Feeling bullied by agency....

P

peggybetty

Guest
Ok just a moan, I'm feeling bullied by an agency to attend for an interview at a date & time that I just can't do and a complete unwillingness by the agency to negotiate a more suitable date & time, albeit suitable for me.

Do the agencies care ? Have things in the job market changed so much that now companies call all the shots and the agencies are unwilling to upset them ?

Last time I had a job change was a few years ago and there seemed to be much more "working together"
 
As a recruiting manager with an already busy schedule, the last thing I'd want to deal with is calls from an agency to rearrange dates/times. For first-round interviews, we would pretty much expect a candidate to take what they get. We would show more flexibility at second-round when the numbers get smaller.
 
Fair point rainyday, but I did take a half day earlier this week for first round and second round is also this week.
Just feel that 2 interviews in one week with no flexibility is a bit much.
Maybe I'm on planet zog.....

Thanks for your view, its good to hear from someone on the other side of the table.
 
Ok just a moan, I'm feeling bullied by an agency to attend for an interview at a date & time that I just can't do and a complete unwillingness by the agency to negotiate a more suitable date & time, albeit suitable for me.

Invonvenient maybe, but "bullying"? C'mon... :\
 
Actually rainyday I have a few questions

If you don't mind answering them that is.

In your experience if a candidate is inflexible due to work committments does this not show you that they are committed to their job ? (leaving for other reasons)

And also in your experience how much notice do you think a candidate should have before an interview ? 24 hours ? 48 hours ? A week ?
 
Re: Actually rainyday I have a few questions

Are there other agencies that deal with your field of expertise? Have you tried them to see if they are more flexible or more amenable to your needs than your current one?
 
Re: Actually rainyday I have a few questions

In your experience if a candidate is inflexible due to work committments does this not show you that they are committed to their job ? (leaving for other reasons)
Click to expand...
In general, yes - but if I have 3 other candidates that appear to be just as good on paper who CAN make my preferred interview slot, I'm not going to lose sleep over the one that can't.
And also in your experience how much notice do you think a candidate should have before an interview ? 24 hours ? 48 hours ? A week ?
Click to expand...
We would certainly be aiming to give a few days notice, except in very exceptional circumstances.
 
Re: Actually rainyday I have a few questions

Are there other agencies that deal with your field of expertise? Have you tried them to see if they are more flexible or more amenable to your needs than your current one?
Click to expand...
It may be a bit late for that if you want to chase this particular job.
Does the prospective employer know you are working at the moment? If they do, I would not think it unreasonable to expect them to be flexible enough to reschedule a second interview in the one week. If they are not that flexible, what would they be like to work for? What happens when you need time off for one reason or another? As for the agency, are you sure they are not the cause of the problem, not wanting to ruffle the employers feathers incase they loose "preferred supplier" status or something like that?
 
Re: Actually rainyday I have a few questions

oes the prospective employer know you are working at the moment? If they do, I would not think it unreasonable to expect them to be flexible enough to reschedule a second interview in the one week. If they are not that flexible, what would they be like to work for? What happens when you need time off for one reason or another? As for the agency, are you sure they are not the cause of the problem, not wanting to ruffle the employers feathers incase they loose "preferred supplier" status or something like that?

Good points sunnyday. I'd agree with the jist of that.

Peggybetty - I'm feeling bullied by an agency to attend for an interview at a date & time that I just can't do and a complete unwillingness by the agency to negotiate a more suitable date & time, albeit suitable for me.

I've had many an unpleasurable experience with job agencies in the past. This is largely due to the fact that I work in IT and largely due to the fact that agencies (here comes a sweeping generalisation) are full of nitwits.

Ring them. Tell them you can't make the interview at that time. Tell them you're not impressed with how they're dealing with your particular re-scheduling problem. Tell them you have work responsibilities that take precedence over taking this time off. Then hang up.

Take some time and look around for other agencies. Depending on what you work in there's plenty of them out there.

In my limited experience with agencies they couldn't give a toss about you.
 
Re: Actually rainyday I have a few questions

I've always deliberately avoided agencies, and bar one c. six month hiatus after a redundancy in 2002, have worked as a software engineer uninterrupted for the past 16-17 years or so.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top