Why are agencies advertising jobs that do not exist?

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MandaC

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My friend has been out of work since June. She is trying every avenue (even being prepared to take v. low money) and even temp short time.

I was speaking to her Tuesday and she was very disheartened. She had phoned at least 10 agencies and not one of them had anything, some had very junior jobs and others had nothing. Yet these same places are advertising jobs as current on all the websites? Why would they do that?

A couple of them told her there was absolutely nothing going (well thats obvious) and others just said "oh that job is old" when she questioned them on it.

It is very unfair on people who are already stressed and had their confidence rocked out by not having work, by misleading them to believe there are jobs when clearly there are not. One agency actually told her that they had only filled one temp job in the past month @ €12 per hour!!
 
Agencies make up most of the jobs that appear on their own websites and job search websites. This is because agencies need a constant source of quality candidates - so they make up very good sounding jobs to entice good candidates in. They then try to tout these good candidates to companies, who rarely want to see them.

Agencies also put lots of jobs up on their sites to make it look like they are busier. If they had no jobs advertised, you wouldn't think they were very good!

Pick different agencies. Or use objective and unbiased job search websites, like wikijob.
 
Do the words "misleading advertising" spring to mind. Maybe its time Consumer Authority had a look at some of the advertisments
 
I agree it is extremely misleading- You could see a Job you really like and find out later it is made up. I find this a lot. I would support an inspector doing spot checks on all agencies and fineing them 5K plus for every Job that does not exist. For each job on website the inspector should get a list of contacts and actual contact each one to see if it is current vacant job. Spot check each agency twice a year.
 
I also think it would also go back to the fact that if the agencies removed every job that was false(or filled months ago) they would have nothing to put up.
 
At least them it would be honest and fair equal playing field. They would not be wasting client time on Job they already knew is not their. The best agency would survive.
 
Well my friend is registered with every and any agency and not one of them has come up with anything for her despite her having an excellent CV.

They are also very devious and try to find out where (if anywhere) else she is interviewing and it would appear that the motive behind this is to contact the client directly and push a different candidate for which they are getting a fee.

There was also one position on the jobs boards which advertised by at least 8 different agencies as well as by the client directly. I would not think that the client has agreed for all these agencies to fill the job and again, it is building up candidates hopes and not to mention wasting time going to register when they dont even have an agreement to fill the position.

I will say that some of the agencies are better than others and I do know people who have got jobs though agencies, though there is an awful lot of "fillers" lately.

I think it will be like Estate Agents, only the better ones will keep heads above water.
 
Manda where does your friend live?

Has she thought about retail work ie. shops, bars, resturants, etc?

I'm looking for the same type of thing, although working at the moment would love a new job. However, couldnt take a cut in income due to loans, etc.
 
I dealt with Job agency in past- Gave them my CV to a few of them- Never even got as much as a phone call. Move on in time i got a Job myself direct from employer. In last few months got a call from 2 agents to update details etc. My feeling was they did not help me when i was desparate for help and ringing recently i felt to myself what goes around comes around. I ask any agent would now rings me to delete me from their database. I have absolutely no fate what so ever in agencies. I dont think i would ever approach one again unless the industry is cleaned up and regulated. i do not knew if it is regulated but if it is please do some thing about false advertising . It also distorts cso figures as they are counting jobs advertised on websites that dont exist.
 
Papervalue, that is the exact way my friend feels at the moment. I phoned her the other evening and she was in tears because someone in one of the agencies had spoken to her like an imbecile during the day. That, along with the constant ringing/emailing/chasing jobs that possibly do not exist had worn her right down.

The next step for her is to try retail, even just temporarily for Christmas, it is hard when she has years of valuable experience that she cant get anything in her chosen field. She is in the Dublin area, so can commute to city centre if necessary. She is lucky, in that she can take a pay cut, as she has a very low mortgage with not that long left on it.

I don't really feel people realise just how bad it is out there at the moment. The attitude of the agencies is not helping. Thanks for all the feedback.
 
I use to get contract work through agencies. You need to develop a thick skin in dealing with them.

The first thing is not to take it personally. Using agencies is very impersonal and for most of them you are just a number, you need to get over that. If they have something for you, they'll get back to you. If they don't they won't its that simple. Most of the time you never get a reply. In return I don't waste my time replying to agencies generic emails, unless its specifically targeted to me, and has a job that is close to what I'm looking for. Most are just cold calling, and its waste of your time replying.

The second thing is theres a lot of fake, old, and duplicate jobs on these websites. From experience, real ads with have weird requirements, something different about them, not just a standard spec, and there won't be 20 jobs, with almost the same spec. After a while you learn to filter these copies. Also jobs can be duplicated across difference agencies. I don't know why companies do this, but again learn to recognise very similar ads, even if they are different websites, its probably the same generic ad. If you go to company websites, and places like FAS, they generally have no or very few agencies, and jobs have salaries listed, or quirky details which also is a sign of a genuine jobs.

Put more effort into researching companies that have jobs that match your skill set, and asking around everyone you know, and traditional paper adverts. As these are as as successful if not more, as using agencies, or the internet and people forget and just stick to using the internet. The old job hunting methods are still very valid. A book like what colour is your parachute is useful. You can get it in your library.

I'd advise against dumbing down your CV, and also against talking it up, embelishing stuff. Instead, keep it as simple, and concise and brutally honest. That worked best for me.

Finally don't spend all day job hunting. That wrecks your head. Dedicate a specific amount time, and after that go do something else, take your mind off it.
 
Tell you friend to try searching by 'Employer Only' on sites like IrishJobs.ie ore recruitireland.com - this will give details of actual companies recruiting and from my own experience are far more likely to be 'live' job ads than any put up by recruitment agencies. I'm refusing to deal with any more agencies for the reasons already mentioned above.
 
Is now trying the websites by employer only. I totally agree about the real jobs having little tweaks and not being so straighforward.

She has over 25 years PA experience at Snr. level and excellent secretarial skills. Maybe it is her age going against her.

I feel bad, because we were both made redundant at the same time and whilst I am not mad about my new job, at least I was lucky enough to get something straight away that is keeping me sane. A couple of weeks ago I was going to give it up without another job but her experience and indeed others has made me wake up and smell the coffee big time.
 
I work freelance in media and when things are quiet I often temp. When I registered with a very well known agency a few months ago they asked me a lot of questions about where I worked etc. They said they had a girl on the books who wanted to get into media but was stuggling. I gave them the name of some companies for her to approach but pointed out these people would never hire someone at her level from an agency.

A few months later I was in a position to hire someone for a role that person was suited to. I emailed them and told them to get in touch with me. The client refused to put her in contact with me. I pointed out the agency didn't deal with media companies at all, and reiterated that my company would never dream of paying a free to an agency for someone at that level. She still refused to even help the girl. It was very disheartening from my point of view because its a hard enough industry to get into without a company doing crap like that. I totally understand they need to make money, but this is peoples careers and livelyhoods they are playing with.
 
They post those ads to get CV's in then they use these details to try and place people in in related, but different jobs.

Recruitment agencies are the lowest of the low in my opinion.

If you come across jobs you think are fake report them to the website as their business is also compromised by that scurrilous behaviour.
 
I think people forget who they are dealing with. Agencies don't provide a service. They exist only to make money. You were basically asking them to do something for free. No profit in that. At the end of the day they are just sales people, and most have that "sales" mentality.
 
The same jobs are repeats on many of the websites. I just find it strange that when my friend phoned on Monday or Tuesday, despite all of the jobs having current dates on them, there was an excuse for all of them. One or two you might say, ok, but 10 or 12 jobs all still live on a system and not one available?

I also do not think the websites update the information and leave the jobs live for months.

I have noticed too that there are a fair number of employers now posting "we do not need the assistance of agencies at this time" or even more blunt "calls from agencies will not be entertained". I hope this is a trend that continues.
 
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