Interview: why would this happen?

[StarshineSunshine]

I'm an agency worker and teach im various schools.
On Monday at 5pm I had a call from agency saying that, despite interviewing people all day who had applied for the job, the school rang the agency and wanted to fit me in for a last minute interview on Tuesday at half 3 for a teaching post on zoom. I would be hired directly by the school though.

I had never heard or worked in the school before but thought why not!
I prepared answers and I thought the zoom interview went well.

They rang me today to say I was unsuccessful.
The thing is, I never even applied for the job like the other people they would have interviewed on Monday, so why did they bother ringing the agency? I don't get it.

I thought I stood a good chance as the school purposely fit a last minute interview in for me?

Probably because those who interviewed on Monday were deemed not to be a good fit. You can tell quickly if you interview a lot.

They probably had some dross in & were looking to see if they could get a quick win on the Tuesday.

[quote StarshineSunshine]@ChequerBoard but what would be the school's logic? Why interview people who applied through the council website and then go on to interview agency staff?[/quote]

I assume they didn't find enough suitable candidates through direct application and so either school approached the agency or agency badgered the school to see their candidates.

Agencies will not be shy in contacting schools to offer up candidates for an advertised role.

@MaverickDanger
Exactly.

I have interviewed people lots over the years. We will interview and make the decision on the same day. If we’re not happy with any of the candidates, we don’t appoint and either re-advertise or turn to agencies. Just because an agency puts someone forward, doesn’t necessarily mean they are suitable. If they’re still not what we want, we’ll keep advertising.

[quote StarshineSunshine]@ChequerBoard but what would be the school's logic? Why interview people who applied through the council website and then go on to interview agency staff?[/quote]
I’m sorry you didn’t get the job.

I agree it will be because those short listed weren’t good enough and they probably didn’t want to go through the expense of another recruitment drive (for the same people to apply!) or couldn’t wait any longer to fill the role. Agencies will push for those on their books to be interview so they get paid for those successful. However, often employers would rather not use them so they don’t have to pay the extra and that’s why they will advertise normally first of all. It’s possible more than one agency supplied people as well.

On the reverse, I used to interview agency staff for a health care role. Sometimes the agency would send several candidates, sometimes we also had external and/or internal candidates. The agency staff wouldn't have known who else we had interviewed, unless they were perhaps friends with staff from their agency.

Just because they were interviewed via the agency didn't mean they got the job. In fact, in most cases they didn't! There were SO many occassions when we were looking for X and the agency sent someone with experience of Y. The candidate was told by the agency that the role was doing A and whereas the job was actually doing B. In most cases, we were never given the candidates CV. If we were, it was a generic one and not at all specific to our role. I do wonder if the agency ever gave them our JD?

Were you given the JD beforehand? Did you have time to submit a CV specific for this role? I'm not saying you were completely wrong for the role BTW. I'd certainly ask for feedback to see what went on.

@Elouera no the agency just told me that a zoom link would be sent before the interview and I just knew the school and that it was a Year 1 class.
No job description was given to me.

I presumed it was only myself being interviewed by the way my agent was speaking, but maybe there was many more x

I'm not sure I quite understand the puzzlement.

In the normal non school job interview world candidates for a job can come from various different sources, an agency being one of those but the source has no bearing on how likely you are to get the job. I can't imagine that anyone would assume that they were a cert for a job because an agency put their name forward tbh I'd probably think the opposite as agencies will often send anyone just to try and increase their chances of a fee for a successful candidate.

From my experience with teaching agencies I would be 90% sure that it was the agency who orchestrated the whole thing. They probably contact a school with a vacancy and say “we have 10 suitable candidates” (knowing about 2 actually are suitable). They probably had sent agency workers to the interview on the monday and when no-one was successful said “Wait, we’ve got 4 more”. You were one of the 4, maybe one of the other 3 got it, maybe not.
They want the introduction fee and they want the school to come to them with long- term positions in future.

Ahhh I must be incredibly naive to think it was just me the agency sent then

It’s pretty normal practice, no need to overthink it!

During the interview, the school said they need someone for straight after half-term, so what happens if the school don't find someone who is suitable? They haven't got long

I dont understand why you are so confused? Just because you were put forward for a job by an agency it doesnt mean you will automatically get it.

I guess they didn't find anyone they liked on Monday, and they may or may not have done on Tuesday, but if they did it wasn't you.
Sorry you di6dnt get it, but really don't see the difficulty in understanding it.

@StarshineSunshine

During the interview, the school said they need someone for straight after half-term, so what happens if the school don't find someone who is suitable? They haven't got long

Supply, someone may cover the class temporarily for a few weeks (non teaching deputy or senco or similar), they may have,a couple of part timers willing to go full time for a few weeks, TA cover....

I agree with others that no one on Monday was suitable so they reached out to agencies after that. Perhaps you were the only one, perhaps not, but unfortunately you weren’t the perfect fit either. Good luck with your job hunt x

@StarshineSunshine

After may half term? Or after the Easter holidays?

Either way, if they can’t find someone to fill it permanently by then, they will use supply and continue to advertise until they do find someone suitable. We absolutely would not give someone a permanent contract to someone unsuitable just because we need a post filling

Sorry you didn't get the job OP: agents are known to hustle, it's like cold sales at the end of the day and I know that mine used to send out 5 CVs at a time for prospective posts (even temporary short-term ones) as I was asked what I thought once. Agents will also ask if you are interested in x, y, z - so you say yes thinking it's in the bag - to be told later that they were just finding out who might be interested (in other words have pimped out all of you as possibles in the hope that the school bites). It's even worse than usual atm as not all schools are using supply and day-to-day is few and far between in my area.
Absolutely no reflection on us OP
I used to be asked for by name back in the day and one school did offer up a finder's fee when they offered me a role, some will try and avoid that obvs, but there seems to be less headhunting now (not that it was ever like that in the lucrative sense) and more ''Who can we get that's just as good at half the price?''

I think a few people are being quite weird about the agency (and no, I don’t work for one or have ties to one).

The school were hiring, they wanted to interview a candidate (or candidates) from the agency. It’s pretty straightforward. There’s no “hustle”.

I can’t see how the agency did anything untoward here, or did anything that would limit the OP’s chance at getting the job. In fact, they secured her an interview for a role that was relevant to her, so they did their bit.

I also don’t understand the confusion on this thread.

Interviewed candidates who applied on Monday, no one suitable so they called the agency who did some last min phone calls late afternoon and fielded a number of candidates for interview for the next day.

Either one of those candidates got the job, or they had more candidates they interviewed on the wed from the agency. If they couldn’t find anyone suitable they will use a back up solution. Ie supply, or some in-house solution till they find someone.

@StarshineSunshine

During the interview, the school said they need someone for straight after half-term, so what happens if the school don't find someone who is suitable? They haven't got long

The next half term isn't until May so that seems like plenty of time to find someone.

Recruitment agents are cut throat. Some of them can be really tough to work with.

I have never had one say "this candidate has strengths of xyz but might require training and support in abc" - which is fine! You expect that most staff won't be the complete package because every workplace is different.

Candidates are sold as the moon on a bloody stick and I find it incredibly off-putting - especially when you meet them in person and they're just normal like anyone else. I feel like it actually works against them in some ways because you can't help believing the hype a little bit.

(and one agent, who I'd chosen not to work with, told me that her AMAZING candidate wouldn't take less than a certain amount - and got very ratty when we went with our own recruitment and the woman applied independently for our lower offer)

Perhaps it was the agency who requested they interview you before they decide . Agency’s are odd sometimes, I was once sent for a interview for a job that was covering maternity leave when I was looking for a permanent job . Yes I could do the job and had all the skills/ experience etc but it was temporary so it was a complete waste of everyone’s time .

Also I forgot to add they didn’t tell me it was just covering maternity leave and I was going on that I was looking for a new position that was long term. I bet they thought I was a right loon . The agency afterwards made out he told me it was covering maternity leave ( he didn’t ) as I wouldn’t apply for a job that was maternity leave cover I wanted a permanent job .

I think it's strange, too, in that you didn't apply for the job in the first place. It's a long time since I used a teaching agency, so obviously, things have changed! And you didn't see the job description before interview?!
Sorry you didn't get it. Try not to see it as a waste of time, it's an experience after all.
Ring them for feedback and constructive criticism. Keep phoning or e mailing and make sure you get it.
( I say this because I applied for a job before Lockdown, didn't get it phoned / e mailed the school a few times for feedback, and was basically ignored). That was more annoying than not getting the job.

They may have contacted more than one agency for the second days interviews also, so your agent may have believed you were the only candidate being interviewed last minute but not necessarily the case
In future if you want a job apply directly as a lot of employers don't want to pay the additional fees for permanent employees to an agency.
Also you should ask for feedback if possible and see it as good practice for when the job you really want comes up.
As an agency worker you are ideally placed to identify schools that would fit if you want permanent work.
Much more of a leap of faith to start a permanent role somewhere the culture has been upsold in interview.
Best of luck.

[quote StarshineSunshine]@mnahmnah you're probably right! Maybe nobody interviewed was good enough[/quote]
It's possible that they had an internal candidate but need to interview externally to comply with legal requirements- it's common in schools.

and no, I don’t work for one or have ties to one)
I do and I have had on both sides of the equation - it absolutely is a hustle in that the sole target is number of teacher days accrued for the greatest profit and you often lie through your teeth to schools and to staff for that to happen: at one training day in one agency, they made jokes about getting anyone in, whether they were a standing corpse or not - as a consultant, it literally used to be shave a tramp...yes, references were taken up (although safeguarding seemed less stringent than it is now) but agent would take practically anyone with an educational background and promise them work. You'd then cold call all schools you could (and of course that absolutely still happens now with agents having to cold call to get through 'to whoever is in charge of supply' to pass themselves off as that multi-trust's 'preferred provider' or whatever line they are pedalling that week). In the meantime, your staff (waiting by the phone for work) are told we're just not that busy atm and/or told to lower their rates to cover supervisor levels. It is an absolute cutthroat business where agents are the pimps and supply are the hos and all the agencies are competing with each other with next to no transparency for teachers - you end up hoping for word-of-mouth/go by experience, knowing each agency pay as little as they can get away with but there might be a discrepancy between you and the next guy doing the same thankless task. You don't know which schools use which agency and the agency will claim they work with all schools, which is seldom the case. It is a minefield, honestly and needs an overhaul.