This is exactly the reason I started https://instajob.biz I have had nothing but bad experiences with them (with the odd exception of course)
I am not sure what it is like in the rest of the world but in my experience, in the UK, they really don't give a damn about you: You are a number to them and they will say whatever they can to get you in the door.
I have a few friends that work in recruitment (or used to) and they paint a worse picture than that.
I do not trust them, nor do I know anyone that likes dealing with them.
I think in all the time I have been contracting (and full time employed too for that matter) I can only remember one recruiter that was any good: He was knowledgeable about my field (I was an AD/Exchange consultant at the time) and I didn't feel that he was trying to make a pay cheque off me... but I can only remember one.
All the rest are just salesmen: I get emails from them these days and the first line is now "If this isn't your kind of job (paraphrasing here) then please pass it on to someone who you think would want it!" - Great pitch guys!
I don't like them and I don't actually know a single person in the tech game that has had decent dealings with them.
So for the last couple of months, at night, weekends, on the train etc. I have been working on Instajob (https://instajob.biz) to basically skip round the recruitment agents.
Only just went online so it's early days but I think they need a shakeup!
Almost.
The difference is that they use software to match skills from CVs and resumes which isn't all that accurate.
My project asks you to do it yourself: Who knows your skills better than you?
I added my own skills and it took around 1 minute.
:)
Truth is, I just got pissed off with the current system here in the UK (I am sure it isn't dissimilar elsewhere) so I thought I would do something about it.
I was sick of explaining to recruitment agents that I am NOT a DBA (I have SQL programming experience), that THERE IS a difference between PL-SQL and NOSQL (yes, I had that conversation recently) and that when I applied for a job I spent the vast majority of my time chasing a recruitment agent that would never return my calls or had so many CVs and resumes to look through that my chances were almost nil.
It gets worse: One guy I spoke to (who has no programming experience) says he routinely gets recruitment agents contacting him for .NET programming jobs because he has a .net domain name in his CV!!!
Here is how it works:
1. Candidates enter their skills that are currently hidden in their CVs and resumes.
2. Employers enter skills that they need to hire and they get real time feedback on how many candidates have those skills. They fine tune as necessary to get the short-list down to a manageable number.
3. Employers then contact the candidates directly.
I figured that the most important thing at the first stage of job hunting is skills... as a candidate, they are a very important asset and an employer can very quickly build a short-list of potential candidates if they have access to these skills in a standardized manner.
Also, a few friends of mine have hiring responsibility in their jobs and one of them was hiring a Java dev last year and contacted 3 recruitment agencies looking for 3 CVs from each: Only 1 replied with 2 CVs, neither were suitable. He then advertised the job himself and got 1500 applicants... How is anyone supposed to shine when the employer has 1500 applicants?
I have come up with a way to let a computer short-list candidates for employers based on skills... it's simple and doesn't require a non-skilled recruitment agent to take up to a third of the candidates salary for the privilege of looking through a bunch of CVs.
Anyway, I would love to hear what you think about it.
I am not sure what it is like in the rest of the world but in my experience, in the UK, they really don't give a damn about you: You are a number to them and they will say whatever they can to get you in the door.
I have a few friends that work in recruitment (or used to) and they paint a worse picture than that.
I do not trust them, nor do I know anyone that likes dealing with them.