Are Recruitment Consultants any Good
I have experienced the wonders of the recruitment industry from three different perspectives. Firstly that of a job seeker, secondly that if a man working in a recruitment consultancy and finally working from home as a recruiter. Often the question that is asked is what makes a good recruitment consultancy? From the point of view of the active job seeker, I felt that agencies were often badly organized as I was often poorly prepared for the interviews, was interviewed by a completely different person, and sometimes company, then I had been promised and the communication between client company and agency was often disastrous. As an active job seeker, the agencies were regarded as a necessary evil. The recruitment consultants were primarily money hungry and didn't have the level of industry expertise that they purported to have and treated the candidates like cattle. The recruiters were often time wasters and sometimes even down right rude, from shop floor level right up to the board of directors. One of the worst issues about dealing with the recruitment consultancies was the registration process. If you were unemployed, and spent your time going around the agencies registering all week, each registration taking up to 4 hours out of your day including travel, and then, after a while, assuming that you have now made contact with all the agencies and that they would be working on your behalf to get you a job, you give one of them a call and ask them about a position that they are advertising, they respond in one of two ways. They either invite you in to waste your time registering again, despite the fact that they have all your details apart from your inside leg measurements, or they tell you that the job in question was taken despite the fact that the advertisement only went out that very day.When I worked I a recruitment consultancy, I was appalled by the bad and rushed training, the lousy administration and the mentality of the consultants were childlike in the extreme. It was more like returning to kindergarten the way that these alleged recruitment professionals behaved. One or two characters came into work under the influence of illegal drugs and thee was much bullying and distractions of all kinds. Unfortunately, actually working as a recruiter for someone else confirmed some of the worse assumptions that I had made about the recruitment industry. However, I did learn a lot about the sales process and the way that the industry worked. Unfortunately we were given mixed messages, firstly that advertising jobs that didn't exist was illegal and that we must not do it, and secondly that we must increase our pool of candidates in our sectors and to do that we needed to advertise jobs that don't exist. It was insane.When I worked for myself as a recruiter, I tried to avoid the pitfalls of being a complete pain to my customers or candidates alike. I was honest and above board and provided a few good sales. When I could not place a person was honest to both the candidate and the client. It is actually possible to make a living being honest in the recruitment industry, but the reason that a lot of candidates waste their time with the agencies is that most agencies are not above board. In summary I would say that if you run a business, it is cheaper and better to get an Human Resources person on board to do the hard work of resume / CV screening and telephone interviewing the candidates. There are often plenty of places to advertise jobs for free on the Internet on some of the higher traffic sites so you have no need to fear the cost of getting staff members. By the way. I left the recruitment industry to move into entertainment, and life is better now.
I have experienced the wonders of the recruitment industry from three different perspectives. Firstly that of a job seeker, secondly that if a man working in a recruitment consultancy and finally working from home as a recruiter. Often the question that is asked is what makes a good recruitment consultancy? From the point of view of the active job seeker, I felt that agencies were often badly organized as I was often poorly prepared for the interviews, was interviewed by a completely different person, and sometimes company, then I had been promised and the communication between client company and agency was often disastrous. As an active job seeker, the agencies were regarded as a necessary evil. The recruitment consultants were primarily money hungry and didn't have the level of industry expertise that they purported to have and treated the candidates like cattle. The recruiters were often time wasters and sometimes even down right rude, from shop floor level right up to the board of directors. One of the worst issues about dealing with the recruitment consultancies was the registration process. If you were unemployed, and spent your time going around the agencies registering all week, each registration taking up to 4 hours out of your day including travel, and then, after a while, assuming that you have now made contact with all the agencies and that they would be working on your behalf to get you a job, you give one of them a call and ask them about a position that they are advertising, they respond in one of two ways. They either invite you in to waste your time registering again, despite the fact that they have all your details apart from your inside leg measurements, or they tell you that the job in question was taken despite the fact that the advertisement only went out that very day.
When I worked I a recruitment consultancy, I was appalled by the bad and rushed training, the lousy administration and the mentality of the consultants were childlike in the extreme. It was more like returning to kindergarten the way that these alleged recruitment professionals behaved. One or two characters came into work under the influence of illegal drugs and thee was much bullying and distractions of all kinds. Unfortunately, actually working as a recruiter for someone else confirmed some of the worse assumptions that I had made about the recruitment industry. However, I did learn a lot about the sales process and the way that the industry worked. Unfortunately we were given mixed messages, firstly that advertising jobs that didn't exist was illegal and that we must not do it, and secondly that we must increase our pool of candidates in our sectors and to do that we needed to advertise jobs that don't exist. It was insane.
When I worked for myself as a recruiter, I tried to avoid the pitfalls of being a complete pain to my customers or candidates alike. I was honest and above board and provided a few good sales. When I could not place a person was honest to both the candidate and the client. It is actually possible to make a living being honest in the recruitment industry, but the reason that a lot of candidates waste their time with the agencies is that most agencies are not above board. In summary I would say that if you run a business, it is cheaper and better to get an Human Resources person on board to do the hard work of resume / CV screening and telephone interviewing the candidates. There are often plenty of places to advertise jobs for free on the Internet on some of the higher traffic sites so you have no need to fear the cost of getting staff members. By the way. I left the recruitment industry to move into entertainment, and life is better now.
