Elzo Valugi » job http://blog.valugi.ro $professional_web_surfing tail -f /dev/things/that/happen > blog Sat, 03 Dec 2011 02:05:58 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 jobhunt agencies? http://blog.valugi.ro/2008/01/25/jobhunt-agencies/ http://blog.valugi.ro/2008/01/25/jobhunt-agencies/#comments Fri, 25 Jan 2008 17:59:46 +0000 elzo valugi http://blog.valugi.ro/?p=165 Last month I did change my job. This meant from my part some surveillance of jobs sites here in Barcelona. Let me share my findings.

  • 95 % of these job postings were from consulting agencies
  • all of them were reposted daily – this means that the total amount of jobs that I site posts is not relevant by any means

This is the workflow of a consulting agency:

  • call everybody that applied
  • have interviews with everybody, nobody cares about selection
  • the interviu part
  • they explain to you how they are the biggest and the most serious agency in town / country / continent / world / universe
  • how you will be working for them dispatched to another company and they will get a big fat check for your work
  • how they will definately get a job for you for this client or another one
  • that you will pass from client to client and in the meanwhile you’ll be securely employed with them
  • that you’ll have to make a test (borrowed from internet), but the level of technical discussion is 0
  • that you’ll have to resend your cv in word format – although they already have it
  • and you’ll have to replay your cv, as they didn’t have the courtesy to read it
  • that you’ll certenly be called no matter what

My conclusions are:

  • you never get called, they just like to make interviews and put your data in some database, maybe they are in the statistics business and don’t even realise it.
  • you’ll never get any kind of feedback, althought they are a human resource company, the concept of feedback is alien to them
  • these agencies are just parasites
  • 99 % of them don’t have exclusivity for the jobs they are posting, I’ve seen the same job posted by various agencies and by the client itself, therefore is better to go directly to the source
  • they have ZERO technical knowledge, this will make all your talking useless. You are just an asset for them.
  • they like wasting time, in fact is part of their negotiacion strategy
  • they want to keep the salaries in a low level, in order to be able to add their fees
  • they have no respect for you as a professional, you are not their client
  • the name of consulting is misguiding, actually they are intermediaries
  • they have nothing to do with head-hunting agencies

    • My advice:

    Avoid them at any cost.

    PS1: if I would charge my regular freelancer for the interview hours lost with agencies I just could live from that
    PS2: talking only with regular companies got me a job in two days.

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