The economic climate is volatile at best and I know of many people who have lost their jobs for whatever reason. I am in that situation at the moment and let me tell you, it is not a fun place to be. Everybody wants paying and the level of compassion shown by creditors seems to be non existent at the moment. I know they have a job to do but a little respectful acknowledgement of a persons situation and a willingness to help find a suitable solution for all would lead to a positive result for all parties concerned.
So my situation is that I am a very experienced media professional and I have found myself out of work. I have a little media consultancy which I do odd contracts for various different companies but my instructions have decreased and so I decided that I needed to find a new position. Being based in the south of England, and not very far from London, I thought that going to some of the many recruitment agencies that operate here would give me some great opportunities and provide the quickest route back to work.
I have instructed a number of agencies, some of them very big companies in recruitment. They all promote that they are dedicated to supporting a candidates into jobs and that they are attentive and have great contacts. Yet I have to question all of that!
Recruitment agencies or rather some of them because I know some great people and companies exist, are in a lot of cases a complete waste of time. Why don't they ever do as they say they are going to do? The amount of times I have been told that job descriptions are coming through and they do not materialise or when they tell you that they will call you that day and then don't call at all or a particular instance where they post a job for a company and I then identify that the job actually does not exist!
The recent unemployment means that agencies no longer have to compete because they have an abundance of candidates and can pick and choose who they talk to. An example of this happened to me just before Christmas. I had studied a job description for a role. The role required a number of different sklsets and I realised that I could satisfy every requirement they were asking for, plus I was very excited about the job, it was exciting. I applied for the role and felt confident that the agency would come back to me with at least some questions and hopefully a confirmation of interview. Well, I was wrong about that. I had to chase the agent who returned my call three days after I placed it. The lady stated that I was not suitable for the role. I stated that I had ten years relevant experience! I asked if she had read my CV to which she replied she had a very brief look over it. To cut a long story short she finally cracked and said that she wasn't bothered about my application because she had placed two people who she knew for interviews.
Then we have the applications you make where you hear no response at all. Where has the common human decency gone. For people looking for a job it is a very worrying and pressured time. Recruitment agencies seem to have forgotten basic professionalism. In my experience, they seem to forget that in a lot of cases the managers and people they place could potentially become the decision makers and influencers for the new businesses they join. This has happened to me before where an agency that conducted themselves in such an unprofessional manner, and in particular a recruitment agent who had not answered my emails or returned my calls, called me to obtain a brief for the positions I was recruiting for. When I reminded them of how they had conducted themselves during my job search they started to make excuses and blaming other people within the agency (who were no longer with them) and asked for the opportunity of providing great candidates. Well you can guess that I politely declined their offer and I placed the brief with a small independent agency that had really given me some great advice and tried their best to help me. What has happened to not burning your bridges and trying your best for every candidate. An old friend of mine is a recruitment agent. He advised me that it is all about the number...number of calls you make, how much fee you make, what contract period you can obtain from the client and for what percentage? It is a shame that candidates are of such insignificance to recruitment agents...afterall, we are only their bread and butter. But what other options are available? Job boards are dominated by agencies who have done long term deals on CV database access and postings so you apply but generally you will hear nothing...I have applied for 21 jobs via various job boards over the last week, all for which I am qualified and viable for and yet I have not heard one positive or negative word. National press is not what it used to be and only extremely senior positions seem to appear in the respectable newspapers. The jobcentre provides the best service they can but are limited in the mid to senior level positions that they have and so for me this is not an option.
Then we have the the personal agenda approach that really does irritate me. The amount of calls that I receive from agencies who have not even read my CV and call me with roles that I am just not ever going to do because of the junior aspect of them and the salary provided. They call me and tell me they have this brilliant opportunity that won't be around for long. They then take ten minutes of my time and proceed to tell me about a job that is completely unsuitable and had they read my CV then they would have realised this. They always say they have "come across my CV" but when you ask from where they cannot recall. I have taken a great deal of time writing a great document that provides you with all the information you need...READ IT. The other irritating aspect about some recruitment agents is the old "are you free to talk" which generally I am. On one occasion I had a problem that I was dealing with and so I answered out of courtesy to explain that now was not a really good time. The Senior Manager who I spoke to within this very large agency explained that he would call me at 9am the next day, he was very specific. I asked him if he was sure, and that I could call him back but he was forthright and so I agreed. Now if I said to one of my clients that I would call them back at a specific time then I put a reminder in my diary and call when I say I am going to. This company did not call me back at 9am, not 11am...not even the next day. I had to chase the gentleman. When I eventually got hold of him two days later he advised me that he had a great job opportunity for me which thawed my dismay at having to chase him a little. What made me angry then was that he came back to me to say my application was too late as the client had stated he had enough CV's.
I am sure that some senior people from recruitment agencies will read this and quite their recent statistics and how this is not the case for them, and that's great but I would advise them to do the old "undercover boss" and see just what it is like on the coal face, experience what sort of service that the candidate is receiving and then ask the question about whether they are actively working on behalf of their candidates and clients? The simple fact of the matter is that a company who has instructed your agency is potentially missing out on a really valuable member of staff who could just provide that missing skill set that takes their company to the next level..the client is not interested in you targets or your numbers, they want to reduce their cost per hire and get that new member of staff in urgently because it is costing them money.
Guys in recruitment...don't become the new traffic wardens, show some professionalism and help your candidates get the job they deserve and are qualified for. Not only will you still achieve the fees you need, you just might obtain an increase in instructions because of it.
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