Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think recruitment consultants are shit and wonder why companies use them

52 replies

MassDebate · 02/03/2016 17:04

Currently looking for a new job. I've seen a few advertised that look interesting and tried to get more info from the named "exclusive" recruitment consultants handling them. However, they are never available over the phone and don't respond to emails. I can't go directly to the companies who the roles are with as they're all advertised anonymously. How are they supposed to recruit for roles when the recruitment consultants ignore potential applicants? So bloody frustrating!

Also, why are consultants so crap at getting back to you after interview? I had an interview recently and it was indicated I'd hear today. Low and behold, I've heard nothing and the RC hasn't responded to my email (I assume it's a no and he can't be bothered to tell me).

So, AIBU as per thread title?

OP posts:
Toxicity · 02/03/2016 17:05

I think recruitment consultants are as bad as estate agents op! I really sympathise, dealing with them can be so frustrating.

YANBU!

Unhappyexpat · 02/03/2016 17:08

They are useles. They overlook really good candidates and bring us box-ticking dross...

Toofat2BtheFly · 02/03/2016 17:09

Not all of us are bad .... Im pretty awesome Grin

TheFridgePickersKnickers · 02/03/2016 17:11

Recruitment is just a made up industry of 99% nonsense.
We will go full circle soon and go back to good old fashioned recruitment techniques where you actually get to meet the person employing you and tell them your relevant experience instead if the jump through hoops and make a titof yourself bulls shit that tells employers and recruitment consults sweet fa except you know how to play the recruitment game - but maybe gonna be fucking shit at the job your applying for.
It would be hilarious if today's recruitment techniques weren't actually really happening.
Hope you hear something soon and it's good news for you Smile

RapunzelStyle · 02/03/2016 17:12

The jobs advertised probably don't exist. It's just a way to harvest CVs.

megletthesecond · 02/03/2016 17:15

Yanbu. I've never had any luck with them.

EBearhug · 02/03/2016 17:20

I have had a couple of good consultants in my time - one made the effort to meet me face-to-face, the other gave me useful feedback after an interview.

Unfortunately, the vast majority are just rude. All over you like a rash until you either fail to get the job or tell them you don't want to go forward with it.

The worst was the one who lied about my skills, for a techy role - I probably could have learnt the key skill I was missing, but it's not a direction I have an interest in, and had I known it was a necessity, I'd have never gone for the job. (I was in FT employment - I could be fussy.) Most other consultants aren't that bad, just rubbish at communication. If I were employing someone, I'd avoid employing someone who only responded when it suited them, but I suppose they probably treat employers better than candidates.

CalleighDoodle · 02/03/2016 17:21

How do people apply for jobs successfully then? Im a teacher and we have a very specific process. They are all advertised on one site, email for application pack, send back application form, interview within a couple of weeks, find out on the day. Im trying tonhelp my (jackass) dh find a new job and he just isnt getting anywhere.

PumpkinPie2013 · 02/03/2016 17:24

YANBU I tried an agency last year looking for a new teaching job - they were all rubbish.

I enquired about one job and when all turns out, it didn't exist.

EBearhug · 02/03/2016 17:25

I'm on LinkedIn and regularly get calls from recruitment consultants. I haven't contacted a company direct for about 15 years. It may vary according to your field.

oldlaundbooth · 02/03/2016 17:26

YANBU.

They are utter shite.

I honestly have never had any luck with them at all. Had meetings, tests, what do I want to achieve etc etc NOTHING.

The only time I have ever had any luck with an agency like that was a small, local temping agency when I was a teenager. They were awesome for short term, quality contracts with M&S, the NHS, Probation office, etc etc.

I could call them on a Friday and say 'I'm available' and I'd be working on the Monday. They knew their stuff. Started off packing and moved to admin, so uselful when I was at uni!

EBearhug · 02/03/2016 17:27

(I'm in IT.)

5Foot5 · 02/03/2016 17:27

I think they do vary between the absolutely useless and the fairly well switched on.

I got my current job through personal recommendation but the previous two were via agencies. At least one of those I was quite impressed with. I posted my CV on an industry-specific website and the agent phoned me within 30 minutes for a chat. He then mentioned a job which I was very interested in so when I said I wanted to know more he emailed the details over immediately. The next day he rang and when I said I would like to go ahead he submitted my CV and got me an interview within a day or two. On the interview day he rang me an hour before to check that everything was OK and I hadn't forgotten and to see if I had any last minute questions. Anyway, to cut a long story short I got the job offer through within a week of first posting my CV on the web-site.

Some other agents were still ringing me up weeks later about the same job having only just noticed my CV. Others still contact me all the time about wholly unsuitable jobs that don't match my skill set at all.

Balletgirlmum · 02/03/2016 17:27

We don't use them. But we get tons of calls each week asking to speak to whoever deals in recruitment.

Lanark2 · 02/03/2016 17:28

I hate all recruiting, its turned into this weird game where it's not the employers job to find the best candidates, nor the candidates job to prove they are good enough for the role, its become a ridiculous game that has loads of weird rules that you can study independently of whether you'd be any good at the job. I have lost jobs to incompetents so many times because they have made up scripted answers that they have rehearsed to win the recruiting game, and my more honest approach and wide experience has scored me lower than someone useless. I chatted to an HR applicant who.had a degree in HR and a master's project underway, who was personable, professional and very organised. She scored lower in her interview process than a school leaver because he examples weren't given in the format 'I did x, this showed y and z' format, so they all lost marks because she said 'I have skills in y and z that I have used in situation x'. She also lost marks for 'not preparing adequately for a competency based interview' because she should have known a. By telepathy it was competency based (not in paperwork, or interview invitation) and b. That competency interview answers should be task,experience, solution'.

The whole thing is getting mental

TheFridgePickersKnickers · 02/03/2016 17:34

Totally agree Lanark.

I have some awesome skills and experience but am shut at the competency game. I also stumbled at a job interview when being asked to demonstrate being a red box/green triangle.

EBearhug · 02/03/2016 17:37

Erm, not being in HR, I would expect an HR candidate to at least be prepared for a competency interview, even if they didn't know it would be that type. TBH, I'd expect most people to have prepared some competency-based answers, whatever field.

Toofat2BtheFly · 02/03/2016 17:39

I'm not going to bother defending my whole industry to you lot ,but honestly not all RC are bad .

Its a difficult job for us too ,i advertised a job yesterday and this morning had nearly 100 cv's to review of which only half met the minimum requirements ,then only 15 or so answered the phone ,i managed to book 2 interviews because the other had changed their mind ,didn't have their diary etc.

Some days it a lot of hard work with nothing to show for it .

Thankfully i chose a fixed wage ,i think maybe the commission based consultants are a little bit more sneaky in their methods !

Horsemad · 02/03/2016 17:48

A degree in HR??! Grin

NotCitrus · 02/03/2016 17:48

I'm on LinkedIn and about to be looking for work. How can I tell the difference between the 'recruitment consultants' who are just farming CVs presumably to sell to someone or other, and actual potentially-useful recruitment consultants? Looking for 'policy' or supplying expertise to the public sector/anyone else -type roles.

MrNC keeps being headhunted by RCs who say he has good chance of certain jobs, but every time it turns out the employers won't even countenance someone who works part-time (4 days a week) - I'm not sure how much I believe that, but certainly no-one seems to do so in City IT roles except his current company - which is why he's still there...

Lanark2 · 02/03/2016 17:49

Re competency interview..yes but to fail on applying the code in the wrong order has no relation at all to employability or competence. Its like not recruiting an expert car mechanic because he said 'good morning welcome to kwikfit' instead of 'hello welcome to kwikfit' at an interview about the combustion cycle, but that is sort of where we are. Also I am shocked at the vacuousness of some junior HR people irrespective of their practice certificates...

Unhappyexpat · 02/03/2016 17:56

I work in quite a specialist industry- clinical research - and our recruiting team internally are useless too. I give very detailed specs in what I want and yet I've had several people I've worked with previously etc not get through the initial screening. Some utter dross does get through though... I am baffled as to how they work.

I'm a little bitter about this having spent months interviewing last year and then having almost all my recommendations overruled by my boss. She prefers the used car salesman types over the quieter ones with actual skills.

Then I get it in the neck when they are useless at the job Angry

jay55 · 02/03/2016 18:31

I know a job is real when multiple agencies have a near same description up(or I get a stream of calls). The rest of the time I know it is just as likely a fishing exercise.

The key is keeping in touch with the half decent agents. Finding them is the hard part.

JolseBaby · 02/03/2016 18:40

I would have agreed with you until quite recently, but had the pleasure of dealing with someone who was bloody good. I was quite skeptical at first but he was genuinely helpful and supportive and really did add value. I think the problem is that you become so used to dealing with recruiters who are flaky, unreliable and downright dishonest, that you begin to despair of ever dealing with a good one!

wasonthelist · 02/03/2016 18:40

The jobs advertised probably don't exist. It's just a way to harvest CVs.

^This - IIRC it's theoretically illegal but widely flouted. Actually it goes further than this - they will ask for references and/or names of previous and present bosses to add to their contact database - the worst ones will then spam them or call them up and try to generate work.

That said, although 99% are hopeless, I have had one very good one (and I also had one very good estate agent - yes, really).

In each case they really earned their fees by sorting out a lot of stuff that was blocking my progress - but that was an exception.

The outfit I work for has a blanket rule against using recruiters - we don't pay fees to anyone (although we have an in-house referral scheme).