Third party recruiters are mostly useless

NotAnAudiophile on 14/05/2020 - 12:39

Never got any jobs through any of them ever and I’ve been in the workforce a long time. The straw broke on the camels back when I read a post today from a third party recruiter criticising candidates for not making their applications stand out enough during this time. This is not the time to do that, you just give all recruiters a bad name and proved that you only work for commission/the employer and never cared about candidates in the first place.

Bottom line - most third party recruiters only work for their own interests and have no empathy. The odd ones do, but they are few and far between.

Education & Work

Comments

  • pyramid on 14/05/2020 - 12:41
    +13

    most third party recruiters only work for their own interests

    Everyone works for their own interest otherwise it would be charity.

    • Bonsaichop on 14/05/2020 - 13:00
      +12

      You'll find most charities work for their own (financial) interests too..

      • soundwave182 on 19/05/2020 - 08:30

        Sadly, yes.

        Look at the Salvation Army keeping the bushfire donations.

        And if they really wanted to help the homeless they could sell one of their huge properties on every corner of Surry Hills.

        Or let people live in the MANY empty houses they own.

  • CyberMurning on 14/05/2020 - 12:46
    +2

    Bottom line - most third party recruiters only work for their own interests and have no empathy. The odd ones do, but they are few and far between.

    yeah they see you as their cash cow that's all

    • resisting the urge on 14/05/2020 - 15:29
      +2

      Or increasingly, they just sell your info and don't lift a finger.

      Not to mention leaving it around on insecure systems so the world can see everything that matters, and figure out more accurately how best to target you online.

  • Halo375 on 14/05/2020 - 12:47
    +6

    So… you think that its not a good time to have a resume that looks good when HEAPS of people don’t have a job? NOW is exactly the time to work harder on your applications. Nobody is going to get a job for you - its up to you to put in some damn effort to earn a better chance.

  • floppy on 14/05/2020 - 12:57
    +2

    my dad was in the recruitment industry for 30-40 years, retired now. he mentioned that in the last few years of recruiting most of the big recruitment companies were changing their structure to give everyone sales KPI's. so even BDM's were now needing to hit certain sales targets. he thought it moved the industry heavily towards a sales orientated approach which isn't what he wanted to do.

  • NotAnAudiophile on 14/05/2020 - 12:59
    +2

    I don’t deny that having a great resume is imperative in this environment , what I’m saying is recruiters don’t have to be nasty and lack empathy when communicating this to people. It’s in the delivery, they should be saying these are the best tips to make your resume stand out, rather than criticise.

    We are all in this together and it’s not a “you vs them” conversation, which sadly I’ve seen a lot of recently.

  • dasher86 on 14/05/2020 - 13:04

    sorry they are not being empathetic.

    Empathy doesn't work for everyone.
    It's easier to be blunt and give some people a kick up the backside to get things done.
    People are different.
    If you can show initiative and responsiveness with working with them in getting the basics right it speaks loads of putting you up as a potential candidate.

    Yes they have self interests but it's up to you to use them for your purpose not the other way around.
    don't waste their time if you're not willing to put in the basics.

  • netjock on 14/05/2020 - 13:27

    The straw broke on the camels back when I read a post today from a third party recruiter criticising candidates for not making their applications stand out enough during this time.

    Don't worry those who can't keep their mouths shut, break their own bank. I've seen a post like that, then the recruiter got hammered by basically everyone.

    Recruiters are in the same league as car sales people and real estate agents. Get treated like dirt until they need information from you which they come begging.

    • NotAnAudiophile on 14/05/2020 - 14:52

      This is exactly what I mean. A recruiter might think that, but there is no need to post like that in a public forum especially in the current state of affairs. These are the kind of actions that give the industry a bad name, and as you mentioned doesn’t reflect kindly on the recruiter nor the business they represent well at all.

      • netjock on 14/05/2020 - 15:40

        The recruiter is just shifting the blame for their inability to place candidates to clients.

        It is like a mechanic at Toyota complaining about how uninspiring the cars they fix are. They signed on to looking at thousands of CVs regardless of quality.

        Usually the worst complainers are the ones who think they should be doing better but lack any ability to get there. When you are recruiting at the CEO level and pocking six figure commissions then you start complaining why you're not pocketing 7 figure commissions.

        No end to people and their complaining ways.

  • Bid Sniper on 14/05/2020 - 13:30
    +1

    In my experience job recruiters are a waste of time and money, more CV harvesting than anything.

  • Choc83 on 14/05/2020 - 13:42
    +1

    They're sycophantic towards you if you're hiring (especially if you're hiring contractors). Free coffee, lunches, dinners, xmas parties, conferences, the works.

    If you're looking for a job, you get treated like dirt.

  • 2ndeffort on 14/05/2020 - 13:56
    +1

    Recruiters get paid by selling a candidate to a client. They get paid cash money for if they find a candidate that gets hired, they get paid nothing for finding candidates that dont get hired. Most of the time recruiters themselves get fired if they dont make sales targets (or go broke if they are independent). As rewarding as it is to help a candidate out, you cant make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. If the 2 options are offering a candidate with zero chance of winning the role (therefore zero chance of you making your sales targets and getting paid) but who would be a feelgood gesture or offering a well aligned candidate with a strong change of getting hired which would get you paid and help keep your job, which one would you go for.

    Also, I've never been a recruiter but I have used loads of them to help find me people for government tenders i was trying to win (on behalf of my employer at the time). Sometimes i would give the recruiters a series of selection criteria and ask the candidates to align their skills and experience against these. I did this because sometimes not everything fits into a CV and sometimes I might not understand the subject matter well enough to appreciate a subtle feature in a CV and make the connection. Sometimes I would get a candidate i thought wasnt a good match but they went to lengths to show how their experience and qualifications were absolutely perfect, and a few times we went ahead and won. Whatever work they did upfront ended up benefiting us both, I won the contract and as a result they got a job. Sometimes though I had what i thought was a great candidate and I got a lazy/stupid response. Something along the lines of - 'Have you ever implemented an engineering quality standard' to which one candidate would run through qualifications and a case study of the time they lead the team to get ISO accreditation for an engineering team etc etc another candidate would literally just write 'yes'. When i was literally pulling an 'all-nighter' to write up my tender response, building a compelling winning team and looking for some strong case studies to highlight the strength of our team, guess which candidate I included (spoiler alert, not the guy who wrote 'yes'). Maybe I could have gone back and chased the 'yes' guy but honestly, if i'm running short of time, if I have 3 of these on the go at the same time and if Im putting together a team of 15 and I have 30+ Cvs to go through that person has already told me how interested they are in the opportunity.

    The best way to get recruiters interested in you and working to help you out is to be a strong candidate that people want to hire. Easy money for them if they can literally rebrand your CV email it somebody and pickup a commission.

    That said, any Melbourne based tertiary qualified Electrical Engineers with a communications background (radios), a government Security Clearance and 5+ years experience, I've been asked if I know anyone. Must be an Australian citizen to get the security clearance which is essential for the role. I'm not a recruiter but somebody else in my industry has asked me if I know anyone.

  • Simoneee on 14/05/2020 - 21:58
    +1

    Cough* Max Employment

  • soundwave182 on 19/05/2020 - 08:31
    -1

    I think I can see why you struggle finding a job

    :)

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