Rank: Super forum user 
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I have finally kicked these businesses into touch. I have applied for several positions over the last year and being Chartered I consider myself to be reasonably able and professional to do the task in my relative sectors,and in some cases I would have expected some sort of recognition or conversation, however some of the agencies seem to think that good manners and communication is not the route to take. Numerous times they initially contact me I get the interview then NOTHING, or they chat on the phone say they will ring back with some interview dates then no feedback, NOTHING. I simply wish to reach the next level in my career and due the the lack of courtesy from some of there agencies I will not be applying for any jobs through them. To be frank I cant really understand why companies use recruitment agencies. I honestly dont know any one who has got a job through an agency. Perhaps some colleagues have had a good relationship with agencies and no doubt some are OK, but I am left feeling I will go back to applying directly
SBH
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Rank: Super forum user 
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While I empathise with your comments you want to try working with these agencies when recruiting for staff...absolute pain. The nonsense they tell you when someone does not turn up for an interview or drops out at the last minute, often without any notice. Why not be honest and say they have got a better offer, or they have found another role.
When jobs are scarce, not so at the present, then agencies can be of some use. In an ideal world I would not apply via an agency, but if push came to shove...
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Rank: Super forum user
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Remember 1st and foremost recruitment agencies want a placement so they can earn their fee.
2nd, they might just want to keep their client happy by sending suitable candidates.
3rd, they just might then consider your wished... but only maybe.
I applied for a job a few months back - I fitted the job description very well - got no where.
You are just a number to an agency - treat them like they treat you - with contempt.
They are just sales sharks....
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Rank: Super forum user
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Estate Agents selling a different product!
Same necessary evil it seems.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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I was made redundant in 2007 when the company I worked for closed 2 of its sites down. Since then I have had various roles ranging from heavy engineering, chemicals, food and now an electronics firm. I have had no time unemployed and I haven't actively sought a move. Each time I have changed roles it was as a result of being contacted by an agency with a role that piqued my interest. However they didn't get the job for me, that was down to me being successful at the interview by being thoroughly prepared.
Agencies can't guarantee you a job, they are just a conduit. If you want success in the interview stakes you have to go out and earn it.
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I recently applied for a role directly with an organisation. A few weeks after, I saw a very similar role advertised by an agency. I thought that I should keep my options open and contact the agency. I was pretty eager to see who the role was for as the description sounded overly familiar to the role I had recently applied for albeit with some estate agent like tweaks. I sent an email to the agency. No response. I called the next day. Recruiter was in a "meeting" so I left a message with his colleague. No returned call. I called again the next day. Left a message. No response. I eventually tracked down the recruiters mobile number via his linkedin page. "uh um, sorry I didn't get back to you, I've been compiling a shortlist....I got your cv, what was your name again?"
I then found out from him it was the same organisation that I had applied for the role directly via their website. I then had the good fortune to tell him I had already applied for it directly. The flesh seller then still tried to extract further details from me for other jobs!!!!
Good news is that I was offered the role. I can't wait to go back to him and tell him I got the job and tell him why I will no longer connect with him or his agency ever again. I might not be so harsh and keep my options open. Moral of the story......use agencies if you must, but realise that they are the middle people. Find ways to penetrate their wall (I appreciate they do have to sift through a lot of people) and use them to your advantage.
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Rank: Super forum user
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"I will get back to you" = lie or half truth
"I am just phoning with an interesting opportunity" = normally a job beneath you or 200 miles from where you live. Or a job no one else wants and you are the final chance call.
"I found your CV online" = I am really desperate, none of my other clients have been stupid enough to want this role.
"I'm sure when my client sees your CV I will be able to get you an interview next week"= when you phone back to ask why there is no interview I will be at lunch
I could go on..........................
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Rank: Super forum user
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I have only had dealings with 2 agencies.
The first one got the date of the interview wrong- by a full week. So I missed out on that one!!
The other was really good- plenty of feedback and I honestly didn't feel like a 'number'. I didn't get the job in the end, but that wasn't the fault of the agency.
I suppose there are good and bad in agencies as there are in every industry or profession.
No doubt I will have other experiences in the not too distant future...
Andy
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Rank: Forum user
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I got both my last 2 jobs through agencies.
On both occasions the agencies contacted me, although I had placed my CV on various internet site advertising my availability.
I am now recruiting for 2 additional H&S staff and have found the agencies to be generally pretty good. I have had some CVs sent to me that bare little resemblance to the sort I have asked for but it just a numbers game.
I do miss the days of buying the Yorkshire Post (I'm a Northerner) on a Thursday evening - jobs day !
Tell the agency what they want to hear and there's a good chance they'll put you through, then you can sell yourself direct to the client. You'll also get chance to find out what the job is actually about rather than trying to decipher the guff the agency tells you.
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Agencies are a waste of time, most of the time the job doesnt exist. In my present role I started the job on monday morning, on monday afternoon an agency contacted me and said there was a good chance I would get an interview for it. The website actually said that it didnt deal with agencies.
Dont give them oxygen!!!!
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I have used the same agency twice, both times they have been fantastic really professional and both times found me exactly the role I was looking for within a few weeks of registering with them.
They were very proactive in making sure I was fully prepared for the interviews and both times I got the role they put me forward for. The chap looking after me worked really hard, he was happy to contact me outside of office hours because I couldn't easily take calls during work hours and generally pulled out all the stops.
I know it is because he will earn if I get the role, but I have to say he worked for his pay on this occasion.
I hope once I get settled in to my fantastic new roll in the new year that I wont be looking for another position again but If I did. I would be strait on the phone to the agency once more, as they haven't failed me yet.
Maybe there are just some that are good and some that are not so good, but I cannot personally fault them.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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When the new IOSH magazine gets going someone should make an article out of all of the posts in this thread and then let the agencies respond.
Those of you who have had problems ought to be writing to the MD of the agencies.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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I've used 2 agencies, one of them very well known. I was interviewed straight after my Unit A exam (literally walked out of the exam hall, down the road into a cafe for an interview) and was told a week later it was a no- fair enough but was never contacted again. A smaller agency got me an interview for a 3 month contract that may go permanent, was turned down for not having a driving licence at the time- a week later I was offered the same job when I took myself off the books because I had been offered my first role elsewhere. I think it depends on so many factors whether an experience with agencies is good or bad. I would use agencies again- but at present I'm more than happy where I am :-)
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Rank: Super forum user
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walker wrote:When the new IOSH magazine gets going someone should make an article out of all of the posts in this thread and then let the agencies respond.
Those of you who have had problems ought to be writing to the MD of the agencies.
On your first point, good call.
Your second point, do you really think the MD would respond?
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Over the years I have wasted countless hours on the phone with agencies who have contacted me on what I can only describe as fishing expeditions. They spend ages going around the houses and then eventually admit that they don't have any current roles on their books.
A couple of personal experiences at the hands of well known agencies are:
1/ Being asked to take sick leave so that I could attend an interview.
2/ Being told a day rate, only for the day rate to be reduced after a successful interview.
3/ Being told that I had been successful in securing a position when in fact I hadn't!
I could go on but believe that my experiences are no different to those experienced by other folk on this forum....
Jim
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Rank: Super forum user
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Have never used an agency myself, but my son recently finished collage and had to sign on for job seekers allowance (that's another story!) told me he had received a phone call on a Thursday from a job agency who had seen his cv online and could he come in for an interview on Friday and start the job on Monday. Thought it was a wind up but that exactly what happened! - So they are not all bad.
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I could add to the horror stories but my favourite anecdote happened a few years ago when I had a brilliant contract with a really helpful agency rep. She was polite, straightforward, rang when she said she would and was totally honest about the job, the interview feedback, everything. A few weeks into the contract I happened to bump into one of her colleagues. When I mentioned how impressed I had been with her service the colleague said “oh well you see, she’s not been trained yet”!
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Rank: Forum user
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Agencies are the pure evil. They promise you all kinds of things which never materialise.
The worst being encouraging a candidate to relocate at incredibly short notice only to discover he was not successful once arrived at his new location 2 hrs flights from home.
On a funnier side it happened twice to me now that an agency rang to sell me my previous job.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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Comments as others, but in addition.
The job ad you read has been so heavily sanitised to remove all traces of anything you may use to circumvent them, that it is meaningless.
I remember two of these type. One was so vague that you could not tell what it was for and then at the bottom in the essentials area was - must have experience in the industry sector- Yes but what industry sector would that be ?
Another I remember applying for which sounded ideal for me, turned out to be in an industry where I would not have had a clue. I was quite disappointed with that one.
Applying for the fake jobs was good practice, but if they wanted a copy of my CV I would have just given it to them.
Lots of company's will not use agencies due to the ridiculous cost.
While we are at it those job sites advertised on TV - when they say there are 1,354 H&S jobs it actually means there are 3 and there are 1,351 other jobs that mention H&S from cleaner to MD.
Now if only there was a place where H&S people gather that could bridge this gap for free. Ah yes LinkedIn, why would anyone pay ?
Chris
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Rank: Forum user
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I found this thread very interesting and I think my experience is similar.
Whenever I've had a call from an agency they always ask "Where are you currently working?" and then you have to laugh it off the next day when a pile of CVs appears on HR's desk!
My gut feeling says things must change over the next 5 years as I have had a number of offers from agencies and I now approach them with caution and cynicism. "You're the only candidate, it's in the bag, they want to pay you hundreds per day" are now all met with "hmm, I think i'm probably busy". I should imagine it's exactly the same from an employer's POV which can be very frustrating.
I've had one agent promise the world to the client, including that I'll drop my current contract at the drop of a hat and travel the country on a whim, and then they seem to suggest that I'm letting people down when I say it's not possible on those terms.
Very frustrating.
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Also, from an employer's perspective.... Agent's trying to circumvent the recruitment process by phoning employing line manager's directly on the office, several times a day as well as on the private number of the line manager (home & mobile). Needless to say this agent lost his contract.
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Hi,
Several years ago I was made redundant from BICC Cables, a great British company that was taken over by Pirelli and closed down. Applied for about 700-800 jobs over the next 6 months and the stats for me were 1 in 10 applications directly to a company resulted in an interview and job offers, 1 in 50 applications to an agency resulted in an interview by the agency but no job offer ever came to me from an agency. Personal experience is agencies are a complete waste of time and I have trouble believing any of their advertised jobs.
Steve
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Rank: Super forum user
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Agencies [and there are some very good ones] are but one way of many in getting a job and should be only 1 part of a persons way of finding a job so do not expect much and U will not be disapointed. People should treat the activity of getting a new job as a professional activity & act accordingly noting that people do not pay the agencies but expect a lot for nothing! ----------- I personally ran a recruitment agency for a number of years & found that 90% of employers want 'cheap', with their own job specifications being very poor but expectations are very high & its getting worse with most candidates not being 'street wise' at all so if U put all the things together and we end up with what we have
until employers change [and this will not happen in my lifetime] e.g. U cannot even directly contact many employers these days, things will remain very hard [and get harder] for candidates so I wish U all best of luck noting that U should use everything at your disposal to get a job
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I'm not sure what alternatives there are to agencies within our industry at this time as it appears that most positions are advertised through them. I would also say that when advertising positions there are limited options without paying a considerable sum.
I was frustrated to learn that in a previous role I simply could not be paid the salary I had requested due to the charges by an agency; in excess of £5k! Can I assume then that agencies are ultimately driving down salaries for H&S professionals?
Kind regards,
Pete
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Rank: Forum user
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Well here is a radical idea - maybe jobs could be advertised on this site by those who belong to, and pay yearly membership fees to IOSH........
I did say that it was radical!
Jim
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Rank: Forum user
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Jim4244 wrote:Well here is a radical idea - maybe jobs could be advertised on this site by those who belong to, and pay yearly membership fees to IOSH........
I did say that it was radical!
Jim
I agree! I'm not sure why IOSH prohibit advertising positions.
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Rank: Super forum user
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with all due respect please wake up to the fact that its the employer [client] that sets pay rates and not the agent and employers want rates to drop its as simple as that. And most employers do not want to employ people as its easier for them to use agencies as they can get rid of people when they want to without the law getting in the way
The last employer I went to for an interview via an agency [the agency did all the work!] tried to poach me by telling lies to the agent thus cutting their costs and criticised the agency all the time - No I did not take up the offer as they would not present a proper contract for services nevermind pay a decent rate nor share the costs that they would have saved! [*I ran an agency for a number of years so I know the game]
best of luck and remember agencies are but 1 way of getting work
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