Why I stopped sending CVs to recruiters.

C

Captain_Amazing

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I find it very hard to find a job in IT mainly because of recruiters ! Best option is to apply to the employer directly. Here's just one reasons why :

Most recruiters have no knowledge about the vacancies. I have experience in maintaining a Freebsd server, however, a recruiter will look specifically for "Linux Ubuntu" because the spec says so....Like really ?

From looking at CVs, recruiters are unable to fully grasp the skills that an individual has . I have been part of the SDLC as a business analyst, developer and tester. How is one to list all their skills ?
 
Yup, I've had the same experience. Most recruiters don't know the first thing about IT.
They literally read the job spec , if your cv doesn't exactly match what's on it, they ignore you.
I've been tempted a few times to start an IT Recruiting company that hires IT people to do the recruiting.
 
I disagree. I have agencies sending candidates who don't have anything I'm looking for, simply because their job titles and industry acumen look good.... Nothing to do with skills and relevant experience. It's like they hope by sending as many candidates as possible they bound to eventually get lucky and send someone good enough.
 
Captain_Amazing said:
I find it very hard to find a job in IT mainly because of recruiters ! Best option is to apply to the employer directly.
Click to expand...

Err, a lot of companies trash those and only work through recruiters.

My friend (works for a well known financial company) told me they receive 10,000 CV's a month directly from candidates and none of those ever make it further than the trashcan/deleted items folder.


Regardless, recruiters are wolves willing to go behind each other's back and most of the time rather clueless. Main aim is to place somebody and move on. I had one setting up interviews for me for a C++ job even though at that time I've never even seen a lone of code written in it ("no it's fine they'll train you").

And then I've had awesome service and a great experience through a company like e-merge only to hear from other people that they'll never deal with them again.

It's like playing the lottery really.
 
reactor_sa said:
I disagree. I have agencies sending candidates who don't have anything I'm looking for, simply because their job titles and industry acumen look good.... Nothing to do with skills and relevant experience. It's like they hope by sending as many candidates as possible they bound to eventually get lucky and send someone good enough.
Click to expand...

You're actually agreeing with the OPs statement "recruiters have no knowledge about the vacancies".
 
I don't think this is specific to IT in any way.
Recruiters generally have no idea what they are employing for.
There are natural exceptions to the rule though.
 
They are also trolls, trawling through PNet picking up CVs and phoning people to come for interviews for this great job, but most times there is no job they just want you for their databases.
 
I wasted my time with recruiters for almost two years now.. Like everyone is saying they really have no clue as to what you are actually doing..

Applied for a job directly at a company after seeing it on Careers24 and got the job without any trouble.

Now i can finally disable those annoying Pnet Job alerts!
 
I agree with the generalisation of recruiters however I had quite a good experience last time. Chatted to the recruiter on the phone about 45min and he was very knowledgeable about the industry. Went for an interview and got the job.
 
rorz0r said:
I agree with the generalisation of recruiters however I had quite a good experience last time. Chatted to the recruiter on the phone about 45min and he was very knowledgeable about the industry. Went for an interview and got the job.
Click to expand...

As with everything you get the exceptions
 
Hamster said:
As with everything you get the exceptions
Click to expand...

The op's first post has nothing to do with me Hamster. Just keeping an eye on how some people feel. I'm new to this industry and learning, as said in my first post on mybb. Not all agencies work the same and I'm not the agency, keep that in mind. I understand your frustration but you're directing it to the wrong person.

I'm only reading through hundreds of CVs and the general admin behind it, it is really not that hard but time consuming. The screening of the refined CVs are tricky, complex and frustrating at times and not my area. That is also only a small part of the whole process.

I'm an intern and the final screening part is handled by experienced people who started the agency due to the same frustration the op had.

This is my personal opinion and not necessarily the views of my employer.

So send me a pm as to how other agencies worked with you in the past.
 
A recruiter told me that she doesn't know what C is...I'll never forget this convo:

Recruiter: "C? Don't you mean C#?"

Me: No, I mean C.

Recruiter: "What is that?"

Me: Long pause...uhm...

Anyway, it seems that recruiters only follow a tick box spec sheet.
 
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CamiKaze said:
A recruiter told me that she doesn't know what C is...I'll never forget this convo:

Recruiter: "C? Don't you mean C#?"

Me: No, I mean C.

Recruiter: "What is that?"

Me: Long pause...uhm...

Anyway, it seems that recruiters only follow a tick box spec sheet.
Click to expand...

Did she call C# as "C-hash" or "C-sharp"?
 
There is one agency in Joburg advertising non-existent jobs so that they get the CVs and then shotgun it to all companies. They have been doing this for years and have been quite successful with it. I stopped hiring via agencies as it is a complete waste of time. Best success is via LinkedIn and instead of wasting up to 25% on CTC commission for an agency it will cost about 5K to attract decent candidates.
 
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