Recruitment agencies are ruining our market

Mmm, you've obviously had a bad experience of the agencies that you used, but does that mean they are all bad?

The only time that they ever do contact you is if they have a temporary position.

I got my current permanent job through a local agency, although I must admit I was a bit reluctant to use one having read peoples views on here. It was my first experience of finding work this way. Previuosly I've always found work via the local paper, job centre, notice in the post office window etc. Sarah understood the industry, why I wanted to leave my current position and had a good idea of the kind of job I was looking for. I only wanted part time work which made it more difficult , but she still managed to send me suitable jobs. At no time was I ever only offered temporary positions.

Because of employment agencies, I came out of the industry and stopped studying AAT for 3 years as I couldn’t get a job within accounting.

What you mean is you couldn't find a suitable job, surely you can't blame that on all the agencies?

I work as a bookkeeper at the moment and I managed to get that job by talking my way into it. It was direct with the employer and as he wasn't financial, I managed to get the job by using expressions that went over his head.

Actually, that made me smile, as a couple of my employers have no idea when it comes to finance - one leaving his business without a bookkeeper for months as "theirs wasn't real work"!!

Good luck with your present job and studies, look forward not back!!

Of course we're interested in the candidates, if we didn't have any candidates we wouldn't be a very good agency, would we? We're interested in candidates that are right for the job and if you're not right for the job you originally applied for we'll find something which you are right for. You have to realise that if you didn't get the job, somebody else did, therefore another success for the agency. I get bored of people blaming their inability to get a job on agencies.

I'm an AAT student and I've been held back in my career, but not by agencies, by my first job which turned out to be a dead end. So I registered with an agency who found me a fantastic job but only because I had the experience and the qualifications and I was realistic about what I was looking for. You can't slander all agencies just because you've had a bad experience with one.

And by the way if anyone is looking for a new job in Devon please browse http://www.alternative-recruitment.com :001_smile:

I too have had problems with Hays, particularly the way they threw any kind of accounts-related job at me without really considering it. At the end of the day they're a large corporate agency with a lot of candidates and it doesn't make any difference to them if they don't find a job for people like you and me.

I know it sounds ridiculous but the business plan for alternative-recruitment.com is to stay local and maintain our reputation, we don't want to turn into a corporate monster! And I imagine that nearly all small, local agencies have the same plan, they tend to be owner-managed so they will work hard at finding a job for you.

If a candidate is over-qualified they will soon get bored of the position if they are not challenged enough, unless they have absolutely no ambition.

We avoid submitting over-qualified candidates now because the client always comes back to us and says something along the lines of; they're gonna get bored, want to take on more responsibilities which we haven't got, so then they'll be unhappy and leave.

These comments about agencies crop every few months on here. Some have bad experiences and some worse.

I found two senior positions through agencies - but I had the confidence and experience to know their game plans.

I refused to attend interviews for jobs I wasn't interested in. This caused problems for the agencies, but I was never going to accept a position I didn't want.

If I were looking for a job now, I would register with a specialist agency - but not stop applying for jobs myself.

Agencies are paid by employers, but we are their saleable products - they need both to survive. Unfortunately there are more candidates than employers - but that's life.

I was never under any illusions about the agency's purpose - earning their commission. However, you can make them work for you - providing you have a CV to back you up.

Yeah I'm sure they would take a job they were over-qualified for, whilst still looking for another one which is better suited to them and when they get it they can leave, making us look stupid. And the clients are obviously speaking from experience, in which case someone being over-qualified is a perfectly valid reason to not employ them. And it's always us the candidate comes back to us and says 'this isn't what I wanted to do'. If we can submit a candidate that is perfectly suited to the job why would we submit someone else who is over-qualified?

And I think you'll find that whoever runs the recruitment agency also has to look after their children and pay the bills. The guy who owns and runs the recruitment agency I work at has 2 children to look after and a mountain of bills to pay, but can't afford to take a salary and is working 14 hour days. Why would he jeopardise making money by submitting unsuitable candidates?

Rob, does your agency just place Accountants or fill general financial posts too?

axl2derv wrote: »

you have no choice but to use agencies as they are linked to 99.9% of the advertised vacancies. I would rather not use an agency but have no choice. How does one attain the required experience for a role if all the jobs are through agencies that won't put you forward for experiences you don't have.

Maybe you haven't been looking in the right places. And have you tried cold cving? Just sending your CV and a covering letter to several companies and seeing if they're interested is a great way to show initiative.

And you attain the required experience by taking the temp roles you were offered!

Agencies

This is a really interesting thread that covers a subject close to my heart, as I'm currently temping in an accounts payable role to change career at the age of 45 (see previous thread, 'Become an accountant at 44, don't make me laugh!'). I have all the responsibilities that go with having a family and house and what causes me the most stress is not the prospect moving from temp to temp job (and possibly being out of work for a short period of time between roles), which I enjoy as I see it as a way of getting experience in different sectors and different roles, but the fact that the pay is so low at this end of your career.

I like Robert's straightforward reply from an agency perspective and can empathise with some of the other views and frustrations with agencies.

At the end of the day it is hard work to to become an accountant or related role and you have to be determined. There is clearly a lot of competition and because you are dealing with the money end of business (without which very little would happen, even in a not-for-profit or charity), you're required to prove you are competent at each level of your trade. Study can give you the technical knowledge but, in my view, what seperates study from work are the sheer volume of work and the importance of maintaining good relationships in the face of what can seem like insurmountable odds.

I have finished my AAT and am now studying ACCA and ATT in tandem. It took me eight months of doing sort-of finance roles (not ledger-related) for a couple of specialist agencies before I got this accounts payable role. And this brings me to the point I wanted to make about agencies. What seems like a straightforward relationship - they advertise, I apply, I get or don't get the job - actually requires a reasonable level of sophistication in how you maintain your relationships in order to get the best from the situation from a candidates perspective.

The most important lesson I have learned, and this is alluded to in many of the above threads, is to find an agency that actually wants to work with you and develop you, albeit on the terms that Roberts describes. The agency should also be one that industry trusts - whenever I go to a temp job I always ask which agency they like to use and why. In this way you can avoid agencies that will, for instance, use you as a calling card: which is to say, they sent you to interview for jobs for which you are not qualified just to show that they can. A waste of everyone's time.

The second lesson I have learned is that when starting out take anything finance related and do it to the best of your ability. If you really don't like the look of a job, but need to do it, be honest about how long you see yourself doing it. Prove yourself to your chosen agency and they will repay when it comes to talking you up next time there's a suitable vacancy. Don't underestimate how long it takes to build a good relationship with an agency. Same as any relationship, really.

Lastly, if you can make money for your agency, by doing a good job, at whatever level, for their clients, they will continue to try and find you work.

Working through agencies can be a slow process to get the experience and progression you want - compared to, say, a training contract at a big practice - but experience is experience and by being open and realistic with your agency, or agencies, you can take the necessary control to guide the roles you are offered and accept. I think someone has already talked about turning down interview offers that clearly aren't for you.

I recognise in all of this that sometimes you've just got to work and that the job market can be very different in different parts of the country.

Agencies are one route to market, as they say, so the common sense thing is to try a combination of direct approach, agency, job ad and networking (attending AAT branch events, for instance). However, when you're trying to study, work, spend time with your family, and all the rest, agencies take some of the grind out of looking for jobs, and a good one can be worth its weight in gold.

NB. Because I got so frustrated with not being able to apply all my learned knowledge in the roles I was offered through agencies, I have just started trading as a bookkeeping and VAT service for sole traders and small businesses.

There's no one way to do things. You have to do what's right for you. I can't say that going the temp route hasn't given me a few shredded nerves at times.

I agree, given a chance, many people would repay early faith from an employer by working hard and doing the job well. There is a risk, though, that the employee won't develop well, and employers and agencies work to minimise that risk, and to get full value for the £ from day one, by getting someone as closely matched as possible.

It sounds like you've solved your problem and are in a challenging and rewarding role.

Baggybooks wrote: »

Rob, does your agency just place Accountants or fill general financial posts too?

Hi Helen, actually we don't place people within the accountancy field at all, that's not one of our target sectors. We leave that to high street agencies such as Reed and Hays where we could never hope to compete due to their saturation. Though we have a financial arm, this is mainly for people who work for banks in finance related fields such as risk or audit and our primary market is semiconductors/electronics. Most of our positions are executive and above in the £60k - £1m per year salary ranges. Lucky sods!

I only got the job here because when I was made redundant last year, I uploaded my CV to the Reed Accountancy website where my company found me for an internal position. We buy access to all the online CV sites such as Monster, Jobsite, Reed, eFinancial etc which is where we find most of our potential candidates.