Subject: Job Seekers Beware!
When seeking employment, I must say that I find employment agencies a waste of time - they get so many people submitting CVs - it is impossible for them to find work for everybody, let alone read all CVs that are submitted. In my experience, they just seem to be cv collectors! At the same time going to many different agencies, do charities really know what they are paying for? Some profess to test applicants, but I know of one that did not, in my case. Another one only tested on the most basic skills, while the third on the most inappropriate skills for the job in question. I just cannot understand why so many charities use agencies, as I feel they also rip off the charity as well as the candidate. Many recruitment consultants are often inexperienced people who also have no knowledge of older people's skills and will not consider people out of their age group. (They may have come from the private sector, where equal opps are not always practiced.) This is not a healthy situation for the unemployed, for diversity in the workplace or for those with a great deal of experience and skills that the charity sector may need.
I have also found that with the larger charities professing to offer equal opps, I know from my own experience and from others that jobs are often "promised" for internal candidates. Therefore, a charity or a local government department, for that matter, can waste money advertising for staff, waste the time of the applicants who fill out the forms and attend tests and interviews, all for nothing, as an internal candidate or even a temporary working in the post, gets the job on offer.
Let’s have some honesty and transparency out there!
This comment was last edited on Feb 12, 2010
At the Women's Resource Centre we don't tend to use recruitment agencies, except for temporary posts (such as reception cover or policy posts), where we have tended to use Prospect-Us (http://www.prospect-us.co.uk/). We have almost always been more than happy with the people they have provided - not just talented people but also people with a real interest in women's issues. And I know from my own experience that they are quite picky when taking people on! We don't use agencies for permanent staff as they are just too expensive, and we prefer to do the recruitment ourselves.
There are a couple of specialist agencies out there too, which I haven't used, but might be of interest to people, such as Women Like Us (http://www.womenlikeus.org.uk) which specialise in bringing women back into the workplace after career breaks, and in finding flexible working opportunities.
This comment was last edited on Feb 12, 2010
In the internet age, I agree that agencies have become CV collectors. The old adage that it is easier to find a job when you have a job than when you are out of a job rings very true today. The only way I found a position was as a volunteer get to know the organisation and if one has some skills than the organisations are happy to take you on board. I feel sorry for school leavers and graduates who have a very very difficult time at the moment
This comment was last edited on Feb 12, 2010
We must be very careful in applying for a job because human trafficking is widespread not only in the real world but also in the internet. There are agencies who are promising to give you an office job but eventually you'll and up as a waitress. This agencies are just using jobless people's cash loan in order to earn which is totally wrong.
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