RECRUITMENT AGENCIES: MYTHS vs. REALITY (Part1)

Here’s a folktale for you, kids:
… There are rumours of a tribe of barbarians and loafers renowned for their devious minds, insatiable appetites and seductive speeches. Once you get into their lair, you stay there for good. They will promise you mountains of gold, collect the extortions and call it a day. Steer clear of this tribe and don’t you ever pronounce their name even in whisper. Once those terrible RECRUITERS hear you, they will come for your soul… Boo.

It sounds funny, but these horror stories about recruitment agencies roam the world causing confusion in lucid minds.

In fact, these terrible recruiters are not evil at all. They are completely harmless, sometimes vulnerable, and appear to be very useful.

HOW CAN A CANDIDATE BENEFIT FROM A RECRUITMENT AGENCY?

For example, you are a moderately talented, but a promising production engineer. Or a temporarily loafing IT genius. And you are looking for an opportunity to apply yourself. Why on earth should you get into a vague relationship with recruiters?

I’ll tell you why. In order to get a good position in a good company. Because many overseas business giants hire employees exclusively through agencies.

What else?

• There’s a good chance that you will be offered a decent job. Agencies work with companies that take hiring processes seriously and are willing to pay for real talents. Such companies are usually looking for economists and IT-specialists.
• You can be offered several vacancies from different companies at once. This substantially increases your chances of being hired, doesn’t it?
• Before you go to the interview, a recruiter will make sure that the vacancy meets your expectations and goals, and also will determine if your talents meet the requirements of the position. Same as a good matchmaker, an agency is responsible for ensuring that a candidate and an employer meet the expectations of each other.
• Security. In case of successful employment, the employer has no right to grant hiring conditions worse than those stipulated in the application for a specialist. And if declared perks included dorblu and a spacecraft, then you should expect nothing less than that.
• Recruiters are always aware of the employer’s preferences. If necessary, they will tinker with your resume (I mean tinker, not make something up) and adapt it to the requirements of the position. At the same time, they can also add some useful facts, which, by the way, you didn’t even know were your advantages. Consequently, chances that you and your employer will be happy together significantly increase.
• Also, after your interview recruiters can provide you with feedback from the company so you can learn about your mistakes and strengths.

Anyway, if you decide to get a job through a recruiting agency, don’t worry, because you will get a number of advantages.

Myth #1 Working with agencies is futile. Or “I’ve been there, so what?”

Let’s be honest: no one can guarantee that you will get a job immediately once you’ve contacted a recruitment agency. However, you shouldn’t rule out this option when looking for a job.

Sometimes there might be a number of let-downs before you get a job through a recruitment agency.

Why it didn’t work out:

• There are more candidates than jobs on the market. Or there are candidates that exhibit more experience and knowledge.
• Lack of demand for certain types of occupations (for example, today breeders of mountain goats may be in demand, while stargazers are not).
• Competition. Sometimes it is not enough just to meet the requirements of a vacancy. A candidate must have a professional charisma that will distinguish him from the majority.

If you didn’t get a job right away, your CV goes straight to the database. But you shouldn’t give up. Found a tempting vacancy? Contact the agency and demand an interview.

Sometimes headhunting is stalled due to various reasons: for example, the management suddenly decided to reconsider the vacancy or temporarily suspend the project. And sometimes obstacles arise at the stage of procedure agreement with the global office.

It may also happen that they will revisit your candidacy in a couple of months. In any case, the recruiter is always interested in matching a perfect candidate with a perfect employer.

Myth #2 You always have to pay for recruitment agency’s services

When the recruiting business was very young and as green as grass, the agencies did register applicants for a fee. A little later, the procedure has changed and agencies began charging the service fee after the applicant was hired.

Today, the recruiting business has evolved into recruitment agencies.

According to professional ethics, no recruitment agency accepts payments from an applicant for job hunting (their income comes from employers’ payments). If you are requested to pay, then there is reason to suspect that those are not recruiters, but that very same barbaric tribe from horror folktales.

Myth #3 Agencies delay filling positions

As an applicant, I would be confused by the fact that some vacancies pop up in multiple sources for over six months. Why does no one hurry to fill them? Is it because those recruiters don’t want to move their tushies?

In fact, this may not be the same vacancy, but several. For example, the employer is waiting for the start of the project and doesn’t need more than one specialist. And when a project starts, a company will need a greater number of experts with the same experience.

It appears that an ad is on the website for a reason, and not because of some recruiter’s lazy glutes.

Other possible reasons: in anticipation of a new project the employer hasted to publish an ad. Once they realised that they got overexcited, they withdrew this ad. And when the need came, they resumed the search.

The thing is that the ad is saved in the archive with the date of publication. Once it’s been renewed, the date remains the same. And of course, in this situation, this job ad might seem ancient.

Don’t bother with dates. If the ad is there, then someone needs it to be there. And it’s always better to verify details with the person who posted it.

Myth #4 Agencies post fake ads to stuff the database.

It depends on the nature of the process.

A CV is an extremely perishable product and remains relevant for a year tops. Therefore, stuffing the database makes sense in short term, when there is a demand (read vacancy) for specialists with certain qualities.

Recruiters that value their time wouldn’t fill a base just for a base. All vacancies eventually become irrelevant, candidates move down / up the career ladder, requirements are mounting, and if you want to keep up with all the processes a base alone is not enough.

Creating fake ads doesn’t make any sense and is financially unsustainable. Unless you bump into a crook that posts forged ads for gullible developers.

Anyway, that is a different story.

There are more obvious things that we would like to put wise. But, perhaps, we will save the intrigue for the next series. In a new portion of myths, we will ponder over employer-recruitment agency relationship.

Dear readers, thank you for reading down to this line.

Until next time:)