Why are agencies advertising jobs that do not exist?

The whole agency thing has been going on for many many years. It is what it is. Use them, and don't lose sleep over it.
 
I used the Fas website which has Jobs that do exist. In a time where a person is doing everything possible to get a job , they dont need their time wasted by the added frustration of employment agency messing them around. I have never found a job that was advertised on their websites that actual existed when i went to apply. I really think is absolute disgrace. I have nothing against employment agency making a living but do it in a honest manner where a Job actual exist's.
 
I got a new job nearly a year ago. Approx 7/8 months later, I found out that my job was still being advertised by some recruitment companies. I rang them up and asked them was the position still open. They all told me "absolutely"! I then told them that I had taken up this position months ago and what the hell they were playing at. They told me that in keeping the job "live" on the website, they would recieve other applicants details that they could use if a similar position arose. Criminal!
 
As bad as they are for keeping jobs live and gathering CV's when there is no opportunities all my roles have come from agencies.

Lets look at the positive with them being so greedy and their payments are a percentage of the salary gained they do try and get you the maximum available. My last role I would say they bumped up my salary on offer by 10k per annum without me going through the stress of negotiating a salary.

I think you need to put into perspective your net worth to them. If you are looking for a 20k role you are only worth 2k or so to them. Now if you are looking for a 100k plus role then dollar signs light up and they will do their best to place you. How much effort they put in for you is based on a sliding scale of your value.
 
I would think that they are advertising jobs that don't exist because there are no/very few jobs out there!

Another industry that is likely to suffer because of the downturn. Friend works for one of the well known agenices and they are in trouble.
 
hi!

yes. I got my last job through an agency. lots of my friends got jobs through agencies.
 
try charityjob.co.uk website. they only post real jobs, but in not for profit organisations.
 
I have registered with 13 agencies since being made redunadant in July. 4 of which didnt advertise so didnt really expect to hear off the them. The rest did and yet I have heard nothing bar one whocan only get me 2 days work a week.

I have had experience of them all advertising false jobs. I even complained to head office of one. emails from them no answer was given why they did it [although i know the reason]. There was no conclusion but I am now not allowed to use that agency.

I HATE agencies and the only people who think they are good are the ones that get jobs. Those people are just lucky they made the call to them at the right time.

I have wasted alot of time and money travelling to these agencies, some up to 30 mile away advertising jobs in my area that dont exist.

I got my own back a little on one of them though...

I applied for some temp work that i know i couldn't do but made up a CV for the purpose, got the work but didnt turn up, the agency lost the contract [so they say] but if not aleast i felt a little better for giving them a taste of there own medicine. AGENCIES ARE A WASTE OF TIME

The problem is that there are too many agencies out there and they are stealing the recruitment market...There are some compnaies who wont use them but i wish more wouldnt. 9 out of 10 jobs are recruitment agencies and it winds me up
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I also have noticed agencies advertising the same position multiple times. Usually the title is slightly reworded, but the job descriptions almost identical.

I applied for a position advertised by an agency, and when they contacted me they completely ignored the position I applied for but had a different job to offer instead. The original job was not even mentioned by them.

Chancers.
 
redstar said:
I also have noticed agencies advertising the same position multiple times. Usually the title is slightly reworded, but the job descriptions almost identical.

I applied for a position advertised by an agency, and when they contacted me they completely ignored the position I applied for but had a different job to offer instead. The original job was not even mentioned by them.

Chancers.
Click to expand...

How do they get away with the above. It is totally false advertising. Please would some regulator clean up this practice. Be no harm in prime time did a investigation for a year or two to finally clean industry. Nothing against them making a living, but fair is fair- an person takes time to call to an agency them at least they should be able to apply for Job that attracted them to agency.
 
How are they getting away with this stuff. Has anyone got any experience of the other side of this argument, i.e has any worked for a company with jobs vacancy's that has used a agency to find them staff?
 
FutureProof said:
How are they getting away with this stuff. Has anyone got any experience of the other side of this argument, i.e has any worked for a company with jobs vacancy's that has used a agency to find them staff?
Click to expand...

We had a vacancy last year and I engaged a well known recruitment agency. I had a job spec already written up and gave it to them to use as the advert for the job. We also had a salary range (30-35k) based on experience. We did get around ten CV's with only two/three potential interviewees. However, the salary expectations during interview where a lot higher than the job spec and when I quizzed the interviewees they claimed that the agency had advised 40k salary expectation. I checked the agency website and found our job which had indeed quoted 40plus salary. I rang agency and she tried to convince me that this was a similar job vacancy and not our one, she even got snotty with it! I informed her that I had written the job spec and that it was my words that were in the ad.......needless to say they never changed the salary and we changed agencies.....the job was still on site weeks later despite written requests that they remove it........AGENCIES never again!!!
 
I totally sympathise with your friend's position. I would say it could be her age going against mixed with incompetent agencies, I personally look for jobs in the newspaper supplements as agencies have to pay to place ads and they will not pay for fictional job vacancies. It has always worked for me ! Otherwise she should think of a few big companies and go directly to their websites, in a lot of cases this will mean the company not having to pay a 5K finders fee to the agency.
 
This has happened to me too and it is blatant false advertising.
One of the agencies actually told me that some others 'invented' jobs to keep folk signing in with them...its ridiculous. Its soul destroying enough looking for work, and its costly travelling to each and every agency and wasting time filling out their forms and sitting tests only to find out they have no vacancies at all. How do they sleep at night.

I think they should get the same stick as any company who's adverts are lies.
 
Many Recruitment Companies will have a range of bogus adverts on display. As a result they'll have a constant stream of CV's coming through for a variety of potential positions. You'll find that if a company has a particular role to fill, there'll be 20+ recruitment companies clambering to put their candidates forward for it. If for example a recruitment company get 30 CV's through for each of the roles they're advertising, there might be one or two that stand out as excellent candidates. They're going to try and get those candidates in front of the company. It mightn't be right, but it's the way the Recruitment Industry runs. I'm using them at the moment to try & get into a position. I've got my eyes open - at the end of the day I'm looking to get 1 job. Whether I get it myself or get an interview via an agency I don't care. At the end of the day I've got no alliegance with any agency - they'll use me & I'll use them. The problem appears to be that job seekers don't realise how a lot of these companies work. Rather than depending on the agencies, surf the web & check out the careers pages of some companies - give them a call if there's roles there. Just because they might not be advertising, throw a call in anyway. What's the worst that can happen?
 
Last edited:
You should never close any avenue of opportunity when looking for work. Even if you think a recruitment agency is the devils spawn there are jobs there for the taking. If these companies didnt place people then they would not exist. If you are getting nowhere with agencies then I suggest you look at your CV and work on that.
 
These Recruitment Companys seem to have multiplied in the last few years of the Tiger particularly in Construction, this being the case I was wondering how on earth they are still surviving with the construction industry on its knees and foreign markets already well covered by established recruitment firms
 
I inadvertently got revenge on an agency. This agency had placed me in a 6 month contract job. Towards the end of the contract I applied for a job nearer home. This job was advertised by the company in a newspaper. I didn't know that my agency also had that particular job on their website. My contact from the agency went mad when he found out that I was leaving the contract job to go to Company X. He said I should have come to him if I wanted a job nearer home. I didn't realise it at the time, but by applying to the Co. directly, I done him out of his finders fee.

At the same time I would keep on the right side of the agencies as you never know when you might need them.
 
I have contacted the national consumer agency about this and will post any replies from them.
 
I received a reply today from the National Consumer Agency:




Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for contacting the National Consumer Agency (NCA) with your query regarding Recruitment Agencies.

The National Consumer Agency is a statutory body established by the Irish Government in May 2007. It aims to defend consumer interests and to embed a robust consumer culture in Ireland.

The issue you raise would not be covered by consumer law. We can only suggest that you possibly raise the issue with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. There contact details are as follows:

Department of Enterprise, Trade & Employment, 23 Kildare Street, Dublin 2.
Telephone: +353 1 631 2121
LoCall: 1890 220 222
Fax: +353 1 631 2827
E-Mail: [email protected]

We trust you have found this information useful and if you have any further consumer related queries please do not hesitate to contact us on 1890 432 432.

Yours Sincerely

Sean Conway
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top