Recruitment Agencies: Pah! or hmmm!

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I replied to an ad from an agency, which read something like "Do you have experience trouble shooting..., Do you have a customer service background?"

Well, I answered yes to both questions so contacted the agency. (btw, the full ad described a requirement of knowledge and/or experience of OSs and hardware, which was compareable to content in the A+ exam objectives).

Right, where was I? Ah yes. So I arrive at the agency only to find that the job doesn't match the description. It turns out the they want people to work on a helpline for a moble phone company. More specificaly, for a particular product.

I feel slightly conned, actually!

Has anyone on Certforums done this kind of work? Because I'm failing to see what benefit it could be for a helpdesk wannabe (should I be a rapper? ) Seriously, I'm thinking of using my telesales experience and A+ knowlegde to get a geniune helpdesk job.

If I took this job and it turned out to be rubbish, and it does sound quite boring, I would regret it. I could have spent the time working on getting a job that I would be happier with.

Can anyone advise me one this one please.

 

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I would look for real jobs and only consider an agency if all else fails

 

Cheers, but where I live 9/10 jobs in IT seem to be put through agencies. I guess these are the one's that aren't worth the bother eh.

 

try writing a letter and then copying it loads and sending it out to lots of different businesses that are likley to have a support desk or it dept

 

I can't remember the last time I found a 'real' job that wasn't through an agency. Like all other industries, there are turds to avoid (admittedly probably more than there are in most other professions) but some agencies are fine. I think they are an absolute must once you get past entry-level jobs - at the moment I'm looking for a new role and have had three interviews - all provided via agencies. Mebbes it's different outside of the big cities, but trust me, in London you would be waiting a loooong time to get a job if you didn't go via an IT agency.

The role you're talking about sounds like a basic first line role. it will be shite, dull and pay crap money - but if you're looking to start out, you may as well take it (if you're looking for first line work that is). Make sure you know beforehand what they expect of you - if you're interviewing for it, make sure its NOT a sales role (almost everything with mobile phone companies is sales-focussed - especially true with tech support)

Like I said, there are unscrupulous people in every profession. I'll give you an example - earlier this week i had a woman ring me up from one of the large, well-known agencies. She spoke to me like shite, talked like she was working on Wall Street and then wondered why I told her to get lost. I told her it was because, unlike probably 95% of the other tools she spoke to that day, I actually LIKED IT, was good at it, didn't braindump my way to my certifications, and certainly wasn't prepared to put up with being spoken to like a child by someone who had the life skills of a mouthy Essex chav. The very same day (about an hour later) I got a call from another recruiter - he was a great, down to Earth bloke, said he was considering putting me forward for a role but wanted a chat with me first. We had a ten minute talk about my experience, where I was with my current role and what I wanted from my next and, at the end, he said that i sounded a decent fit, and that he would put me forward for the job. I just had the interview this afternoon via videoconference with the parent company in the US, all went well and I think they'll make me an offer next week. So Agencies can be crap, irritating and frustrating, but you are far, far more likely to get a job quickly if you put your CV on the major jobsites then pimp it out to the agencies that cover your area.

 

Good Luck with the job

 

LOL!!! I deal with agencies everyday and I must admit I'm getting real good at countering their bullshit! My CV is still on Jobsite so I get at LEAST one call a day from an agency! They think their dealing with a desparado until they get into a conversation with me! I had a great one today, went like this:

Agency "How much do you earn at the moment mate"
Me "I'll take nothing less then 28k for a permie role and 18 quid an hour for a contract"
Agency "No that wasn't what I asked"
Me "Yeah but that's all you're getting; WHAT I WANT!"
Agency "Yes but we need to know your current salary"
Me "Why?"
Agency "Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr"
Me "All you need to know is what I want - end of"
Agency "yes but you have to look at it from our point of view"
Me "and what about my point of view"
Agency "Errrr I'll speak to my collegues and see what we've got"
Me "Goodbye"

All these goons need to know is what you can do, how much you want and your notice period. If any of them ask for your current wage and references then all they're doing is touting for work i.e. they'll contact your manager to try and push their own candidates onto them for less then what your wage is! Be careful with this scum but as always all you need is practice at how to deal with them cos the good ones will get you an interview - the chaff will use your intention to leave for their next potential gig with one of their own candidates!

 

Thanks for the valuable input guys as there are a lot of cowboy estate agents out there. I must say I like your dealings drum_dude and Zeb in handling joker estate agents

 

Employment agents/Estate agents = same type! LOL

 

I get a lot of emails from recruiting agencies and the occasional phone call. Most of them are full of hot air and that's about all but a few have been good to me. My very earliest hardware/OS/Ethernet rollout jobs came through recruiters and that provided me with a little extra cash to add on to my day job plus the even more valuable experience to add to my CV.

In terms of my current career and recent jobs, I've been treated well by two recruitment agencies that have offices locally and been treated very badly by another recruiter. I say all this to point out that "they aren't all the same". Sure, plenty of them are in it only for what you can do for them, but given that this is a business, some have the integrity and the brains to figure out that if they treat you well, you will end up doing a better job for them and be a reoccurring resource.

 

If a recruiter can get you a job at a good company at a fair wage and not siphon off a portion of your salary for the next seven years, then what's not to like? I've used recruiters before, and some are good, and some are bad. Gotta use common sense and judgement calls.

Zeb's right... some companies send ALL their job postings through recruiters. So, you may like recruiters, and you may not, but the reality is that they're probably here to stay.

 

While I dislike some of their tactics - for me, it comes down to how much are they willing to pay me to do the job. If they're getting 20% profit off the back of me working, I don't care any different than if they were getting 5% profit - its about whether I'm happy with the salary/wage that I'm receiving.

 

Sorry my mistake meant to say IT agents, been dealing with estate agents lately as well as they are way too dishonest in their dealings.

Well there is a little exception but not that much I have come across and likewise with IT recruitment agencies and IT human resource agents.

 

QFT

 

My experience with job agenices has been absolutely nil. I posted my CV to many of them and never got a single interview. It was not until I got an non-IT job in a company I worked for that those people could see I was good at assisting with web programming. A year later a job came up for a role which involved a technology I was familar with. I applied and got the job.

 

I'm not sure if things are different up north
but i'm not sure how your chances will be not using an agency (especially in London)
pretty much every job is submitted via an agency, and provided you have the skills and experience to know how to spot a good opportunity, then they are not that bad, and pretty much a requirement anyway

It's easy to learn the ropes with agencies, and once you have a good rapor with a few good agents, you will be fine, just learn when to call BS and make them work for their money