Reply to: What's in the head of an agent?

[MaryPoppins]

I absolutely loathe talking on the phone. Luckily the only people who still use it to communicate are agents, phone spammers, and my parents. If the phone rings and it's not my parents, I just let it go to voicemail; if it's an agent and their message suggests it might be of value to me to talk to them, they'll get a (begrudging) call back.

I cannot second this enough. Apart from the parents bit, I ignore them too.

[quackhandle]

At my Gfs company, they got about 30 of them taken out to dinner by an agency and could order any food on the menu and any wine up to £5k a bottle, but that was officially networking and not a bribe

"Networking", ah so that's how Qatar got 2022...

qh

[MicrosoftBob]

FTFY

When I worked in recruitment this was shockingly common not sure if it is now

At my Gfs company, they got about 30 of them taken out to dinner by an agency and could order any food on the menu and any wine up to £5k a bottle, but that was officially networking and not a bribe

[original PM]

The IT contractor snip . It goes to show that technical knowledge , professional behaviour play second fiddle to sheer will and determination and lots of money in brown paper bags to people who agree who is on the PSL. As far as contractors are concerned as long as you guys are getting your gigs it ultimately does not matter.

FTFY

When I worked in recruitment this was shockingly common not sure if it is now

[speling bee]

Air

It's actually a vacuum. That's why they have such thick skulls to stop their heads imploding.

[speling bee]

The IT contractor placement business has now become a process rather than a personal professional service. This is because it is now easy to find contractors and all that is needed is a bit of legwork and usually the right contractor can be found for the right job.

There is a fortress (it is called £the "PSL") that has been built to prevent agencies from hustling for business and engaging with the hiring managers. It seems to work pretty well as it is and resourcers really do not need to understand the skills that are being sold.

As far as S3 group agents go I am intrigued as to how they seem to do so well without knowing their stuff and by employing the tactics that are generally disapproved off. It goes to show that technical knowledge , professional behaviour play second fiddle to sheer will and determination. As far as contractors are concerned as long as I am shafting you with my mark-up it ultimately does not matter.

FTFY

[Mich the Tester]

What's in the head of an agent?

Air

[speling bee]

will do

Good lad.

[DodgyAgent]

Change your avatar back please, you filthy little spiv.

will do

[DodgyAgent]

A phone call from an agent is an exercise in having a pointless futile conversation and 9 times out of 10 a waste of time. They call up and tell you they have the 'possibility' of a contract doing xyz which is where it all falls down. The majority of the time they don't know what the hell xyz is and how it relates to your skillset, mostly never. I spent about 10 minutes explaining to an agent that although product line abc includes xyz, what he actually wanted was mno and maybe instead of just saying abc, if he had said mno then we would have both saved a bit of time (oh, and product line abc also includes a couple of hundred applications so he ought to learn sometting about it!) Most of the agents here surprisingly enough actually know that and will first send me an e-mail with detailed specs and then either call me or I'll call them (it only tends to be hair gelled UK agents that call with no knowledge.) Maybe recruitment agents should take a leaf out of other salesman's books and actually learn something about what they're trying to sell, even car salesmen and estate agents have to show some savvy.


(* I don't know how it is in the UK but over here, depending upon which area you work in sales, you'll be expected to know what you're talking about which is why even the lowest sales assistant will get training on the product they are selling. The PFY in the large white goods store is expected to be able to answer questions on the goods otherwise the customer will go elsewhere which I think is a good idea.)

The IT contractor placement business has now become a process rather than a personal professional service. This is because it is now easy to find contractors and all that is needed is a bit of legwork and usually the right contractor can be found for the right job.

There is a fortress (it is called £the "PSL") that has been built to prevent agencies from hustling for business and engaging with the hiring managers. It seems to work pretty well as it is and resourcers really do not need to understand the skills that are being sold.

As far as S3 group agents go I am intrigued as to how they seem to do so well without knowing their stuff and by employing the tactics that are generally disapproved off. It goes to show that technical knowledge , professional behaviour play second fiddle to sheer will and determination. As far as contractors are concerned as long as you guys are getting your gigs it ultimately does not matter.

[speling bee]

He has no friends then?

Change your avatar back please, you filthy little spiv.

[darmstadt]

A phone call from an agent is an exercise in having a pointless futile conversation and 9 times out of 10 a waste of time. They call up and tell you they have the 'possibility' of a contract doing xyz which is where it all falls down. The majority of the time they don't know what the hell xyz is and how it relates to your skillset, mostly never. I spent about 10 minutes explaining to an agent that although product line abc includes xyz, what he actually wanted was mno and maybe instead of just saying abc, if he had said mno then we would have both saved a bit of time (oh, and product line abc also includes a couple of hundred applications so he ought to learn sometting about it!) Most of the agents here surprisingly enough actually know that and will first send me an e-mail with detailed specs and then either call me or I'll call them (it only tends to be hair gelled UK agents that call with no knowledge.) Maybe recruitment agents should take a leaf out of other salesman's books and actually learn something about what they're trying to sell, even car salesmen and estate agents have to show some savvy.





(* I don't know how it is in the UK but over here, depending upon which area you work in sales, you'll be expected to know what you're talking about which is why even the lowest sales assistant will get training on the product they are selling. The PFY in the large white goods store is expected to be able to answer questions on the goods otherwise the customer will go elsewhere which I think is a good idea.)

[NotAllThere]

Is there any particular reason why the agents consistently refuse using email as a communication tool and instead prefer annoying people calling them in the office when they know a conversation won't be constructive?

It's easier to ignore emails.

[d000hg]

Well next time she calls you, ask her why she never calls me.

She does, you never pick up.

[NickFitz]

My mum uses it too actually.

Well next time she calls you, ask her why she never calls me.