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Articles on Jobseekers Advice If you would like to submit an article to Jobseekers Advice, then please feel free to contact us. We are always looking for a wide range of articles dealing with career advice, CV advice, interview advice, working abroad, employment issues, education and training and other recruitment or careers related topics. The articles can be the result of professional experience or personal insight - we are looking to offer all points of view.
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TALES FROM THE DARK 'TEMPING' SIDE by Lucy Austin If books had feelings they'd complain to their publisher about why they were being sold in bulk and marketed to supermarkets. If Marks and Sparks trousers had a say, they would possibly not choose to be purchased by the short woman with the pear-shaped bum. So how is it that recruitment agencies get it so wrong when they actually market living and breathing products that can voice their opinion?
Once or twice in life, you might find yourself job hunting and something of a reluctant expert in the whole difficult process from start - to ongoing - with no finish in sight. There are so many job hunting tools that we're exposed to and it's time consuming determining which methods are valid and which aren't. Thereby the only valid way we can judge what works is to judge the journey as opposed to the end destination. Translated, this means that no matter how you eventually land yourself the job, you must remember how difficult the whole process leading up to it was. And with this in mind, none of the hours spent on search engines, sending off speculative letters and filling out application forms come anywhere close to damaging the human spirit, as much as the encounter with the recruitment agency.
In a grand facade reminiscent of The Emperor's New Clothes, no job hunter ever says anything about their experiences at the hands of recruitment agencies unless over a bottle of wine or two, someone volunteers their story. However, it only takes one person to mention the unmentionable to trigger similar stories from all corners of business. They're told with humour but also with a relief born of knowing that they weren't alone. While the stories differ in detail and interest, they all bear common themes. However, these conversations are soon forgotten as the end outcome was in the form of a job, so what does it matter?
But what about the person who's doing sporadic temporary work in between permanent job hunting and can't move on? Such dealings with recruitment agencies aren't merely a one off, they're an ongoing way of life. These temps daren't not dwell on how much it wears them down, for fear of opening up irritation floodgates of unknown proportions. So there is little respite from recruitment agencies on every level of their search and this goes on for indefinite periods.
The fact that many recruitment consultants display the same behavioural traits, surely denotes that it is the overall ethics of the industry - and not necessarily them - that are to blame. The sort of work they do and the commission pressures they face, don't support them to be anything other than ruthless and insincere. There are the exceptions however as any experienced temp will tell you. Now and again, you'll find yourself at the receiving end of a stony faced consultant, who is blatantly in the industry to exercise her arrogant personality. Some people get a real kick out of exerting power over the vulnerable job hunter in the same way as a crooked doctor decides over life or death. In time, you soon become wise to whether they're a victim of the industry or just plain old unpleasant.
Common traits of recruitment consultant behaviour are numerous and for the ongoing job hunter, observed from an impartial as opposed to the disillusioned perspective. You have to remember that like a goldfish, the job hunter has to have a selective memory, so they can generate more stamina through erasing the disillusionment from the last experience. It's a process reminiscent to child birth - painful at the time but you have to forget if you want to do it again. From that perspective you really do become wise to the stereotypical behaviour and therefore confidently and rightfully tar each consultant with the same brush.
Firstly there's the hard sell which promises no return. Even with temporary jobs, nowadays there's no guarantee that you'll get further than sending through your CV. However, that doesn't stop the consultants giving you a job spec, talking about how long your journey takes and even making you promise you're committed to the assignment. They make you feel as though you have it in the bag and that the finer details are just formalities- hell you even go shopping to celebrate. Having failed to hear anything from them, you then call for them to say, "I'm glad I've got you on the phone." They were going to call you, you didn't get it. With that you have to dust off your fragile self esteem and wait for the same process to start all over again.
Consultants impart only selective information. They'll say anything to get you an interview. Elaborate job specs are coupled with lots of talk and use of lively adjectives and unnecessary details such such as "they've got a snack machine by the ladies.” Not to mention continually throwing clichés such as 'real team player' and 'bags of enthusiasm', which clearly denote that the job isn't quite as glamorous as they're building it up to be. Either that or they tap into your ideal job and and send you off to an interview with a misguided impression that the role is tailor-made for you. When you come out having found out that it wasn't at all what you thought it was, they'll ring with feedback and then blame you for the impression you gave. “ So and so thought you were a little bit too orientated towards that side of the role." Or having told you to be yourself, they'll give you information that is quite obviously about your personality, that you can't do anything with. You were a little too enthusiastic, you were too quiet, you were too, well just too alive!
The average consultant is obsessed about the small stuff. This is either so that they can assert their own importance or it's so they can justify the time you have spared to register with them. The average job hunting day will only ever consist of three agency interviews as you have to allow at least three hours each time, to fill out your CV all over again on their own registration form, to take a multitude of word processing tests (even though your job history demonstrates your expertise) and then to type self consciously on a strange keyboard. They then launch into a load of irrelevant questions for the next half an hour. Why did you choose English GCSE and do you have a copy of your passport? What is your ideal job? What are your strengths? Why did you leave your permanent job? The entire registration experience seems to be tailor-made to justify their own working day. Whilst it keeps their timetable busy, at your end, these are precious hours of your life you can't get back.
Ironically they're reluctant to talk about the big stuff such as money. The world of temping is not the most soulful vocation with the only perk being that it keeps money coming in. So why they delay the inevitable question I just can't fathom. It's as though you're in it for a career choice which is a contradiction in terms if you're actually wanting temping work. Yet trying to find out about the practical and financial logistics is like extracting a painful tooth. They're always about to hang up before you pluck up the courage to ask apologetically, "Erm, how much is the hourly rate?"
Lastly, should the going get tough, quite frankly they and their commission must move on to pastures new. It's not just the failing to inform that you didn't get the job, it's the trivialising the unpleasant experience, so that they don't close their door on further business opportunities for their agency. "XXX what do you mean he talked about your breasts and that you didn't look the type to be having children. That is terrible! I must wait for my line manager to come in. I'll give you a call back." Three months later the same person finally called back. "Look I know that other place wasn't right for you but we've another role in mind." Understatements of the century are made so that their work cycle continues.
Which then leads me to wonder why the recruitment cycle is so detrimental to the consultant and job seeker alike? And why does no-one say anything? My theory is that they simply have people over a barrel. They take advantage of the fact that your need for a job is far greater than your principles and so they simply have no incentive to improve their manner. The very nature of job hunting is so closely linked to the human spirit that it is a natural instinct to want to find security. Thus, no matter how bad your experience was last time round, you'll still have to be willing to go through it all over again towards that slim window of opportunity. If you object then they just take you off their books, it's as simple as that.
However, it isn't all doom and gloom. There are many seasoned job hunters like myself, who might have no control over our career destiny but can still exercise the right to open our mouths to offer some advice. This is as close to the truth as you're ever going to get:
Good luck. Just don't take it personally. Ever.
An original article publish on www.jobseekersadvice.com with permission of the author. No republishing of this article is permitted without the consent of the original author:
Name: Lucy Austin Position: Freelance copywriter (and temp expert to boot!) Website: www.freelance-la.co.uk
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