite fulfill the requirement and therefore you were shelved.

One trick that I have learnt is to have two CVs: A very brief CV and a full CV. The very brief CV is hosted up on Monster and JobServe is open to agents, and has stipulations like: this is a very brief CV and you can get full CV by sending me a job spec with full reference it. I say on my `promotional' brief CV, I contract in this sector, in central London only, and of course the skills I can help the business with.

Sadly, this does not prevent rude behaviour, but now you know who this agent is, so just move on to the next one. You got their number and so you prioritize them as the back of the queue. Other agents who are cool get the nice approachable response from you. This is the other trick, start to record how people agents behave. Did they call you first? Email you? Did you get an interview? Did you ever get feedback? Over a long period time, you will build a picture and start thinking like a marketing or campaign manager. Ask the questions who? what? where? when? and how? (this works for both contracts and permanent)

[Andy Hallett]

Rude agents

Being rude is very short sighted by agents AND contractors. Common courtesy costs nothing and a poor communication will hinder future dealings.

[nomadd]

Really gets my goat. I understand that its a money driven business and if you ain't in the frame for a contract then they aint gonna waste time with you but, come on, some politeness wouldn't go amiss.

I'm sure you've all had it. Agent is keen as mustard when they can sniff a result but as soon as its a no-go they can't even be arsed to take 10 secs to reply to an email.

Hardly building a good business relationship, is it? Lets just say, next time, if I ever see a contract advertised by two agencies and this is one of them, then they won't be the one I speak to first.

+1

I find the only way to deal with the rude ones - had one yesterday with a "new role" which he somehow couldn't bring himself to discuss until he'd rudely and aggressively tried to unearth every single detail about what I was doing and who I'd been forwarded to in the last two weeks, etc., etc. - is to simply and calmly ask for a job spec. to be sent to your email address and then put the phone down. No point arguing with them or being equally rude - you'll just feel bad about it later. As we all know, the same role - in the unlikely event it even exists - will be doing the rounds with multiple agents, so just deal with the non-rude agents over it.

I'd say for me the split at the moment is about 90/10 between non-rude and rude agents when I get calls. Strangely, that's a lot better ratio than a couple of years ago - so I guess the rude ones have got the message and don't waste my time any more.

[The Spartan]

I love getting spammed with jobs I'm not suitable for, it just how many twonks there are out there that just use the keyword search and not pay attention to anything on you CV except the buzzwords that are in fashion at present

[bobspud]

Do you reply to all emails from agents asking of you're interested in a role?

Yes! I normally just pop a line down saying thanks for the thought and why its not of interest and when I might be available next. I also occasionally add my latest CV for them

I figure that just because an agent can be sometimes less than professional there is little reason for me to do the same. Most of the time mention a few other candidates that might be of use. I sent three agents to a fellow contractor this week because I am starting my new role Monday and I know he's not renewing next month.

Of course not all the mail is very polite depending on how many times I have told them to correct their search functions and the lowest tier of this is reserved for the twunt that keeps emailing me 30K a year manual jobs in car engineering... He got a royal FSCK and stop spamming me and his email address set up for a gay porn site to spam him with giant cocks every day... But I had warned him 5 times that I was not right for his market.

[Andy Hallett]

Rude agents

I have SAP and also a company by the name of GTS, so cleverly agents put it together SAP GTS, so much for computer matching ...

Not GTS Telecom? Wow that brings back some memories!

[jmo21]

Water off a ducks back for me too.

If they want you, they'll be on the phone in a nanosecond!

Do you think phoning/emailing them they'll be like "tulip, I forgot about you mate, you got that role, you up for it"

all you'll get is "just waiting for client to get back to me" etc, or some other bulltulip.

[SueEllen]

I have SAP and also a company by the name of GTS, so cleverly agents put it together SAP GTS, so much for computer matching ...

Agents clever?

Oxymoron?