Question about recruiters...
Hey guys, I've been getting many e-mails and phone calls from recruiters or staffing agencies saying that they have job openings in my area and that they want to speak wtih me. I'm hesitant to return their calls because I have no experience dealing with recruiters and wondered how they operated. What is your opinion of recruiters and do you think that it's a good idea to go through them to find a new job? I am an engineer with six years of experience working for a large company, looking for new opportunities. Any advice or insight would be appreciated. Thanks, guys. My personal experience with temp agencies, stafing agencies, recruiter in general is far from positive. As a matter of fact, I fully believe that the majority of these individuals are con artists and the agencies themselves are this side of fraudulent. I have met may people and there have been many people on these boards who have stated similar to same experiences. More times than not, the recruiter will contat you and state that they are searching for qualified individuals with your skill set to fill various jobs ranging from clerical office, data entry, secretarial and others. They claim pay of up to (insert outrageous amount here). When you contact them, they will ask you to come into their offices to complete some required tests for typing, computer knowledge and data entry. You spend up to and some times over 2 hours in their offices only to finally be told that "there are no jobs available at this time, but you are on their list. Please be sure to call every morning before 7 to check if any jobs came in over night." I once asked why they would place an advertisement stating they were recruiting for these jobs if they didn't actually have them available and the response was that they are recruiter for "possible future jobs" Many recruiters will ask you what company or companys you have recently applied to because, in addition to getting you to sign up with them, they are responsible for contacting companys and getting them to use the services of the agency to get temp help. When and if a job does happen to come up and you are the one who happens to be the first that morning to call or others who have signed up refuse the job, the pay is not even close to what you have been led to believe you will be getting. The job itself may not be anything close to what you explained to the recruiter that you wanted. And it may be for one day or one week. Or open-ended. Remember that if you receive a job through an agency, you are working for the agency and not the company that you are physically at, so if something goes wrong, you may never know about it and then all of a sudden one day, you are told by the recruiter not to go back to the company. A phrase that recruiters like to spew about working for a temp agency is "work when you want, don't work when you don't want." That phrase is not a truthful statement. If you are lucky to have the option of picking and choosing when you want to work and where you will accept work at, then going at it alone is more productive. If you are offered a job by a recruiter or temp agency and you refuse it, you are considered a bad investment and will be treated with a cold shoulder. Some people have good luck at temp agencys but I have never personally met one. About the only positive thing you can say about working on a temp basis is that when you are asked by an interviewer why you left your previous job, you can honestly state it was because the job was temporary and it ended. Absolutely right. Don' t bother with the agencies, or just sign up with one, if you don' t have anything better to do that day. I can' t figure out how they even stay in business. I signed up with two in early May to find some temp summer work. I was explicit that I didn' t want permanent work as I am attending grad school this fall. My testing was excellent and guess what--nada, zip, nothing. This wasn' t the case years ago when worked exclusively as a temp. One agency kept me very busy for a few years, actually. If anyone knows what' s happened in the meantime, I' d like to hear. And I got told at one point that the temp places get a monetary incentive jsut to have my name on file and my paperwork filled out. When I get a call from a recruiter I tell them since they have sees my resume and they called me from finding it - then they know what my skills and background are. Now you get me an interview solidly lined up and I will then and ONLY then come in and sign up - otherwise forget it - dont have time to go from office to office Another thing that I hate hate hate about them is that when they call me and I tell them I am on an assignment they more or less bully me into taking their interview - I finally went off on of them today and told the gal that if she wanted to pay me for missing 3 hours of work then I would gladly go on her interview. She sputtered and I said yeah thats what I thought - I said NO. I am not on my assignment to skpi work and go on other interviews for gods sake and besides that what does that say about you as a recruiter that you are basically asking me to screw another recruiter over ? I' ve done temp agencies a lot many, many years ago, and back then, it really was temp work. They had you doing all this menial paperwork, sorting, typing, etc., and you got paid just over minimum for it. The only real advantages were that someone else was doing the looking so you could avoid a lot of burnout and useless interviewing for junk jobs, and you were doing office work instead of working the deep oil fryer. I tried an agency of sorts about 9 years ago. I dunno what they were being paid, but it wasn' t a head-hunter, so I didn' t have any kind of bill of services. I' d rate that place as a glorified temp agency, as others have said here. They did nothing for me. NOTHING. After filling out all the paperwork, doing the personal chat with the job hunting rep, etc., I discovered that 1) Then NEVER seemed to have the type of work I was looking for; 2) the rep seemed clueless and either didn' t remember, or did not care what my skills and experience was, because they didn' t seem to apply to the junk jobs they kept offering me. I actually busted them for submitting me to some of the same jobs I' d applied to on my own! When I got a job, they wanted to know where it was---I found it on my own, so I told them to please take a long hike and not to bother me again. The last thing I needed was for some moronic agency to screw my prospects. I just love the one that I had most recently. The guy called me three times in one night and BEGGED me to come in the next day though I told him a couple times that it was too far out of my way that day and I was busy. Sigh - so I went in after he said he would take up 15 minutes of my time and he had a job I would be perfect for and wanted to submit me. So I went in and the receptionist handed me a ton of paperwork and told me after I filled that all out that she would show me how to do the assessments and I said uh no, I just want to meet with him so he can see what I look like and it was going to take 15 minutes - tops. If I wanted to do the paperwork and testing I would do them at home - so she sighed and called the guy and said I refused to fill out the paperwork I said uh no I just don' t have TIME and I will do it at home OK? Don' t put words in my mouth. The guy comes out and we go into a conference room and he sits down and says uh yes ? May I help you ? I said uh yeah you called me 3 times last night and asked me to come in. He then asked me for my resume and I told him that I figured HE would have it but I did have them with me. That meeting didn' t last much longer especially when he said So - do you have any accounting experience? I said look, are you the same guy that called me and told me you had a great senior level accounting position in fixed assets last night? he said oh no, that job is no longer available - and I said so in 3 hours of your work time the job you said was perfect for me and that I jsut drove 25 miles to see about is GONE? Well, guess what ? So I am ! I am GONE and I walked out GRRRR Dont they realize or cared that if we are spending all of our time meeting with idiots like them then we dont have time for actual interviews? And I also hate the ones that call when they KNOW I am on an assignment and want me to take time off work to interview for one of their jobs. I told one gal that I would let my current head hunter know and she would contact her directly to give permission for me to not work anymore. She hung up on me - good thing cause I was 2 seconds away from that myself More times than not signing on with these agencies…is BS. These agencies get paid from the employer and the more people they have in their lists, the better chance they have of cashing in on you when a position becomes available. Personally I would not waste my time with them, but that’s your choice. If their willing to lie about a position that isn’t available, what else are they lying about? I DESPISE them like the plague!!! even my monster.com title says "NO AGENCIES" lol yes, been there done that. obviously now I get lots fewer calls from agencies.
I talked with one recruiter who tried to convince me that paralegals do no research whatsoever...even though the article she handed me said the exact opposite thing. I figured that I'd bombed the interview, and left the office determined to find work elsewhere. Three weeks later I get a call from her. She tells me that she has a position for a Spanish speaking legal assistant. At no time in the interview did I say I spoke Spanish. She had assumed this based on my olive skin, black hair and brown eyes. (There are many ethnic groups in this world with olive skin, black hair and brown eyes, by the way.) So I told her that despite my appearance and first name, I didn't speak a word of Spanish and I would be wasting the company's time. "Oh. Yeah, it says on your application you speak French and German." Ten years ago, I could sign on with a temp agency, go in for testing and have an assignment within the next two days. Now? I wouldn't rely on them. | |
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