US
Recruiters are having a hard time. Although there are jobs out there, they are generally exceeded by candidates. And the candidates don’t seem to match the jobs.
“We still have a flow of roles across the business, but clients have very high expectations and the CVs we’re getting don’t match them,” complains a director at one front office recruitment firm. “People sending in their CVs aren’t the top performers.”
As such, both recruiters and headhunters complain of spending more and more time providing careers advice to unplaceable candidates and less and less time placing people in roles and earning a fee.
“Careers advice has always been part of the job, but there seem to be a lot more people wanting your time nowadays,” says a consultant at a search firm. “I spend a lot of my days advising people how to go about marketing themselves in this environment as well as showing people that they’re employable outside the City.”
There can be advantages to this, but they won’t pay the mortgage next month.
“You always hope that the candidates you advise will remember you and use your services as a client when they find a new role,” says the consultant. “There will be payback in the future. On the other hand, it’s also good to be altruistic and to try and help someone anyway.”
However, other recruiters insist on the inadvisability of offering too much in the way of gratuitous advice.
“At the end of the day, we need to get paid and to spend our time on the people who can bring in fees,” says one. “People will value the advice you give if it leads directly to a new role,” says another. “Away from that, I get the feeling that people think careers advice is just a resource recruiters offer for free.”
Career advice from recruiters? Is this a joke? Efin reaches a new low every day.
1. Recruiters too fast and don’t use their brains.
2. There are insufficient jobs to justify the use of so many recruiting firms.
3. Mostly they don’t really understand your CV or the company they are recruiting you for.
4. They care about commission only.
So in summary, all they do is keep the wheels turning, and otherwise add little value.
Top performers don’t send people like you their CVs.
They make one phone call.
pffffrrr, ha ha ha ha ha ha
Clearly you have not come across the good recruitment firms.
I spoke to a spikey haired 22 year old at MM a few days ago. He knew nothing about the 5 roles advertised and didn’t understand my background.Worse still, I said I’d be open to new ideas-silence.No idea whatsoever.
Recruiters are bottom feeders
As someone who spent 20 years in Banking followed by 7 years in Recruitment, I can say without a doubt that providing career advice is an important part of the job, and the candidates we helped in that way in 2008/2009 did appreciate the advice and, in many cases, act on it. Moreover, we have seen a ‘return on time invested’ over 2010/2011 in terms of working with many of these candidates as clients. For those qualified and able to provide advice (not all recruiters, I agreee), and still in any doubt whether they should, I would absolutely encourage you to do so. In the present climate, a crystal ball would also be of use, however.
If you really want to find gainful employment, which can only be the logical reasoning behind you “Top performers” trolling a site like this, you would travel far & fare worse than to actually do some proper research into the top headhunting companies out there! No immodesty, ignorance or spiky haired prepubescent individuals, just well prepared consultants giving everything! The only possible downside is that they might (rightly in my own humble opinion) decide that you are not as good as you think you are!!! Anyway, I send you this suggestion with the best of intentions. Best regards, a less than sympathetic headhunter
I have to say, I agree with the above post by the aptly named ‘no apology necessary’. The trick is to go with a recruitment firm that is overly stringent about their own hiring policy (and doesn’t operate a revolving door policy) – why not take the time to do a bit of research on the person that is reseraching on your behalf? Try looking up their academic and professional credentials on LinkedIn before approaching them with overly ambitious demands on their abilities (which will vary greatly), and an overinflated notion of your own relative intelligence.
I have to say, I agree with the above post by the aptly named ‘no apology necessary’. The trick is to go with a recruitment firm that is overly stringent about their own hiring policy (and doesn’t operate a revolving door policy) – why not take the time to do a bit of research on the person that is researching on your behalf? Try looking up their academic and professional credentials on LinkedIn before approaching them with overly ambitious demands on their abilities (which will vary greatly), and an overinflated notion of your own relative intelligence.
Front Office Fred; I suppose you could call 20 yrs as a cashier at NatWest “banking”
Look, most recruiters are perfectly able people who have worked in the industry but chose a different path. They’re fine and they work reasonably hard or they get pushed out. So coming all over the big cheese with them is simply silly and rude. And it certainly won’t help you get a job. You learn nothing if you spend the whole time in transmit mode.
Oh Lord, here we go….Rec bashing time….Look – Good bankers, bad bankers, Good Recs, Bad Recs. Go sit around a dinner table with a bunch of pub sec workers and see how they respond to you being a charming Banker. If you feel villified for no reason, welcome to our world. It’s funny how the so called smart, great job, elite bankers on here hate all recruiters. Yet they’re not smart to seperate individuals in the Industry and also research/ screen consultants. You’ve obviously been tarnished by a bad experience. If you’re not smart enough to screen a consultant from a cold call, get suckered into a meeting with a spikey haired grad and then let them represent your career plans only to be let down, it’s not our fault. Who’s the fool?!?!
You recruiter monkeys do like to self-justify. You’re constantly raising to the bait and defending yourself, which only goes to show you have very little self assurance in your professional standing in the first place. I’m sure you all work hard and have professional integrity and so forth, but let’s face it, your job hardly requires much in the way of an intellectual workout or meaningful insight into the financial landscape. And now, why would a banker take advice from someone who hasn’t used their brain in years, beyond deciding what they want for breakfast? I understand you losely work on the periphery of the banking industry, but what meaningful advice can anyone expect from your profession, or from the guy that waters the plants, the security team or Maureen who works in the canteen? Just stop justifying yourselves and get back to what you do best – answering phones, taking scarppy notes and processing CVs.
Completely agree that prospective candidates should treat those recruiters who are either ethical or just generous enough to give advice, with respect. It may not be what you want to hear but at the end of the day, a good recruiter will be honest with you at all times. If they feel you are right for a role, they will put you forward, if not they won’t. What you need to realise is that recruiters reputations are won or lost on the strength of the applicants they put forward. They are not going to endanger that reputation by representing someone who doesn’t have the experience or skills required. Try applying directly. Or just realise that it takes time, effort, multiple career moves and many years to progress to a point that matches your initial ambition.
@ I do like recruiters
With spelling and grammar such as “I understand you losely work ” and “taking scarppy notes” clearly you are entitled claim that you are higher up the intelligence chain than recruiters. Right. Have you been drinking?
I’ve heard more intelligible sounds from a pig at a trough.
Lets be honest here, there are good recruiters and there are awful ones. Without a doubt, those who know what their talking about will always be remembered where as those who don’t and do nothing but try to shaft you will not. Actually those who try to shaft will be remembered but for their lunacy behaviour. But it is perhaps unfair to generalise as a whole as there are some good ones. They are the ones who give you good advice, do not put pressure on to you to take a role you clearly don’t like, ones who do not send other cv for a role that you told them about, ones who believe in you and will make you feel good and not rubbish because a previous position didn’t work out. David Camici is one of them.
Sorry, YourBoss, I typed a bit quickly and carelessly. Still, gratifying to see that YourBoss is not immune from the odd clumsy bit of typing: “you are entitled claim”.
@ I do like / used to like recruiters
Well done – left you a chance to demonstrate your attention to detail skills and you have succeeded! You will therefore get to keep your job, for now.
Now back to work, chop chop, theres a good lad.
Recruiters are not bankers. Recruiters are salespeople. We shouldn’t have to ‘talk you into a job’ if you don’t know if your right for it or not then you shouldn’t be applying. Recruiters are not your peers to bounce ideas off surrounding the latest compliance regulations. That’s not our job that’s a chat you need to have with Fred who works next you. However ask Fred how any recruiting manages he spoke to last week from your top 5 competitors. Ask him how big all their teams are and what plans they have to grow or change and what spaces they will have to hire in their team. Ask Fred to email you the complete benefit package of your competitors so you can see how better they are paying. Ask Fred to speak with a CEO directly about you and let him know you are on the market without getting clogged up in HR. Ask Fred to personally take your CV and talk you up to every hiring manager in your industry and tell them why you are worth the extra 8k you’re asking for Our skills are different to you. We are there to create you opportunity. I have no idea why that makes some candidates so angry but that’s your cross to bear.
Why all the anger@ i’ve been thinking about becoming a recruitment consultant- how should i go about this?
im slightly hesitant because id never want to do what ‘horrid’ recruiters have done to me. Sorry, but there are some who are rubbish and some who are good. The reason why we candidates get angry with your lot is because of the bad behaviour- such as never calling you and when they do, it’s just to find out where else your cv has been sent to so that they can do the same, etc. I have plenty of other horror stories to tell, but id like a chance so that im known as a good recruiter. Some one who can see the potential in others, some one who they can confide in and off course make money from positioning them. See- win win situation id say!
YourBoss@ you seem so masterful….