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What is wrong with hiring/recruiting agencies??

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lektrix

Golden Member
Why do people hate them so much (aside from them *possibly* taking an unfair cut from your paycheck)? They seem like nice people who only want to help when YOU need help. I submitted my resume to them and they were to happy to look over it, give pointers, and find possible jobs for me for free. Even offered me FREE industry-grade training material for IT certificates and such. How can I say no to that??
 
some are good, some are really bad

it's the really bad ones that give people bad impressions of recruiting firms
 
I'm not sure if it's the same thing, but I used WillStaff once to get a very short term job before going back to college one summer. I needed work for like 2 weeks and they found me a job at a Sears warehouse during the time the regular guy I was temporarily replacing was on vacation. I doubt I could have found something that so exactly matched my needs on such short notice without them.

I'm not sure I would use them for anything longer term than that though.
 
It might be free to YOU but they charge your employer a pretty penny.

Some of these agency can pull in good 10-30k for EACH person that gets hired.

And now you see why they are so nice to you and give you pointers, there is money involved hehe
 
The only ones that I do not recommend are the ones that require you to "pay" out of pocket for their services. The good Hiring/Recruiting firms are paid by your potential future employers or they get paid for the first few months with a cut from your paycheck.

With the tough economy and competitive job market, I recommend job seekers to use them. Also the really good ones may already have established relationships or a proven track record of providing quality employees to these companies.

Just stay away from ones that charge you.
 
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ive never heard of anyone hating them before. i only get kind of annoyed by them because they continue to contact me after i already landed a job. but it's just because my name is in a pool, and they gladly remove you if you ask them to. usually their emails they send over tell you how to get off the list.
 
There are good ones, and there are bad ones. The good ones will get you an actual job with a company, they will not be the ones signing your check. They make their money via a finders fee which can be a percentage of your starting salary or flat rate depending on how high up a position it is. To me these are real recruiters and it's invaluable to your career to develop a strong relationship with one as they will keep you in the know of the job market. They have strong connections and should be a tool in your networking.

The others are more like contractor/temp places. These are where the bad taste can come from as you are nothing more than a piece of meat there and your take home pay is generally less than half of what you're billed at (meaning you're making way less than you're worth). You are pure gravy to them and they make a lot of money off your labor and are nothing more than a middle man skimming a ton of your wages. They can be good if you need a job right now.
 
I don't hate em. My current job I found through a headhunter, best job I've ever had (paycheck aside).

There is a marked difference though in the quality of them. I've worked with big agencies (RH, Yoh, etc), and they've all been useless. Why? Because they all go quantity over quality, and they have no interest in working with the candidate. They just want to blast over as many resumes as possible for the company to filter through and hire someone so they get their commission.

I've worked with small agencies and headhunters too, sometimes they have the same mentality. But every once in a while you get someone who actually takes the time to do what they're hired to do and actually do the legwork for the company they're contracted out to recruit for, which means taking an active interest in their candidates. It's these guys which I, as an employee, have had by far the best results with. They seem to take an active interest in the company they're getting paid by, so they're the first ones to tell you whether you're wasting your time pursuing the job or not.
 
spidey07 said:
There are good ones, and there are bad ones. The good ones will get you an actual job with a company, they will not be the ones signing your check. They make their money via a finders fee which can be a percentage of your starting salary or flat rate depending on how high up a position it is. To me these are real recruiters and it's invaluable to your career to develop a strong relationship with one as they will keep you in the know of the job market. They have strong connections and should be a tool in your networking.

The others are more like contractor/temp places. These are where the bad taste can come from as you are nothing more than a piece of meat there and your take home pay is generally less than half of what you're billed at (meaning you're making way less than you're worth). You are pure gravy to them and they make a lot of money off your labor and are nothing more than a middle man skimming a ton of your wages. They can be good if you need a job right now.
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I agree. The silver lining for me is that I'm ready to go and pay $$$ for training for the MCSE, MCIP, CCNA courses so if they are willing to train me for free with free Microsoft certified materials, why the heck not right???
 
Most of them are bad at what they do. They don't properly screen candidates. Instead, they collect names and resumes from anyone that claims to have a skill, and then shotgun spray those resumes out to companies hoping something sticks.

The good ones are awesome, though. Too bad they are so rare.
 
Former headhunter here. Surprised not to see universal hatred.

We're only as good as our job orders. Some firms stress high volume so yea, you might be wasting your time, but I placed about 20% of people I met with so if you're looking for a new job it is worth it to run around to different places for a day.

Definitely worth taking the call for a few minutes. If you're really not looking no need to be rude the recruiter is really just looking for a status update on you and trying to find out what would make you move in the future.
 
DAGTA said:
Most of them are bad at what they do. They don't properly screen candidates. Instead, they collect names and resumes from anyone that claims to have a skill, and then shotgun spray those resumes out to companies hoping something sticks.

The good ones are awesome, though. Too bad they are so rare.
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hit-the-nail-on-the-head_zps479d403e.jpg
 
purbeast0 said:
ive never heard of anyone hating them before. i only get kind of annoyed by them because they continue to contact me after i already landed a job. but it's just because my name is in a pool, and they gladly remove you if you ask them to. usually their emails they send over tell you how to get off the list.
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Same here, but they continue to contact me asking me about openings or telling me about this great candidate they have.
 
Vdubchaos said:
It might be free to YOU but they charge your employer a pretty penny.

Some of these agency can pull in good 10-30k for EACH person that gets hired.

And now you see why they are so nice to you and give you pointers, there is money involved hehe
Click to expand...

As long as it's a temp-to-hire deal I don't mind, I'm job-hunting now and a lot of local companies use agencies to screen out the unqualified people, if you rule out jobs through agencies your removing yourself from a lot of potential jobs. I was kinda miffed at one that charged me $10 to do a criminal background check but besides that most have been helpful to me overall..
 
How does one find a good headhunter?

I usually just apply on job boards that are posted by them and I really have not much of a choice unless I want to skip the application for a specific job listing.
 
darkxshade said:
How does one find a good headhunter?

I usually just apply on job boards that are posted by them and I really have not much of a choice unless I want to skip the application for a specific job listing.
Click to expand...

Post your resume to Dice.com and Monster.com. Also create a LinkedIn profile. If you have skills that match positions they know about, the recruiters will contact you.
 
darkxshade said:
How does one find a good headhunter?

I usually just apply on job boards that are posted by them and I really have not much of a choice unless I want to skip the application for a specific job listing.
Click to expand...

DAGTA said:
Post your resume to Dice.com and Monster.com. Also create a LinkedIn profile. If you have skills that match positions they know about, the recruiters will contact you.
Click to expand...



Over time; create a network of those that actually deliver promising leads/interviews.

Those are the ones that understand the clients needs and what your skills are.

I have a half dozen or so that I keep in my tickler file.

As an estimate of 90% of those "recruiters" out there use a search package to grab key words and find your resume on the job boards. That is good. However, they do not actually review the resume :thumbsdown: to see if the positions that they spider off of employment boards actually are relevant; they just automatically ship off the "We have a job for you" email.

Job calls for 1-3 yrs experience; why send it out to one that has 15-20 years.
Job calls for 5-10 in Java; why send it to someone that has taken a Java course in college.

Put the word manage in your resume and you get proposals for project management.

Then you have those from the sub-continent that have accents. I tell them to send me the details - I can not her them on the phone.
 
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I got my first job out of college through a recruiting agency. It turned out to be an awesome job, and I learned a ton of stuff and even made a few connections. I've heard horror stories, but my experiences with recruiters have been generally good.
 
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