Common tactics Employed by Cowboy Recruitment Agencies

Fishing For Contacts

If an agent rings you up asking if you used to work for Mr Jackson, who was the manager in the Acme Department, then 9 times out of ten they are fishing. What does this means? They are hoping you will say "no, I worked for the director, Mr Acme in the corporate department". You have just given the recruiter a lead to target. I have had several calls like this. The best thing to do is refer them to the HR department if you still work there, if not refer them to Google.

The Bottom Line

This applies more to contractors than full time employees but its still relevant. When an agency asks you how much money do you want, they are really asking what is the minimum that you will work for. You will never get more than that figure. This is because the are trying to make as much money as possible, do not expect them to try to get YOU the most money. If the company doing the hiring has a budget of £70,000 then they are going to try and get you in as cheap as possible because their slice of the cake gets that much bigger. Its always a tricky question but as long as you remember that they are not in it to make you money you should be OK.

Extending a Contract

If you are contracting and the Agency says you are going to remain at the company for another 6 months, this could be complete fiction and doesn't really mean that it will actually happen. Always confirm what they tell you with the company concerned, or you might find yourself with no job and not having made any arrangements to find further employment with other agencies. I have seen this happen to a few friends, one minute they are waiting for that elusive extension the next thing they are out of work and the agency dropped them like a bad smell.

Sure Signs

If an angency has placed you at a company then you would expect that there is at least some code of ethics between them and the company. If they contact you at the company in which they placed you, to offer you a more lucrative position somewhere else, this must ring alarm bells. If they have no morals in this respect, can you expect any when it comes to you? They say that there is even honour among thieves but remember that we are not dealing with thieves we are dealing with "Unscrupulous Recruitment Agencies" an altogether less honourable bunch.

Check Me Out

How many times has an agency phoned you up and said that you are perfect for a position that has just come up? A good question to ask the recruiter here is, "Which of my strengths do you think makes me suitable for this position?" You will either have a stunned silence or a quote from your CV, either of which is useless. What this means is, they have typed a few keywords into a search engine, or the so called latest and greatest skills matching tool, and found your CV (its normally not even as elaborate as this). It only takes 2 minutes of your time and some pertinent questions to find out if they really have matched you to the job or, if you are just another number.

I love email but receiving unsolicited irrelevant email does not really grab my attention. One of the most popular techniques employed by recruitment agencies is to send you an email for a job and at the bottom ask you to send it to some people you might think are suitable, (if you're not). Just think about what they are doing for a minute.

They are asking you to screen potential employees for a company that you know nothing about at this moment in time. They also have no idea if you will send it to anyone who will be relevant at all, so why do they do it? More on why later.

Harvesting

This is something a lot of people cannot really understand. I can tell you why. Marketing companies will pay a lot of money to find out all about you. For example, I have never received so many letters offering me loans since I became unemployed, this is another unscrupulous activity employed by banks but thats another story. Even banks sell this sort of information. I have heard of a few household names selling this kind of information, so what is wrong with agencies selling it. There is nothing wrong with them selling it, as long as you are aware that they are going to and you have agreed for them to do so. I have received some very personal emails about fairly personal matters since starting to look for work. I can assure you I do not have a placard outside my house proclaiming to the world in general "I want a job" (Even though I do hint hint).

No Idea What We Do

This is not really the recruiters fault but, unfortunately for us jobseekers most recruiters really have no idea what we do. How many recruiters have you spoken to in the last year who were previously developers, sys admins or lawyers. Imagine how hard it must be to match a companies job spec to a CV, particularly when you have never done the job yourself or even seen some of the acronyms. If you read the last paragraph of "Check Me Out" above, you will see a one reason they ask you to forward any job related emails to potential candidates. They get you to do the technical work for them. You are probably more qualified to decide who is suitable than they are so they get you to do it without even having seen a decent jobspec or finding out who the company is. It's subtle but it's smart, you think you are doing your mate a favour but to be honest the job might not even exist, see Harvesting

Vetting

You should always expect to vetted in some fashion. Some ask for your references. Unfortunately due to the amount of cowboys out there its not always wise to give them the details of your references. I personally won't give out my references to anybody but an employer see Fishing For Contacts. I have had arguments down the phone with recruiters saying they won't forward my details without references which may be legitimate but I am not about to jeopardise good relationships with my referees for anyone. I worked hard to earn these peoples respect and under no circumstances do I give details out so as soon as a recruiter asks me for their details I am already hanging up. Unfortunately some recruiters genuinely provide screening services which is fine but some are just fishing, its these bad eggs that spoil it for everyone.

Others ask you to do various tests which makes sense. Some don't ask you to do anything except send them a copy of your CV in word format. Surely it must be in everyones interests to ensure that the employee is suitable. If they do not ask you any questions about your CV then don't expect them to place you in an overly suitable role because they probably do not know what to ask you in the first place.

Mail Shot

I am not sure if this is prevalent here but it has been in Ireland. Agencies will mailshot a lot of companies with your CV regardless if they have your permission to do so or not. This means an employer may receive your CV several times from various Agencies. This looks a little desperate on your part. This is also another reason why you should think twice about putting your CV online because then anyone can use it any way they see fit. One of the things I would have liked to do with this site is provide a facility where non agency related companies can register and view candidate CV's which is something that other job sites do not offer because it is a much smaller market.

Who Gets the Fee

If a company decides to hire you and they have received your CV from several agencies then this can lead to arguments about who should get the fee. This can be too much trouble for a company and they may not even consider you if they have received your CV from more than one source. Be careful who you use.