[delmontebanana]

[delmontebanana]

[michaelwinner]

[delmontebanana]

[castlelgr]

I like jobs

[delmontebanana]

stop stalking me castle

[castlelgr]

[sarabro]

1. "Manned by gobby loud-mouthed fat uneduated females who don't understand the area of work you are looking for e.g. Finance when they are working as a 'Specialist Financial Consultant'. How can you have a recruiter working in accountancy and not knowing what Accounts Payable is? "

Thought I was alone out there but it seems not! = Yes I too have faced the above mentioned characters when looking for employment. When I first graduated 10 years ago the biggest relief on finding suitable employment was never having to deal with these horrific individuals again - but the industry doesn't seem to have changed much. They seem to employ the same characters over and over again. It doesn't matter whether you try the high street consultants or the more "specialised" agencies. The agencies don't seem to favour employing characters who maybe have worked in the particular industry beforehand (and not just 5 mins! at least a couple of years) . Very often they know less about the market than I do. Considerably less and have no idea of the type of personalities, skill sets that companies look for. They are utterly clueless and quite frankly its frightening. They only seem to be concerned with managing their own particular accounts at all costs. But then can you blame them? When thats their job. Thats what they are plonked there for. How some of these agencies are surviving is beyond me. Miracle they place anyone.

A few weeks ago I signed on with a "reputable award winning agency" (belly laugh seriousl) with over 10 years of experience in my field. They were so "excited" to see me. Particularly when the consultant read my CV and told me she managed an account of a particular company I had worked for in the past. I told her that I was not interested in working for them again. Face dropped and she couldn't get me out the door quick enough. She had that real "dont mess with me" look across her face and and a strange coloured scarf acround her neck that I couldn't stop staring at. After spending an hour filling in forms proving I wasn't an illegal immigrant (born in London) I felt quite "XX" off . However I was assured there were lots of opportunities out there. Now I get a call every couple of weeks asking me what Im up to and she still plugs the same company with contract work for two/three weeks. When I say "no thanks but you have a good job advertised on your website that I would be interested in that matches my skills;" she totally ignores it and slams the phone down. Guess that means You have to laugh otherwise you would breakdown in tears of frustration. I appreciate its a crap market and you can't just create a job but these people seem to be utterly clueless and I cannot see the point of them. Are companies so lazy that they cannot advertise their jobs properly? Surely in this market its to their advantage as its cuts out that fee they so desperately try to avoid.

[michaelwinner]

Hey Sarah - you seem to get the drift of what's going on out there! And you sound like my kinda girl

One of the major problems with Recruitment "Professionals" is that they are generally people who can be categorised into 2 bands. They are either -

1. "Semi-Graduates" i.e. commonly they achieved only a Pass or at most a 2.2 at University in 'Business Management' taken over no less than 4 years. Because they did a business course they naturally are self-deluded and think they know everything about businesss. These individuals are almost fresh out of full-time University, are aged around 22-26 and have no acumen over what "career" they want to take and are basically organizationally inept - hence they drift into working in Recruitment - fascinated by the prospect of a large pay packet. This big pay packet is important to them because they are by nature ego-maniacs and highly competitive yet retarded individuals. Thus we have the incapable "Student Recruitment Professional". Hence we have a band of idiots who have drifted into the "profession".

2. 40 year old tired out working class women (who aren't married). These individuals are by nature nasty, rude, unkept, aggressive and lack any real sense of business. Most have a dodgy career history - always in low-end unskilled jobs like call centres, car sales administration, PVC window sales administration. They have reached a stage in life where they have finally realised they can't live on low wages forever, and so have forced their way into the world of recruitment by prattling about how useful their 30 years customer service experience/ 'people-focused' experience would be. These individuals are incapable of educational achievement (they may have a couple of NVQs or GCSE's), and are 'call centre workers in disguise'. They think that by chucking around fancy 'business words' like 'faciliate' and acting incredibly blank-faced they will be taken seriously.

[delmontebanana]

Wow! Talk about bitter

I think some people on here could look closer to home at where the problem is rather than constantly point the finger at everything/one else.

If you're unhappy about your career or out of a job, go look for a new one without the help of these so called "recruitment fat women" that you prattle on about.

I guess that's too much like hard work for you to use some initiative and find out who you need to speak to within an organisation you want to work for and send your CV in directly. Hell of a lot easier lurking around forums and whinging about how sh*t recruitment agencies and life in general is.

[castlelgr]

wibble

[michaelwinner]

[Lupy]

Michaelwinner you are very rude and obnoxious. I understand now why you have had bad experiences with agencies.... You are the worst candidate possible to deal with so no one wants to do anything positive for you.

When you have had actual recruitment experience then feel free to comment but until then, keep your stupid, immature comments to yourself!

[michaelwinner]

[Lupy]

Actually Michael, I am not wound up in the slighest and in fact I am very calm just now. It seems to me it is you who is the wound up one.

Do you think by posting ridiculous and stupid comments on here, you are going to shut down all recruitment agencies? If you want people to sit up and listen to you then post facts not immature comments about people's weight, eating habits or ethnic origin.

'Get a life' is the most constructive advice I can offer to you

[mikejdavis]

Why would anyone want to become a sales agent it's hardly a meaningful career... and exploitive one perhaps! My research indicates this career is often a result of limited educational or vocational qualifications. Furthermore one only has to review the local papers\online to see the mass of advertised vacancies for sales specialists who require little training, qualifications and industry knowledge.

Perhaps if the industry raised its standards individuals such as loopy could be taken seriously as it stands Sales Agent longevity is often less than 6 months! hardly contusive to recruitment continuity and best practice.

The bottom line is most candidates (a phrase coined by sales specialists) prefer to apply direct to employers regardless of rejection your intervention muddling in this mess is really born out of the age of non-entity employment.

[delmontebanana]

[michaelwinner]

[Lupy]

Feelings mutual Michaelwinner

[Simba6881]

I worked for an agency doing two jobs at the same time, one job I loved the other I didn't really get on with who I was working for.

My boss from the 2nd job (I'm a nanny) phoned up agency and fed them a pack of lies.

Agency's response was then to ignore the many many good refs I have, take what she said as being true and sacked me from first job!

To say I was mad is an understatement, nothing I can do about it, so as seems to be the case with lots of agencies they only think £££'s and consider staff as scum on the bottom of their shoes!

[ilovedogfood]

What would be really helpful is if people could

• list the best and worst recruitment agencies
• stop posting 700 word replies with multiple quotes bitching about other posters

This is not a 'who's got the biggest dick' contest.

[montyzuma]

bum!!
<packs dick away in suitcase>

[castlelgr]

I have the biggest dick by the way

[ilovedogfood]

You definitely have the biggest picture.

[guy20]

Anyone know some suitable agencies for oil jobs in the UK?