US
After quite a long period of being unemployed without a proper work visa, I have finally ended up at a big four bank on a sponsorship. It’s not the most prestigious position but with further networking it could lead to something more exciting.
Before all this happened, I was doing some grunt temp work for an insurance firm and later as a contractor at my current bank. Both of these positions were provided by recruiters. I will attempt not to make this another standard “recruiter rant”, so please bear with me.
As I am an economist at heart, I will instead highlight why recruiters’ incentives are not always aligned with candidate or client needs.
For my first contract job in Australia, I soon discovered that the recruiter – who made a quick phone call to me to set up a very standard admin role – took more than 30 per cent of my wage before any money fell into my pocket. I thought this was a high margin for at best 30 minutes work, but our interests were still aligned, so I didn’t care too much.
What really annoyed me was what happened next
After just a week as a temp, I was offered sponsorship and a permanent position. I was ecstatic because this was probably my last chance to stay in Australia. With only a few months left on my visa, I badly needed the sponsorship.
But there was a problem between the recruiter and my line manager. The recruiter wanted more than 15 per cent of my annual salary as a sign-on fee before he would let me become a permanent employee of the bank where I was already working. My firm was forking out money to pay for my immigration paperwork, so I was worried that any extra recruitment costs on top of this would lead to my job offer being rescinded.
Sure enough, negotiations dragged on, relations between my manager and the recruiter deteriorated, and my visa expiration date drew ever closer. I was frustrated because the recruiter was clearly putting her interests ahead of mine.
Although everything was sorted out in the end, in my mind the whole structure of recruitment needs to be reevaluated. Recruiters are more focused on sign-on bonuses than the clients (and candidates) they claim to be serving.
When recruiters gain most from being ruthless, this is how they will work. They are, after all, human. Arguably, they are just as focused on bonuses as everyone else in the industry. The solution must be to construct a bonus structure which is more aligned to the interests of the other parties involved.
I don’t have anything against the general concept of recruiters because they can do an important job in bringing together candidates and companies. But from speaking to colleagues and friends in the banking sector, there are many people who don’t like some of the aspects of how they currently work.
As it is now, candidates need to be on top of their game to avoid any nasty surprises.
Good to hear from candidates on this site too. Sometimes you stuff features too many recruiter comments…but you have to have both to keep it interesting
Recruiters owe you no duty of care…you are NOT their client…the employer is their client…you are the candidate…understand the difference and you will have much less angst…recruiters are remunerated at a low level and make up the rest of their pay on commissions…hence they will always act in their own interest first & foremost…the time spent with any candidate to build a “relatonship” is just smoke and mirrors based on perceived value to THEM…just accept that is the way it is…the situation won’t be reformed because employers have mostly out-sourced the recruitment/screening process.
Yep, that’s right, all it took was 30 mins work to get you a new job that within a week led you to a permanent role and sponsorship. You are ungrateful , and by the looks of things a diabolical economist – at heart or in the head.
You do have a choice of course……get your own bloody job…..and visa.
How many other recruiters did you speak to? None of them made a cent out of the time they invested with you…..but the girl who placed you and indirectly got you a visa cops your ingratitude.
I hope you get fired, lose your 457 and get to do it all over again, this time without a recruiter weighing you down with their fees.
This is a very reasonable comment. Its a shame you have had a bad experience. As a recruiter myself, I do see some bad operators in the market, but believe that people like that are typically found out and don’t ultimately succeed.
As with any service provider, I would suggest to anybody who has had a negative experience with a recruiter, to not use them again. Like in any field, there are good and bad operators out there. Find one you trust and have a good relationship with. For anyone that is completely against using recruiters – you don’t have to. Go and get a job yourself!
Some points worth considering re the post here.
-the margin charged by recruiters does not come out of a candidates wage. It is a service fee charged to the client. IE, the hourly rate for a temp job, should equate roughly to the salary for an equvalent permanent role.
-the fee charged when going permanent seems standard and reasonable. The recruiter would be to blame for subsequent delays in ‘negotiations’ if this aspect was not highlighted and agreed up front. However, if it was then the blame would be with your line manager for effectively trying to renege on renegotiate previously agreed terms
Remind me – how much are you paying them as a candidate? Of course their incentives are not always aligned with your needs.
You need to be smarter about using the service that they provide, i.e. recognise that they will help you in getting that opportunity as a temp in the first place because it will be beneficial to them, but you can’t expect anything more. Since when was it their responsibility to get you sponsorship too? The rest is up to you.
Firstly congratulations on your sponsorship and your role, I know from personal experience the stress it causes trying to secure a job and sponsorship! However I have to disagree with the negative recruiter comments because, hey I’m a recruiter!
For most recruitment companies there are terms and conditions that have been signed, sealed and delivered with the manager, HR or in some cases procurement to ensure that all parties know the costs associated with using recruiters.
What people tend to forget is what it takes for recruiters to find the right people, build candidate and client databases, grow relationships and essentially fill the roles. It takes a lot of time and without sounding cheesy, time is money. My company doesn’t pay us to give our product (candidates) away for free and for us to make bonuses we have to fill roles.
We are not soulless people and most of us would have flexed as much as possible to make the situation work. However, for the client to put the recruiter in the situation of being the person in the wrong, when they knew the costs associated with the hire, personally I think is not right.
Also, the solution you have is not really viable as bonuses are created by a business being successful and making money so that employees can receive such bonuses. If we were to say to our client, “this candidate needs sponsorship so we will wave the fee” we would make no money.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to have a go I just want there to be the understanding of what we do and why we charge for our services.
Interesting feedback on the recruiter wanting his 15% for placing you in a permanent role………surely that makes sense as they should get paid by the client for doing their job?
I think you might find that the above situation is all about that individual recruiter – i would never in a million years jeopardise a sponsored role for the sake of a fee.
Please dont generalise that we are all motivated that way. Recruiters that operate in that way are short term people who dont have long term relationships in mind.
I have been placed at several jobs in the past by recruiters. Some are reasonably good, most are terrible. I have been to some where they belittle you in taking whatever job they have just for the sake of it. Others will push jobs at you when you have explicitly said you don’ t want to work in that industry any more. Most simply ignore you because you aren’t a sexy enough client. Most do not want to see you because they are too busy, quote, “working on some high-paying jobs”. They will pass you around like a soggy-sayo.
These days I tend to avoid all recruitment agencies unless I absolutely have to apply to a given role through a recruiter. Most of my applications at the moment are directly to the employer because thankfully they too think that most recruitment agencies are a bunch of scum-buckets.
Recruiters are sales people, only actual HR people who work for that given company are nice and pleasant to deal with.
For all the recruiters reading this and making comments, as seagulls flock to thrown scraps of fish and chips so do recruiters around bad news, and justifying their chosen career, you are guilty by association even if you think you are one of the nice ones (ur
Most recruiters are lazy and don’t care about the candidate. They have huge databases of suitable candidates yet still advertise positions and then complain when they receive 150+ responses.
I understand that these recruitment “professionals” need to make an earn but please remember, candidates are also potential clients!
Let’s not forget that a significant number of internal Recuritment Advisors – the one’s that you contact when applying direct – have come from the external background initially and will usually carry their inate bad practices from external to internal recruitment.
In recruitment, and for a lot of large corporates, human’s are treated like every other commodity – you buy the best you can get for the best price so the same procurment strategies apply – beat down everyone you can on cost (think coles v milk suppliers) and then flog that commodity until it cannot take it any more (think water down your milk, additives etc…) So what am i trying to say? Recruiters act like they do because they are commercially restricted by the companies they work with – dont just blame them. If your company thought you so valuable that they were willing to sponsor you why dont they think that an extra 15% fee is too much?!
Good recruiters have a handful of strong relationships with banks, otherwise they are battery hen operations, which certainly don’t have the candidate as client mentality. Avoid.
Oh, cold calling the people you want to work for shows initiative, drive and focus. Seldom will you get a frosty response and MDs often show bursts of the milk of human kindness on cross-referring if they dont have anything!!
I think the recruiter acted in the way she did because she knew that you have a lot of potential and could easily be “sold”, your company wanted u badly enough and she was right because everything worked out in the end.
You’re good, that is why she reaped whatever she could. For people like me with less experience, recruiters dont even give me an initial appointment, instead, on they pass me around their office to different people and in the end they stopped calling.