What's the deal with some of these recruitment firms?

[starsandtoffee]

Currently job hunting. I'm waiting to hear on a role I interviewed for last week (fingers crossed!), but obviously I'm continuing to look for other opportunities while I wait...

I have signed up with a couple of great recruitment consultants who are actively seeking roles for me - they've seen my CV and I've met with them etc - so I don't think there's a problem with my application style or CV.

However, I've now had the experience with several other recruitment firms where they advertise for a role online (that I'm confident I'm well qualified for/meet all the criteria), I send through an application (to an actual person, not just a general inbox) and then...it's absolute tumbleweed. No reply, nothing.

Anyone else experienced similar? It's happened numerous times now. Yesterday I even called a recruiter about a 'live' role they were recruiting for, only for the recruiter to say (a bit shiftily) that the role was was 'on hold'. This was before I'd even got into my experience or anything, so I don't think it was a matter of them thinking I was an unsuitable candidate...

Is it possible that some of these jobs don't even exist, or is this just people being busy/rude/inefficient?! 😂 It seems really odd.

Maybe depends on how they process things? One of my husband’s first jobs was in recruitment and I know they would usually keep an advert live until the vacancy had actually been filled but they would internally stop looking at any new ones once they had a certain number. So if they had 50 applications already in then they’d stop looking at any that came in after that until they’d already looked at those first 50, but it would still be live online to submit.

Also sometimes companies reach out to recruitment agencies/advertise through them and then change their mind, want to delay, or think they have found a good candidate themselves so mess the company around a bit which puts them in a tough spot.

Recruitment consultants work for clients so they tend not to expend energy on candidates unless they are a good fit for a role that they are being paid to fill.

If they don't think they can place you and earn their commission then no, they won't be interested. It's not about you, it is about them having an almost sure fire position to put you in.

I understand that as the job market challenging at the moment, if a recruiter even gets a sniff that there’s a potential role coming up, they speculatively advertise it. That’s even when the roles not formally agreed or funded. It’s a difficult market for recruiters as much as job hunters apparently.

@anniegun and @AlisonDonut - obviously recruiter clients take the priority, but I'm honestly not applying for roles that I wouldn't be a good fit for. I'm talking matched experience against the job spec exactly, and the 'job on hold' conversation just got me thinking...

@PersilPower - that's really interesting! Actually I've noticed job descriptions come up across different firms that look remarkably similar, just wording changed slightly, so that would make a lot of sense. Real waste of candidates' time though, if they're only speculative postings...

Recruitment agencies are either

1. posting fake jobs as a CV fishing exercise so that they can tell potential clients we have gazillions ‘candidates’ ready to go
2. trying to justify to their client their fee by prolonging the process as much as possible and doing tbe initial shift even though they probsbly hebe no idea about the actual role

i’ve never ever progressed with a recruitment agency yet I’m pretty senior in my industry (through networking or direct role advertising).

Recruiters are annoying gatekeepers that are interested in their commission and not actually finding candidates jobs, otherwise. A lot of them are also using AI so they may or may not even see when you've sent a CV for a particular job. You may just be knocked out via AI.

Worth contacting companies directly and asking if they have any opportunities. A lot of people are abandoning recruiters and LinkedIn. It's oversaturated and doesn't work in the interest of the candidates.

I understand there is a lot of data fishing going on in the online job market at the moment. For some agencies its not recruitment that earns them their money.

It's everywhere.

Remember what you are competing against isn't the criteria but the other applicants
It's horrible.

And at some point someone smarmy will probably say they've been offered every job they've applied for. Tell them to jog on.

@starsandtoffeeare you applying for roles on an industry sector that is oversaturated? Marketing roles, junior accounts positions or entry level roles get such volume it is hard to review all applications

They advertise attractive roles with great pay…to get you on their books. Then the role that hooked you is mysteriously filled, and they try to convince you to accept badly paid positions so they get their targets met