Beware of Recruitment Agents

Most of my life I have been lucky enough not to need to look for a job. One way or another opportunities just happened to land in my lap. This meant very little exposure to the world of recruitment agents.

When I first came to England I finally got a tiny taste of the recruitment market. However it wasn’t a full fledged exposure due to my lack of UK work experience, and a less impressive CV than now. I was lucky to get my CV past the recruiters in the first place. Despite all that I managed to find a good position reasonably quickly, which didn’t prove that hard once I got an interview considering my not so high salary expectations.

And I haven’t looked back until recently. Starting to feel a bit unchallenged in my current position I thought maybe after working for a couple of years for the same boss it is time to move on. This time round the experience with recruitment agents was very different though.

The moment I put my CV online I got an avalanche of calls. And I definitely was way too optimistic and naive about the interest I got from them. Here are a few observations I made, and sure they do not apply to everyone – I encountered better and worse recruitment agents, but by highlighting the bad experiences I might save someone some disappointment…

They don’t call back

Due to the fact that I’m still employed I cannot talk during work hours. So often the callers will ask what time would be good for me. You can say whatever you want, but most of the time they will not call back. I imagine them sitting with a list of potential candidates, like in a call centre, and after such phone call they just move on to the next person on the said list…

Phone manner

This is not very common, but I have came across it a few times. They start of polite and everything, but the moment you say you either don’t have time at the moment to talk, or that there is some mismatch between the job and your qualifications/expectations they become abrupt and almost hang up on you (I had one that actually did!)

They pretend to be on your side

Never believe a recruitment agent… Most of the time if sides are to be taken they would probably go for the company. It is logical after all they usually could get more repeat business from them than from you. I would advise to not reveal all your cards to the recruiter, because if they use them it’s most likely it is going to be to their own advantage rather than yours. At the end of the day, they are interested in getting the biggest margin possible in the negotiation process.

Candidate and job matching

Once you’re in a recruitment agency’s system, you’re there for good. And it seems that most of these applications are not very good too. Despite saying I am are looking for a permanent position in such and such locations every now and then I still get random calls or emails. The worst one came just the other day – not only was I addressed as Mr instead of Miss, but the letter was in German about a position in Frankfurt! Well too bad none of the 3 languages mentioned on my CV is German…

Candidate vs Candidate

If you think you are special think again. It seems that the best interview to get is the last one. Recruiters often shamelessly question previous candidates and provide that knowledge to the next one in line for the interview. I guess at the end of the day they do not care which one gets the job, as long as it’s one of theirs… Once I have even been offered a test beforehand so I could “prepare” myself.

Salary requirements

If possible avoid giving out your current salary details. Especially if you are hoping for a substantial increase. Recruiters have trouble understanding that half of the increase is eaten away by for example commute costs. If I have none now, and will have a lot in the new job obviously it doesn’t matter that I earn more on paper if my take home is less…

I would also say stick to ranges. Put your preferred amount in the middle and add some padding around it. The lower bracket is there to show the company that you are flexible, but don’t let the recruiter push you into making that your asking price.