It’s a sad fact of life but most people with the word “Agent” in their job title aren’t too popular with the rest of us (with the possible exception of Travel Agents). Lets’ see…… there are Estate Agents, Publicity Agents, Insurance Agents and, my personal favourite, Recruitment Agents.

Probably the most frequently asked question by people who haven’t dealt with recruitment agencies before is “Which agency do you normally deal with?”. People mistakenly believe that there is a degree of loyalty between the prospective candidate and an agency.

Let’s look at the reality of this ‘relationship’ ……..

The agency holds most of the cards - 

• They know how much the employer will pay but they won’t tell you so that they can maximise their cut.
• They’ll advertise non-existent jobs on job boards to get hold of your CV.
• If you’re not available for work they’ll quiz you for names of your current employer or colleagues.
• They’ll straight off ask how much money you earn as a salary or a contract rate and how much you would be prepared to accept.
• They might ask you what other positions you have applied for so that they can work out who is hiring and send some other candidates’ CVs to go up against you!
• They’ll expect you to find your own contract renewals within the company you are currently working for.
• Once you’ve finished a contract with a company don’t expect a silver service from the agency. You’re on your own!

How do you play YOUR hand? 

• Realise that this isn’t a relationship at all. At best it’s very one-sided and NOT in your favour. 
• Understand that for some large corporates there are different tiers of agency. Tier1 will likely be a single big agency with several smaller Tier2 agencies feeding into it. This means that if you go through a Tier2 agency they’ll take a cut and so will the Tier1 agency with you ending up with a lower rate. 
• Be smart. The same job is likely to be advertised by more than one agency. Get to know who the good ones are and stick with them. 
• Always ask “How much is the company offering?” rather than telling the agency how much you will accept. 
• If you’re not available for work when you get a call from an agent, try and get some details from them for a change. Tell them that the rate that is on offer is very low. A little positive marketing can’t hurt and maybe the next person they call will get a better rate.

The best advice though is to get to know as many like minded people who have the same job skills as you. Make as many contacts as you can and build up a picture of which companies are hiring and what their rates and terms are likely to be.

Several years ago, recruitment was becoming increasingly expensive and time consuming for employers. People with specialised skills were difficult to find, and even when you did find the right people they were always busy.

Job agencies were constantly chasing people for up to date CVs, asking when they were available for work, and if they didn’t mind working long distances away. If all else failed, agencies simply asked if they knew anyone else with similar skills who might be available.

Internet job boards had become the norm in the mid to late nineties. Clearly job boards had some advantages then , but in a lot of ways the job board model is outdated, restrictive and expensive. Today we still see multiple adverts for the same job, non-existent jobs advertised to phish for peoples CVs and perhaps most peculiar of all, the majority of job boards ask prospective candidates to send their CV to them for free and subsequently sell the CV on to a limited set of employers for hundreds of dollars.

Many smaller firms simply couldn’t afford to advertise job vacancies in this way (or pay for peoples CVs) and so a great deal of jobs were “discovered” by word of mouth.

Today, people are changing jobs much more frequently than before and the whole recruitment business has become more fluid.

Changing an Industry

What if there was a way to open up the recruitment business and make it easier for people to advertise their skills to a much wider audience than has been possible before? What if people could have more control over what they say about themselves; their CV, their availability, their references.