Agencies out of control? Or is it the employers.....

This topic was created by Corinne .

[Corinne]

Agencies out of control? Or is it the employers.....

Looking for a new job at the moment, and it's a bit of a pain with 2-300 applicants for every role in my field so I can sort of understand the agencies being selective about who they put forward. However I've noticed an alarming trend recently - agencies who say they are "required by their client" to get phone references before they will even submit a CV to their client.

Considering that each agency will submit at least 3-5 CVs for each role, and many roles are advertised by up to 4 agencies, that means 15-20 CVs submitted to the end client for a role. So there's up to 40 people being called for a reference on an ex-employee (2 references required for each) for a single job. No guarantee of even getting an interview let alone the actual job, so how many of these calls will the poor refereee get until the applicant gets a role?

I don't know about anyone else, but I don't want people I like & respect being pestered avery few days to spend 20 minutes on the phone when they've spent time writting a very nice recommendation on LinkedIn that the agency has already read before calling them.

One agency has recently crossed a line IMO when they worked out who an ex-boss was by reading between the lines, tracked her down, and called her without asking me first or even mentioning it to me - I found out by accident when she mentioned it in an email!

[Anonymous C0ward]

It's a lie

I read somewhere what they are doing is getting names and addresses to generate leads.

[Corinne]

Re: It's a lie

Oh they are definitely contacting the referees, as i'm still in contact with them and they tell me when an agency has asked them about me. I just don't want them pestered every 5 minutes!

[Neil Barnes]

A bit of both, I suspect.

I spent some time with an agency who were instructed by a number of companies on their books that unless the candidate had an oxbridge degree they were not to be put forward. Irrespective of other degrees, higher degrees, relevant experience... no oxbridge, no work.

Arses.

[Corinne]

Re: A bit of both, I suspect.

Yep arses - just how relevant is a degree in ANY subject really that relevant after 30 years of work?

[Jon Green]

Perhaps chasing windmills?

Corinne, if there's that level of contention in your field - and even allowing for Sturgeon's law ("90% of everything is crap") - that means you're up against 20-30 serious competitors for each vacancy; not that that will come as a surprise. That's a hell of a lot of hard work and emotional investment (not to mention repeated gut-shots) before you succeed. How else could you put your skills and experience to lucrative work? Are there other, related, fields where the income's similar, but you can shine above the others because of your unique background?

Just a friendly thought.

[Corinne]

Re: Perhaps chasing windmills?

Thats a reasonable thing to consider in a good economic climate, but we are in a recession with loads of people out of work. Double the contention in my field means there's also double the contention in related fields - half the people going after MY jobs are those who are looking at closely related fields to their own! If you have a choice of 20 people, of whom 10 are specialists in the relevant field & the other 10 are from a similar field, you'll only bother looking at the specialists at exactly what you want.

Yes hard work & emotional investment, sort of used to it now (sigh).

[Rebski101]

Looking to move into the IT world... Anybody got any good advice?

Hi all,

Be gentle with me dudes/dudettes i was looking for some 'real-world' advice on changing my career...

I own and run an internet business - with some 'paid' help from contractors and i am looking to evolve the site in the short term. Our contract with paid helpers ends in May this year and have thoroughlly enjoyed tinkering with the IT side of things, tho i have no solid qualifications and certifications and have'nt been involved with the web-build (the hard element).

I would like to look into an IT pathway (software testing has been suggested?) if at all possible, without any qualif/certs and minimal knowledge, while i develop the site- is it possible to self-teach what is required or can anyone suggest a good book(s)/reading source or course i can attend. Does anyone want to get involved with my project?

Questions are:

1. Can i teach myself: PHP, Apache, MySql, CodeCMS, Linux, HTML - or are there courses?

2. What pathway would you recommend i take (employment wise)?

3. Would anyone really offer to get involved in 'evolving' a concept or project if i could'nt pay them?

Thanks people for listening.

I know it's a long shot, but you only have one life!

[karterbezon]

I agree with Corrine. There are some agencies which are really working. I also have a registration with an IT job agency .They contact me when any company is having a job openings with them.

[Adrianne]

3d printing and professionals?

I'm a design student and for my dissertation I would really appreciate replies to the 3 easy questions below:

Do you you think hsee 3d printing communities as a threat to your jobs as professionals ?

Have you sought to market your services directly to home consumers, and if so was it successful ?

Doome consumers are becoming more aware of design principles through 3d printing ?

Thank you very much !

Adrianne

[jake]

@Adrianne (was: Re: 3d printing and professionals?)

"I'm a design student and for my dissertation I would really appreciate replies to the 3 easy questions below:"

OK, I'll bite.

"Do you you think hsee 3d printing communities as a threat to your jobs as professionals ?"

No. No more than Xerox copies of "Lions' Commentary" threatened me as a BSD professional.

"Have you sought to market your services directly to home consumers, and if so was it successful ?"

Market to home consumers? Nope. Bringing friends & family up to speed? Yes. Successfully ... Most of my F&F run a variation of Slackware that I originally built for my mother ... I make a living selling my services to Fortune 500s, designing network services, though, does that count?

"Doome consumers are becoming more aware of design principles through 3d printing ?"

Design principles are wetware, not hardware. It's a mantra. Learn it, live it, love it. A 3D printer isn't going to help a designer any more than a drafting table helps an architect in the design process. In actual fact, probably a good deal less ... 3D printers are used (mostly, in this context) to sell consumers a bill of goods, they are a marketing tool, they build commercials, not product.

[Anonymous Coward]

Adrianne - good luck with your survey, but...

3D printing is not a threat to anyone, certainly not IT pros who hang out here.

You might find this article interesting.

[jake]

Re: Adrianne - good luck with your survey, but...

Hey Drew ... see that "reply" button that ElReg so helpfully provides?

Just digging you in the ribs ... relax & have a homebrew :-)