Good Job Recruitment Agencies
I'm not sure if you're expecting me to give you here a list of recruitment agencies but I'm not going to. People reading here can be reading from anywhere in the world and as I'm based in the UK my knowledge is only of agencies in the UK. Instead of giving you a list of agencies, I'm going to discuss what makes a good agency and why you should be choosy about whom you work with, i.e. which agency you register with and use to help you find that perfect job.
Recruitment agencies are ten a penny. Really you look up any directory website and type in recruitment agencies and your local area and I'm sure they'll give you a list of dozens if not hundreds. What you need to do is use the best medium for find a good agency which is word of mouth. You should ask around friends, family, husbands and wives of friends, ex colleagues, their husbands or wives. Ask which agencies they've had good experiences with and get their details and register with them. Tell the agency who recommended them to you (sometimes the person who recommended them to you will get some sort of bonus for sending you their way if and when they place you in a job)!
If you can't use word of mouth to get yourself registered with a decent agency then maybe you can try to ask yourself the questions below. I do strongly feel that some if not all of these areas should factor into you deciding on how good an agency is:
Do they give you attention when you first make contact with them? I.e. are they polite and professional and offer you an appointment to come to see them or fob you off saying they have nothing on their books for you at this time, nor are they likely to in the short term?
Do they give you the option to register with them over the phone and let you send your CV in by email if you don't want to go in to register with them face to face? After all, how much money are you going to spend travelling to and from agencies if every one of them asks you to come in and register in person, only for them to not offer you any suitable positions after you've been through all that hassle?
Do they repeat back to you all the things you stress that are important? You're looking for a minimum salary of XXXXX and are willing to travel up to an hour each way. You don't want to work for a small company or a big corporate environment. You want to apply for specific jobs, e.g. an office manager; not an office cleaner or a retail assistant in a clothing store not a library assistant. It's important that your agent knows what you want and tries to find something to fit your requirements, not just push you into something just to get their commission for placing you in a job you'll end up leaving in a few weeks anyway.
Do they give you feedback after you've attended an interview? How many agents have you dealt with who've never bothered to tell you why you weren't selected for a particular position which of course you were "just perfect for" before you attended the interview. Often this is lack of guts on their part but is certainly not professional and morally not fair if they don't at least give you feedback at to why you weren't successful.
Another tip I can give you about selecting agencies to work for is to steer clear of high street agencies generally if you are a specialist in a particular area. I work in the IT industry and we've never had any luck dealing with the average UK high street agency such as Brook Street, Office Angels, Manpower, Reed, etc. They are too general for our needs. If you are a high level programmer chances are you will register with an agency that specifically deals with the IT industry. If you are a nurse, you're more likely to register with an agency who specialise in supplying nurses and the same with teaching. I've always found it easier to get a job with a specialist agency and as an employer have always found it better to use a specialist agency too.
