Frustrations With Recruiters

For a reasonable portion of 2016, since around April in fact, I have been actively seeking employment. For the bulk of this time I’ve been in a reasonably stable temp job — well, as stable as a temp job can be — so I may or may not have been a little choosy about the types of role I apply for. (Read: my desperation decreased over time).

Unfortunately being actively on the market for such a period of time, in a very competitive sector — in fact at the most competitive level of that very competitive sector — has meant dealing with a LOT of recruiters.

Most of these have been agencies, although a couple of my points refer to direct recruiters as well. I have a long and interesting and mostly positive relationship with agencies, ranging from the astonishingly great (a local agency which, one morning when I called in to drop off a time sheet during a summer where I was industrial-temping and had no work that week, exclaimed “What? How aren’t you working?” and all four staff got straight on the phone to clients and within half an hour found me something to do for the week) to the unbelievably awful (a large agency who put me forward for an interview for a position I was unqualified for, having sent me an edited job description and sent the client an overly-enhanced CV, which caused me and the client ten minutes of awkwardness and the agency to lose one of their most lucrative ongoing consumers of temps), and through all levels of mediocrity and excellence in between.

I love applying through agencies. They’re there to do the selling for you. “Here’s why this guy has a less than perfect CV but I still think you should interview him” is the hurdle I always need help with. Agencies also usually tend to give you real feedback, rather than the direct-application rejections, and this applies both to unsuccessful applications and interviews. Every rejection, especially post interview, tells you something you can work on for the next one — or, in the worst case scenario, that you probably wouldn’t like working there anyway.

However, there’s just a few traits that are becoming increasingly pervasive, and the best agencies are the ones that don’t practise them. Based on my experience and that of a few anonymous sources, they are:

Secret Requirements

There are a lot of jobs that have really specific requirements, and generally they are there for a reason. Maybe a certain level of qualification is required. Maybe you really need to have worked in that industry previously (more on that later). Maybe there is an on-call element to the vacancy so you must live within a certain distance of the office.

It baffles me, therefore, that so many job listings omit or hide these requirements. If I read a job spec and then see, under “Necessary Qualifications”, that you need a law degree or to have won an international certificate in finger painting or have worked for at least a year in Mozambique, then I will not apply, because it would be a massive waste of your time. But the massive waste of MY time is that jobs which require fluency in a foreign language often don’t state this until right at the end. Because an average Reed listing is a couple of screens long at least, please stop getting me all excited by bullet-pointing my perfect job at a great salary right near where I live, and then in the “PS” just casually mentioning “Fluent in Russian”. There are LOADS if people qualified for this job who are fluent in Russian, so why not title the advert “Management Accountant (Russian Speaking)” or similar? Surely your accuracy rate will go through the roof and you won’t have to wade through 200 CVs from people who don’t even know what “niet” means.

Terrible Portals

There is a terrible terrible job portal called UK Recruitment, and it has to die. The reason? Many recruiters use this portal in association with LinkedIn. Here’s how the process works:

• The job is advertised on LinkedIn and looks interesting so I click for more info
• The job description has a bout six lines and then “click for full details and to apply”
• This takes me out to UK Recruitment where I am told I must register in order to see the full advert and the salary details
• The job description now has one extra line and a link to another third party site to get full details and apply!

It goes on and on. So much so that I no longer apply for any job on LinkedIn that says the employer is “Confidential via UK Recruitment”. And the sad thing is that recruiters are, at some point, paying them for this.

My reverse search skills are reasonably strong and nine times out of ten I can find out who the agency is and contact them directly. But is there someone else who doesn’t do that, who could be your perfect candidate, who is being put off applying for the same reason?

While on the subject of LinkedIn, they have an option that allows you to not require a cover letter. That’s great but my LinkedIn profile is not going to tell you EVERYTHING you need to know. Maybe my current employer doesn’t know I am looking, for example. At least give the option of a short note?

Hey, We Should Meet!

I fully understand that, to comply with various regulations and to get a better understanding of who I am and how suitable I may or may not be for a role, we need to meet in person.

But when I am just seeking to register with you, would a phone call or Skype meeting not be sufficient?

Here’s the issue. Many jobseekers are between roles (such a nice way of saying “unemployed”) and have little spare cash to travel to agency meetings. We all register with many agencies as that’s the way to gain maximum exposure, and we will have to go and meet all of them. Many of us are temping and cannot necessarily guarantee time off for registrations. Interviews yes, as temporary employers usually understand that you are seeking permanent roles elsewhere that they aren’t currently offering. But leaving early three or four times in a month is different from having to have the aggregate equivalent of a week off to meet recruiters.

There’s a happy medium, which a couple of smaller agencies I dealt with recently have offered. Their policy was that they would register me over the phone, and even forward my CV to prospective clients, but they would be unable to arrange any interviews or temp assignments until we had met in person. That’s perfect isn’t it? Because several of the agencies I am registered with have never progressed as far as arranging me an interview (NB: no fault-assigning here, my CV is no doubt equally to blame) and yet I’ve spent countless hours and a substantial chunk of money travelling to meet them, which has turned out to be unproductive.

If there’s a potential interview on the table, I’ll move heaven and earth to come and see you, but if there isn’t then a little bit of flexibility, where possible, would be fantastic. Particular special mention, if I was naming names, which I am not, would go to a small recruiter based near the Barbican who simply said “Let me know if you’re in the area next week for any reason, and if I can squeeze you in I will”.

I’ll Call You Back

This is a massive issue with larger recruiters. I understand that you are ridiculously busy. If you can’t answer my call, that’s fine — you can call me back later, no problem. I am happy to wait. But you don’t.

I wish I had counted the number of times I have left messages for recruiters who never called back. And I do mean never. Now, this may be because you think I am unsuitable for this position, or for ANY position — maybe you never want to hear from me again. Guess what, if you tell me these things then you won’t hear from me again. Is it so hard to call back, or drop a quick email to say “Hey, I’m not gonna call you about that position because I know the client would not be interested in you”?

Non-Rejection

This one really gets to me. It’s a really easy one to resolve though. Most of you use application tracking software, which means there is no excuse not to send “no thanks” emails.

It’s frustrating getting a template rejection seven days after application saying that there “was not a good fit” or that I “did not meet the client’s stringent requirements”. It is a hundred times more frustrating, however, to call chasing an application only to find out the position was filled a week ago.

I fully appreciate that in the current job market you might have three hundred applications, some quite useless, for every vacancy. But even a bulk rejection is better than no news at all. Even, as a bare minimum, an autoresponder so that every applicant is told “if you have not heard from us within seven days please assume this application has been unsuccessful”.

Looking for a job is disheartening at times, and small touches like this — a bit of clarity here and there — go a long, long way.

Why Should Recruiters Be Better?

Any time I have vented my frustrations to friends and family, the response is often along the lines of “But these people owe you nothing. They provide a free service and you’re the one that needs a new job”. My response is always that I am the product. Agencies get paid for placing candidates. That’s the bottom line, and if I am annoyed with the process at times, imagine what all those super-intelligent perfect candidates out there — which, for the purpose of full disclosure, I am WELL aware that I am not — feel about it? “I don’t apply through agencies” is something I hear more and more, and that’s sad because they absolutely can be your best friend when you are “otherwise employed”.

I just want a better experience with agencies and I want everyone else to have a great experience too. That way, we can all find a job we really like, and not have to log in to reed.co.uk for a little while. The world would be a happier place.

Postscript: Superstar Agencies

I am not going to name and shame agencies which I have had issues with — and some of them I have had quite sizable issues with! But I thought it only fair to list a few that I have had great experiences with. I am not saying that any of them are perfect, and not all of them have got me jobs, interviews, or even put me forward for any roles. But all of them have been approachable, available and ready to talk, and if you are heading into the job market (and happen to work in the sector I do) then you could do worse than the following:

• Pure Resourcing Solutions, Cambridge
• The One Group, Cambridge
• Radley Green, Berkeley St
• Hays, Cheapside
• Broadstone Resourcing, Barbican

This content originally appeared on the01480

https://www.the01480.com/posts/2016/frustrations-with-recruiters