Looking for a job and getting no response

cant even type b o o b here and it is classed as "moderate your language" who owns this site then?

They will sell your details. how many times have you seen a job advert because you have been back and forward on websites all day, the advert appears at 11 in the morning (call -insert name here-)and you phone at 11, 12, 1, 2, 4 and 5 Pm, and every other day after that just to be told "on a call" "out at lunch phone back at 2...hello again they just went home" "in a meeting" or "away on holiday for 2 weeks can I take your details, send me your cv and photocopies (in colour) or scans of your passport,driving licence, birth certificate, a bank statement and oh a few of your bills as well for proof of address... the kind of people who work at these places will sell your information on to marketing agencies or info dealers.
Just picturen them sitting in a marble floored office behind a big desk with a new merc in the basement car park....wearing a pink shirt and tie...grinning away while the 19 year old office girl brings them coffee and asks if they think she should have a b**b job.....thats the kind of people they are..

Employment agencies are now laughing all the way to the bank.
Years ago, before the internet, employment agencies had to advertise their vacancies in the press, which cost them. Now, they can submit a vacancy to the Job Centre, and get the position advertised totally free, they dont even have input the data themselves.
A very well known agency contacted me about a job I had applied for, a mile from my home, offering me an interview. Things are looking up I thought. I rang the office on the morning of the interview to aquire the post code so I could enter it in to my Sat Nav
I drove the 18 miles and arrived fifteen minutes early.
Now for the good bit.
There was never any interview. I was told the vacancy had been filled the week before. But as I was here, I could take a couple of tests, typing, IT etc then have my records updated in their data base for future use.
If employment agencies can get away with this type of thing (breach of trade descriptions) then its time they became legislated.
I am sure we all now realise that many of the vacancies advertised by these agencies, simply do not exist. It is a legal way (at the moment) of obtaining your details. I call it deception.
In these times of identity theft, how can we be protected?
Everyone has the right to privacy. However, are you sure the employment agencies are not just dishing your details out to anybody. I have never signed a privicy statement, have you?

The difficulty in finding a job comes when you have spent years self employed , how do you produce a cv and how do you produce your own ref's?

This is exactly the gripe that I have with recruitment agencies and recruiters.

Recently I have applied for roles which I am qualified to do and like you get no response from the agency even to acknowledge that they have received your application. I followed up on one to check that they did receive it and actually got a reply saying due to the large volume of applications they can't respond to everyone. Surely if you send it via email they could have an automated message saying that they have received your email?

I also a few days ago applied for a role which upon following up got told it has been filled, why are they still advertising jobs which are not available? You couldn't advertise something in a shop that you don't have so why can they advertise jobs that they don't have? One agency actually told me one time that they sometimes put jobs up that are non existant to 'reel people in'

A recruiter and/or agency should realise that if they advertise a job they are going to be inundated with applications especially at the moment, they should put themselves in the position of the person who is applying for the job and think how they would feel if they just didn't get any form of acknowledgment, they should consider themselves lucky that they have a permanent job to go to each week.

The one that really irritates me is when they can't be bothered to let you know about an interview, you take the time to attend it, answer questions that are not always relevant to the job. They thank you for your time and say they aim to make a desicion by *** and you hear nothing. They could at least have the decency to let you know so that you can then ask for some feedback as to why so that you can make imporvements for any other interviews that you attend. They don't think that the interviewee is sitting there pinning their hopes on a job thinking they might get it.

No employer can honestly say that they "don't have time" to reply. Type out a one-sentence rejection letter and then mass-send it to all the rejects. As much as I hate getting a "We're sorry but your qualifications do not match what we are looking for at this time" letter, it's better then waiting for a response that never comes.

As an employer, I have to say that the main reason that I do not reply to all applicants is because I am inundated with letters, calls and e-mails as soon as an advert is published. Great you may say, that's your job. Consider this; I work for a small company and handle all aspects of Finance, Accounts, Health & Safety, Personnel and Recruitment, Policy and Strategy, Quality Assurance , Customer Service and Stock. Not having ten pairs of hands and the benefit of 60 hour days, I then have to contend with bus drivers and plumbers applying for administrative positions and sales rep jobs, clearly wasting my time and theirs. I also have to fend off the agencies from across the country who come out of the woodwork by the dozen pretending to be my long lost friend. Then there are the government agencies asking about equal opportunities and fair practice (fill out this twenty page questionnaire if you please) and finally, we have the individuals who decide to 'pop by' with their CV and proceed to tell you their life story. Out of one hundred applicants, there may be three who are suitable for interview and then two of those will fail to turn up for interview and I have to start the whole process again. It works both ways people.

Your gripe is spot on and like many people reading this we could all tell amazing stories abut the total b******t that is being currently operated by these so called agencies.

In times of economic down turn there is opportunities for others. At the moment it's the agency sharks. Just rise above it, knowing that sooner or later their time will come. I know it does not help the likes of us, but it’s a lottery out there at the moment. Your experience and skills means little, learn to play the game. Think how you can help that agency make money out of you, and get yourself to that interview (assuming there is a real job).

Remember your CV is your billboard. If you were involved in a project say you managed it, if you worked in a small group say you supervised them. At this stage it not about you, it’s about them and they need to make money. They will put any anyone forward if they think you fit. Just remember whatever you write you need to be able to carry it off. Very few companies expect you to hit the ground running, there is always a graze period whilst you settle in and familiarize yourself with their culture and procedures. It’s during this period you will find out if you have over sold yourself.

I have worked at executive levels and for global PLC companies. It is all one big lottery game, learn the rules and play the game. If you can cut the middle man out, go direct.

p.s. If there are any so called good agencies out there thinking of adding your protective comments to this gripe, just put your hand up and lets see how good you really are?

Good luck everyone.

Robbie, Its more than 2k a person... for an average 20k salary I was making 3-5k a placement.. I placed a MD of a company last year and made 15k for the company... I saw 10% of that...

Keep away from agencies people.. go straight to the companies...

Completely agree! I'm glad it's not just me who feels this way. I was made redundant over 2 and half years ago, and have ben applying for jobs ever since. I have had to make ends meet by doing jobs I don't want to do, but on average I apply for 12-15 jobs per day. The agencies are the Achilles heel of the system, using people like they see fit, and due to them being relatively 'new', there are no set guidelines. It HAS to be brought to attention that employers and recruitment agencies MUST get back to candidates within a 2 week minimum. Due to the laziness of management, agencies are BIG business - why look for an employee when the business can pay for somebody else to do that! (and when it costs circa £2000 per person, is the credit crunch really that bad?)

I feel ya there, these tossers don't reply or nothin, I've sent off over 50 applications no replies. getttin pissssed off with it.

Daz, as gandalf says not everyone can join and we don't want sympathy, just a a level playing field. I'd be quite happy to go down this route but I don't think the forces would have any use for a forty something slightly overweight IT guy would they?