Former recruitment agent spills details on what really goes on in the industry

[g26130]

Here's something scary:

http://www.news.com.au/business/worklife/former-recruitment-agent-spills-details-on-what-really-goes-on-in-the-industry/story-e6frfm9r-1226759720120

"Often when it's quiet and you don't have much going, you'll put a fake job online to get candidates in," the former recruiter said.

[McCabes]

I think the only really useful information in there was this:

"I always say don't go to recruiters, go direct to the company. They've got an internal recruitment team and they don't care about making budget, they care about filling the role. I always tell people to stuff recruiters unless they can prove to you they've got this ongoing relationship with company."

I do hope this is just one guy who was a bit dodgy anyway... It would be very sad if this is how the industry there really works.

[HadEnoughofJuju]

Emphasis on former recruiter. He would not have lasted long in the wasting the business owners time with fake interviews. I certainly would not pay someone to chase fake candidates.

[Bams]

I just love that fact that he is a former recruiter.

In SA he would have received an increase and promotion...

[HansaPlease]

It's absolutely how 80% of the recruitment industry works, at least from my experience in the UK and Aus.

There are a handful of decent agencies and recruiters who have their regular clients and do generally operate fairly ethically, but all the big names, Michael Page, Hays, etc all use various tactics exactly as the article says. It's a spineless, money hungry industry and the staff turnover in recruitment agencies is huge.

It was pretty bad when I left London in that 90% of jobs you saw online were fake jobs where agents were just fishing for candidates for their database. When I got to Aus in 2006, the industry still seemed fairly "pure" with fairly honest agents advertising mostly real roles on Seek/my career. Now I reckon 50% of roles advertised are fake. Maybe more.

Think about it, how often do forum members say that they have applied for roles on seek, etc and never heard back?

That's my rant for today my percentages may be hit and miss but my sentiment remains, it's a dodgy industry where 90% of recruitment consultants give the 10% of good ones a bad name...

Like I said, not all of them, but most.

[Brad76]

Emphasis on former recruiter. He would not have lasted long in the wasting the business owners time with fake interviews. I certainly would not pay someone to chase fake candidates.

It seems they're not wasting their employer's time. They're using "candidates" as a channel to mine information about their current employers, unfortunately at the "candidates" expense which is highly unethical!

[Guest May]

I agree with this, contracted for last 10 years and I have seen so many job specs here look generic. The job boards also re-advertise they just roll the ads/ and in SA if they saw a candidate was weak for the position they would send more ppl in so that the candidate came out looking like the best choice.

I recently got a 5 week contract with a recruiter and I cant believe how much information he got wrong about the job situation. And then he tried to get me to drop the contract for a 2 year because obviously he would make more commission. Thank you this has confirmed a lot.

[Alida]

Well, well, well. This is SO good to know, thanks for this thread. Hubby's been on Seek.com.au for ages now, NEVER had a comeback. So much more motivation to do the hunt ourselves. I actually like it. No wasting of precious time.