Reply to: Agents.... agents never change.....

[oscarose]

Fire and forget
Fire and forget.

Once you've applied for a role and had an interview, what happens is out of your control.
The past is read-only. I only work on stuff where I have "change" access - the future.

Good advise. One can only influence the present moment.

[nomadd]

Have a couple of Situations, outline what YOU did to turn things around (the Task, Action taken and the Result),

Task: Saved a catastrophically failing project.
Action: On day one, fired the PM and all the Bobs; on day two, recruited a small team of UK-based contractors.
Result: Project delivered on time and on budget.

...and give them the reply they are wanting.

Not sure if that was the reply they were wanting...

[sbakoola]

OP - Trouble is you're expecting normal decent behaviour from an agent which ain't gonna happen. Like someone said, once your off the cards as a potential money earner for them they ain't interested one little bit.

Still don't understand the way of conducting business that agents use, just because you don't get one gig they ignore you for another 2 years, in a way its bad for them because as soon as they do that, I become part of the competition that gets a gig that one of their submitted candidates doesn't....

One of agents sounded like and was about as clever as one of the Orcs from The Lord of The Rings.

[sbakoola]

Agents quickly forget that its not just candidates that need the feedback...

I had a real clanger of an interview with a pair of guys from Land Rover the other week. Their attitude just sucked from the start and by the time I got back to my car I thought
"Screw it! I am not taking the job even if they offer it...."

They were trying to run a formal board interview (answer this question exaclty like this!) but really went about the whole process the wrong way. I spoke to the agent and told her how I felt and she said that they had gone through four or five contractors for the same reasons…

sounds familiar.

[bobspud]

Agents quickly forget that its not just candidates that need the feedback...

I had a real clanger of an interview with a pair of guys from Land Rover the other week. Their attitude just sucked from the start and by the time I got back to my car I thought
"Screw it! I am not taking the job even if they offer it...."

They were trying to run a formal board interview (answer this question exaclty like this!) but really went about the whole process the wrong way. I spoke to the agent and told her how I felt and she said that they had gone through four or five contractors for the same reasons…

[Robinho]

After an interview, just assume you have failed and carry on looking.

[psychocandy]

OP - Trouble is you're expecting normal decent behaviour from an agent which ain't gonna happen. Like someone said, once your off the cards as a potential money earner for them they ain't interested one little bit.

[nomadd]

true ... just move on.

this!

[jmo21]

Tried and trusted technique, I look for buzzwords in the job spec and tailor the yarn accordingly. First chance you get take the initiative, tell your tale and then start asking questions before they can get any tricky ones in. Seems to work.

this!

[mos]

Even if you get feedback, how do you know it's true and not just a load bull tulip to make you feel not quite as bad.

true ... just move on.

[rootsnall]

Have a couple of Situations, outline what YOU did to turn things around (the Task, Action taken and the Result), and give them the reply they are wanting.

Tried and trusted technique, I look for buzzwords in the job spec and tailor the yarn accordingly. First chance you get take the initiative, tell your tale and then start asking questions before they can get any tricky ones in. Seems to work.

[KentPhilip]

Fire and forget
Fire and forget.

Once you've applied for a role and had an interview, what happens is out of your control.
The past is read-only. I only work on stuff where I have "change" access - the future.

The best reply to an agent who calls to give you feedback is "what interview"???

[Gruffalo]

After 13+ years in the business agents still don't bother calling back with interview feedback if you don't proceed to the next stage.

It doesn't help that the interview questions are a multitude of obscure questions that no one ever discusses or thinks about or looks at in the work place.

But that's finance/banking for you.

Why do agents treat contractors like broken goods after their first (stage 3) interview doesn't go well and never call us back ever again ? can't you see that the client is being far too selective and many hours have been spent on my side ? one client has been looking for a candidate since July 2012 for gods sake, doesn't that tell you something ?

rant over.

Sounds like you are getting the interviews.

Now, you need to focus on winning them.

I totally fecked up my first 5 interviews in a row, before I did STAR based interview prep with a specialist.

I passed the following four interviews, absolutely nailed them.

Coincidence? Maybe.

Have a couple of Situations, outline what YOU did to turn things around (the Task, Action taken and the Result), and give them the reply they are wanting.

Trust me on this. 3-4 examples you can use and adapt is really key.

[SimonMac]

Because there is no money in it for them. All they want is to get a candidate placed and start erning commission. Why waste time calling up someone who didn't get a gig when they could be toting other candidates to clients

Perfect answer, after 13 years you should be used to this, if I really want feed back I would go directly back to the client, thanking them for the opportunity to interview for them (bulltulip I know but more likely to put them in a positive mood) and directly asking for feedback. More chance of getting some information, but again not guaranteed.

[sbakoola]

Although what I don't like is that today, still like previous years you only get one shot at an interview for a single client site per agency (and no more) and you cannot use that agency for another year or two if you fail to win the contract.

That is annoying. Although its taught me to only go for jobs via agencies that I really want and have a reasonable chance to win, I don't waste time on 'warm up interviews' that I don't really want or a contract role that is unsuitable but good only for interview practice.