Why is recruitment so looked down upon in the UK?
Posted by Top_Mirror211@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 127 comments
I’m a part-time hair and makeup artist currently trying to build my clientele, and I’ve been considering working in recruitment in the meantime for stability. But I’ve noticed there seems to be a really negative perception around it here, to the point where it almost feels a bit embarrassing to say you work in recruitment.
I’m genuinely curious where this reputation comes from is it based on personal experiences, the nature of the job, or something else?
Desperate_Cook_7338@reddit
Because you guys suck at your job or finding good candidates you can't judge who is good or not as you lack knowledge.
No_Detective_1523@reddit
Look at the people who do it. Parasites literally.
0800happydude@reddit
They're dishonest, arrogant, typically very shallow people who only care about their commission and add very little to society. It's a profession that attracts some of the worst, most scummy people in our society for a reason.
Lopsided_Snower@reddit
the vast majority of recruitment consultants I know are bonafide sociopaths and narcissists, some of the biggest bellends I've met
Sorry-Programmer9826@reddit
Recruiters have ruined job adverts. Now they vaguely hint at the job rather than telling you want company it is for and what you'll be doing
CaptainSpazclart@reddit
They're middle men and up there with estate agents for taxing both sides heavily and providing minimal service service.
Crazy_Plum1105@reddit
Finding a good employee takes loads of time and money, that's why recruiters are used. They often save money and effort
UnderarmSweater@reddit
But recruiters don't find a good employee, they just find 'an' employee.
It's one of those many professions where maybe a long time ago they added some value, but nowadays they just do the bare minimum. This isn't a fault of the individuals, but more how nearly every business wants to spend as little as possible at every opportunity.
Pay peanuts, get monkeys.
Crazy_Plum1105@reddit
We look for quite specific skills and experiences and the recruiter we use is really good at finding the right people, granted he's been doing this for 20 odd years and most recruiters have been doing it for 4 months.
UnderarmSweater@reddit
Yeah there are defo some good ones. Most are beyond useless.
Top_Mirror211@reddit (OP)
Why are estate agents bad? What did I miss?
Red-Stahli@reddit
They don’t actually care about the seller/home owner or the buyer/renter. All they want is to get the deal over the line so they get their commission.
Affectionate-Day8307@reddit
Hence my employer offers a generous bonus for direct employee referrals, which is still FAR cheaper than what they'd pay a recruiter.
Eukonidor_Of_Arisia@reddit
There's only one thing worse than a shallow, money-grabbing scumbag... A shallow, money-grabbing scumbag who gives you false hope.
kittykat7931@reddit
I worked in a recruitment agency for about six months as a stop gap between jobs - it was brutal and the people using the service were generally exploited. You sell a service you cannot guarantee to a third party then charge them over the odds but don’t pay the people you are sending to them a same sort of wage.
I’ve also done some work for a couple of recruitment agencies. One company ignored me after providing me with insufficient details for a job they put me forward for so I never turned up. The other sent me somewhere for a job which was nothing like what had been described - stayed for three days, couldn’t get hold of the agency to tell them I’d found something else so just didn’t go back.
Sufficient-Elk9817@reddit
Those don't sound like recruiting agencies but more like temp agencies or something?
Top_Mirror211@reddit (OP)
Oh my gosh??? What were the hours like? And that’s awful glad you found something
kittykat7931@reddit
It was just a few hours in the afternoon/evening for some extra money whilst I was between more permanent work. It was putting together marketing/sales packs for a car maker for some corporate event in some dark and dingy warehouse space. The guy in charge of everyone was a nice guy and we had mutual friends but it was so strange. There was barely enough to be done with all the people they had there but I wasn’t dependant on it so I just walked.
LellowYeaf@reddit
Because the personality type required to sell roles to people is often pushy and duplicitous.
Most people have negative experiences with recruiters ghosting them, putting forward irrelevant roles, or not being upfront about terms like hybrid work - because all they are interested in, obviously, is getting their commission
shak_0508@reddit
I remember that I had uploaded my CV to indeed when applying to some finance roles. At this point I was fresh out of uni and had no experience..
Got a call from a recruiter about an opportunity had a 15 minute conversation with him and then he decides to drop at the end of the conversation that I’ll need to pay £1000 for some sort of fee for the role because the company is taking a risk hiring someone with no experience or some shit.
quite_acceptable_man@reddit
I had something similar with a sales job I applied for. All went well until they said company laptop was supplied, but in order to show commitment to the role, I had to pay £200 for it.
I told them that the idea of a job was that they gave me money for working for them, not the other way round.
Top_Mirror211@reddit (OP)
That’s a scam. I’m glad you didn’t pay
ForestTechno@reddit
Had one who hid that I would be an umbrella contract. Basically meant I would take home far less than I advertised. Ended up pissing me off and I eventually dropped out. Company offered me directly outside of this as they were also pissed with agency but I rejected them in the end too as I'd found somewhere else. Such a waste of everyone's time.
TyS459@reddit
Irrelevant roles is the big one here. I've only spoken to recruiters twice in my life and they were basically just throwing and old shit at me and seemed pissy when I said no. In the end I just started filtering Indeed to Employer Only so I'd never have to speak to a recruiter again
MediocreMan_@reddit
Recruitment tends to attract the hustle culture, linkedin lunatic types.
DarthScabies@reddit
r/linkedinlunatics can be amusing sometimes.
Indoor_Voice987@reddit
From being on both sides, there are some really shady recruiters out there.
They're under pressure to fill roles and will do whatever it takes. They lie to candidates to make the job sound better and will lie to employers to make a candidate sound better. They advertise fake jobs and and submit fake CVs, just to get engagement in the hope it builds their network and opens other opportunities.
In-house recruiters are a different breed. They tend to be on better salaries, but smaller bonus schemes, so there is less pressure to just fill a role, which leads to a focus on quality over quantity.
jacekowski@reddit
I've had a recruiter call my manager (who i was on very good terms with so i found out about that call from him just after it happened) before i even accepted the job and handed my notice in, to offer their services in finding my replacement.
crow-magnon-69@reddit
I used to work in IT contracting, we called them pimps.
OneDay_OneLife@reddit
One of my first jobs was in recruitment, and some of the worst people I've met.
My first day involved my manager telling me he's only 30 and making more than my mum and dad could have imagined.
Top_Mirror211@reddit (OP)
How long did you stay in that job and was the boss lying?
OneDay_OneLife@reddit
Just under a year, while I was finishing online courses to help me change careers/jobs.
50/50, they make a decent amount of money, but not enough to make my jaw drop or stay.
NotMyFirstChoice675@reddit
My boss in his 20s (late 20s) was making £200k a year and that was 16 years ago.
He was very few and far between to be fair but we did have other top billers earning around six figures
Top_Mirror211@reddit (OP)
Fair enough it’s good you got in and got out then
Sir-Craven@reddit
lol
Obvious-Water569@reddit
Because every recruiter I've ever dealt with - every single one - is a slimy, insufferable salesman that just treats you like a walking paycheque before ghosting you the moment you're not successful.
Until the industry focuses on actually getting people into meaningful work instead of earning as much commission as possible, that'll be the perception. It's the exact same as estate agents.
Possiblyreef@reddit
Last recruiter i had (that set up my current job) was stupidly upfront.
He straight up told me he gets 10% of my salary as commission after I finish the probation period, and if I wasn't a reasonable candidate he wouldn't have set me up as it would look bad on both of us longer term
Obvious-Water569@reddit
Only 10%?
That's on the low side for recruitment commission these days.
Possiblyreef@reddit
This was a few years ago but good to know, I'm in defence IT which is a niche but relatively small field so a good recruiter is very handy, still, 1 "me" a month in the job is still going to be bringing him over 50k a year so I have a feeling he works on quality rather than quantity as the potential candidate small os relatively small
Obvious-Water569@reddit
An ex girlfriend's sister in law was in IT recruitment and she cleared £175,000 a year in 2014.
Seriously, these people can make sickening amounts of money.
mh1191@reddit
Was that the amount that hit her payslip, or the company’s revenue off her? Recruiters often like to brag about the bookings rather than their actual pay.
Not that 175k doesn’t sound plausible.
Obvious-Water569@reddit
That was her income.
Crazy_Plum1105@reddit
One months salary is fairly common from what I've heard, with price increasing as you get more senior
barriedalenick@reddit
I had a mate who started several recruitment companies. Lovely guy, worked really hard, was generous to his employees and sold them for a few million just before the 2008 crash. However to get going in the business, he had to be a complete arse. He pretended to workers that he had jobs for them when he had nothing - just to get names on a list. He did the same to companies in reverse just to get his name in their books. He effectively started the companies on lies and that is why no one likes recruitment consultants!
Top_Mirror211@reddit (OP)
Fair enough!
barriedalenick@reddit
Sad to say he passed away a few years back. He was extremely generous with what he had until cancer got the better of him
Top_Mirror211@reddit (OP)
Oh no! I’m sorry to hear that about your friend ❤️🩹
WealthMain2987@reddit
Like Estate agents, bunch of good for nothing sales people.
Top_Mirror211@reddit (OP)
Omg did I miss the memo with estate agents?
WealthMain2987@reddit
There will be quite a replies here to update you :)
Top_Mirror211@reddit (OP)
I shall wait for them
PrestigiousBrush5122@reddit
Because they're annoying and waste time
Striking_Smile6594@reddit
People tend to be suspicious of middlemen. The feeling is that they add very little of value to a transaction, but add lots of extra expense and bureaucracy.
CoffeeandaTwix@reddit
Consider who recruiters interact with professionally:
Out of these categories, the first will often be courted by recruiters trying to sell their services on spec which will be irritating unless they are specifically looking for it in that moment. The second will be irritated by the fact that recruiters will not spend time on them or reply to them because they are a poor prospect and waste of time. The third category will be like the first - often courted by recruiters that they don't want to speak to which is irritating. So it is only the third category and a very small subsection of the first that will want that interaction. The sum total is that they will be irritating to most people.
Last year, I found recruiters mildly annoying because they would ring and message and want "quick chats" in a very persistent way. This year, I decided to move job and the same people became useful instead of irritating. That is just human nature. I will add that I am always polite and try to respond if just to say, "thanks, I'm not interested at the moment".
Finally, there is also a class element going on with the hatred of recruiters that applies to all jobs in the UK. A lot of people look down on certain occupations because they automatically associate them as being lower in class. Recruitment has a pretty low bar for entry and a fairly high bar for success. Certain types of people seem to look up more at things that are the opposite and so they will look up to e.g. a civil servant who does the sum total of fuck all day to day and throughout their working life in an easy job they are allowed to drift through but will look down on a recruiter who was relatively able to secure their first job but then only stayed in it and made it lucrative through hard work and being good at it.
Asleep-Software-4160@reddit
My experience is that recruitment are second only to estate agents in telling big fibs.
The_Blip@reddit
See, I've never had a problem with either profession lying. What I have had equally from both is them not knowing anything they should reasonably know for their job, having to basically do their job for them, and then having them take a cut of the pie at the end.
Red-Stahli@reddit
Same experience here. I remember when I was buying my home, I had several estate agents from the bigger agencies (Dexters and Foxtons) not even know basic questions about the leasehold length.
ConfectionHelpful471@reddit
There are enough bad ones that let you down as a hiring manager or a candidate that everyone in the profession is tarred with the same brush.
Horror stories such as the recruiter tapping you up for a role and then contacting your hiring manager to ask if they need support for the potential vacancy they have heard is about to be created or recruiting for roles that don’t exist or bad mouthing other candidates when they are being repped by other recruiters are commonplace
AirlineSevere7456@reddit
Any middle man selling type job is always looked on, see also estate agents
Top_Mirror211@reddit (OP)
Why are estate agents bad?
Glittering_Box4815@reddit
Can't speak for everyone, but from my experience it comes down to one of the following, and of course, this doesn't apply to every recruiter:
Ghosting after reaching out.
Piss poor communication skills or being very vague on info (For example, refusing to tell me the salary, or the company until I have sent my CV over).
Pushing roles to me that I've clearly said I don't want, or am I qualified for,
A massive lack of understanding of the industry I work in, and unable to answer what would be considered standard questions if you're hiring in a given field.
Sheer rudeness.
The best recruiters I've dealt with are experienced, and have worked as a candidate in that field. The worst are ones where they have no experience in the filed I work in, have little expense in working in recruiting and see it as an easy, graduate job.
This also comes with the nature of the job. They earn commission on placing you in a role, it's a very competitive role, and you have to be forceful to succeed, the problem is that taking that approach is not commutable with what most candidates want.
Top_Mirror211@reddit (OP)
Oh no not the rudeness 💔💔
OkDonkey6524@reddit
You seem to be struggling with the negative feedback your getting about recruitment consultants in the comments.
se43@reddit
In my experience they're liars mostly. I applied for a job and got told they'd sent my CV across, but oh look we also have these other jobs to apply if you want, but you must stay exclusive to us they said. Never heard anything back from the job I wanted so assumed they didn't want to interview me, fair enough.
Ended up seeing the same job advertised with another recruiter and thought screw it I'll apply through them even though got told not to, as was genuinely interested. Got an interview straight away. Mentioned it at the interview, they exclusively use just one recruiter and the other was just falsely saying they'd applied for it just to drum up more people they never received my CV. Absolutely awful practices. They weren't bothered when I confronted them about it, said they had.
I did come across some great ones though so I don't paint a picture for them all. Just had that one experience left a bad taste in my mouth for them in general and I'm sure others feel the same way.
AirlineSevere7456@reddit
I've been asked to "exclusive" for two weeks before. I wasn't of course. They also claimed they places 90% of candidates in that time window.
Murky_Avocado_4802@reddit
I think it's less to do with being anti-recruitment, and more that traditionally the type of person who was in recruitment was super annoying and pushy. I'd say the last decade has seen a real switch in that with a lot more 'normal' people being employed
SituationMundane5452@reddit
My opinion of them is they are stealing my wages.
I once went for a job interview through a recruitment firm. The money wasn’t as good as I would have expected. Around 35k. The manager offered me the job in the spot but asks me to tell the recruitment firm that he had offered me 31k and I had accepted.
The reason being that the manager had to pay the recruitment agency 15% of my yearly salary for headhunting me.
I told the manager I would accept the job at 40K or I’m not interested. If that’s what he could afford to pay, then that’s what I want
Super-Craig@reddit
I think it depends entirely on who you're recruiting and what you want people to do.
I've been focusing more on recruitment this year, as well as training and peer review work for promotions and project placement. I hate it. It's a huge departure from my usual research work, but someone competent has to do it, so that'd be me.
The worst part of the entire recruitment process is that the two premier R&D sectors Neuroscience and Eugenics keeps poaching folk. Neuroscience get the cream of the cream, while Eugenics gets the rest of the cream of the crop. At which point I have filter out who is just good enough to make it into Bioengineering, but not so good that Eugenics will come along and try to pinch them. Most folk that don't make the cut for Bioegineering become Biotechnicians instead, and to their chagrin Mycology gets the whey, while the left over sludge and wastewater gets dumped into Administration.
I got told off the other day by both the English and Scottish Heads of Mycology not to let the Eugenicists steal all the good recruits, as if I have some sort of special say who they can or can't requisition.
Even the Eugenicists themselves fight over who gets who, it's like a full blown interdepartmental conflict within their entire sector. Traditionally, Cloning is supposed to get priority since roughly 60% of Eugenics research is cloning research, but Bionics has the big names that like to throw their weight around. Meanwhile Cybernetics is still experiencing something akin to a honeymoon phase thanks to video games like Cyberpunk 2077 heavily romanticising Cybernetic Enhancement Technologies and Transhumanism. So if given a choice between the three most potential Junior Eugenicists tend to opt for Cybernetics research, which pisses off Cloning (and Bioinics).
tl;dr: Doing recruitment is quite disappointing.
Adept_Razzmatazz1145@reddit
Because it is essentially a sales role and attracts the sleazy sales types, except they aren't selling timeshares or cars they are selling people to companies and in doing that there is a lot of manipulation, underhanded tactics and ghosting.
Which in turn, as I'm sure you can imagine, winds a lot of people up the wrong way!
GuybrushFunkwood@reddit
If you want to feel less ashamed about saying you work in recruitment, estate agency etc then say you do something infinitely more respectable. Cleaning up after a bukkake party at the old folks home perhaps.
FraGough@reddit
I would have gone with Traffic Warden, but each to their own I guess.
iloovehugecock@reddit
When I dropped out of university I moved to a new city and my first job was working for Hays as an intern. They advertised a thorough and professional internship scheme of training a recruiter up and all that jazz. It was really competitive, multiple open interviews with other candidates. I eventually was chosen and they hired me but changed the job role at the last minute. Instead of recruiting I would be doing support admin and all the boring shit.
So that pissed me off. Because they basically just wanted me to do all the long boring stuff the recruiters hated doing, and it meant I didn’t get any commission.
As for the people, they were mostly horrible. Recruitment definitely attracts a ‘type’ of person and they are all mostly horrible selfish cunts. They just care about commission and money. They don’t care about getting people good jobs, or the right job, or helping businesses with their needs, or any nice stuff they proclaim to care about.
Everyone there has an ego, they all see each other as competition, we would get phone calls from people working in other Hays offices we’d never heard of asking why we ‘poached’ this person or fucked them over in some way or other when we were just doing our jobs.
All the worst people I ever worked with were all in Hays. I’ve worked with complete twats everywhere I’ve been, but none so bad as when I was in recruitment.
The straw that broke the camels back for me was when my two year intern contract expired, and they wanted to keep me on permanently. As an intern I was being paid £15k a year, even though I worked 9 hour days. They offered me £18k to go permanent with them and I told them it was insulting. I’d worked hard for two years and they didn’t want to pay me a fair salary.
On top of that, they had yearly intern awards and I was the only intern in the country that wasn’t nominated for any award, because I was the only intern in the country that was given a ‘special admin’ role rather than a normal recruitment role. So despite doing all the work or a recruiter, and working just as hard as them, I couldn’t be recognised for it.
So I fucking hate recruiters. And I hate Hays. Fuck Hays.
Top_Mirror211@reddit (OP)
£15k is ridiculous! Well done for knowing your worth and leaving.
porksandrecreation@reddit
When I was at uni, I was rejected for a graduate recruitment scheme because they said work should be my priority and not any other part of my life and they didn’t think it would be. Sorry for not wanting to give everything up for free pizzas on a Friday I suppose?
Top_Mirror211@reddit (OP)
😅😅😅 yikes is the work life balance that bad?
Polz34@reddit
For me it's because they don't seem to actually care, they just want to meet KPI's. I'm very clear on my profile/s on relevant sites of what job roles I am interested in, at what salary, location etc. But yet I still get contacted about roles there are either no where near where I am, wholly underpaid or just random (like nothing to do with what I am interested in) - last one I got a week ago was for a 'site based' role easily an hour drive, in a department I have no background in and paying £10k less than what I'm on now... Why would I be interested?
AJMurphy_1986@reddit
Ex recruiter here.
A lot of what people are saying is true.
I got into it from hospitality management, I honestly thought it would be nice helping people find work, I was naive.
75% was cold calling/visiting companies to try and drum up business.
The other 25% was trying to shoehorn people into roles.
Constant pressure from bosses to hit sales calls targets and from clients to fill roles.
Horrible job. The ones who did well were the loud arrogant types of men, or very attractive women.
Dan_85@reddit
Because they're slimy salespeople who use others – who are at an anxious and stressful point in life – to line their own pockets.
Genuinely the worst people. Up there with estate agents and used car salesmen.
EvilRobotSteve@reddit
I only used a recruitment agency once. They lied about the job completely saying it was a sales job retaining existing customers and following up leads from comparison sites from people who had shown an interest in the company. In fact the job was pure cold calling telesales 99% of the time. and you got to do the comparison sites thing very rarely.
They must've had some deal going with that call centre too because I called the recruiter literally the moment the interview was over to tell her how she went and she said "oh good news, I just got off the phone with the company and they'd like to offer you the job" there was no time for that phone call to have really taken place. The interview just didn't matter, the call centre just had this revolving door of employees (I did actually work the job for a while as I looked for something else) and the recruiter was just shovelling people in with lies.
After that, I've had so many texts and emails from that agency and others wanting to tell me about jobs for years, I can't seem to get rid of them. I'll never use another agency again.
IMO it's a huge scam.
Top_Mirror211@reddit (OP)
Wow!
Slayerjet@reddit
I once had a recruiter who I had never spoken to, message me on LinkedIn. I didn't respond as I was busy. They then called my workplace main number asking to speak with me and as I don't have a desk phone so they left a message with my colleague.
I was not looking for work at the time, nor had I advertised that I was looking for work. Luckily my Boss trusted my side of the story, but this could have ended up so badly!
Top_Mirror211@reddit (OP)
That’s intrusive!
Lumpen_moi@reddit
Same thing as insurance agents. Low education standards. Pompous, oily. Oversells, underdelivers.
jimicus@reddit
Same is true for anything with “agent” in the title.
It actually comes from the Latin, “agentum”, meaning “useless middleman who inserts himself into a transaction and demands an enormous fee while providing little or nothing of value”.
Had a word for everything, those Romans.
DreadLifter@reddit
What about secret agent?
Mc_and_SP@reddit
lavinialloyd@reddit
The job is sold to you like you're going to be helping people find jobs and you'll get commission when that happens. The reality is that the majority of your time you'll be cold calling businesses who have jobs oosted trying to get them to agree a fee if you can provide them with a candidate. Then you're cold calling people and trying to get them into the job.
It's a numbers game with high pressure targets, where you have to be pushy to succeed.
Top_Mirror211@reddit (OP)
That sounds treacherous
BigGingerHexagon@reddit
Helping people find jobs they love should be a really rewarding role but it attracts people chasing commission and nothing more. That means that often lie about situation/salary/role etc to ensure they get a cut.
My partner helps people with mental health issues get back into work after a break. No commission or anything like that, but she loves finding that perfect fit for someone desperate to work but struggling to find their place in the world. It can be a noble cause!
Top_Mirror211@reddit (OP)
Oh so that so lovely!
Remote-Pool7787@reddit
It’s not that it’s “looked down on” that’s your own insecurity. It’s just assumed that you’ve got to be a certain type of person to work in that role, same as sales, estate agent etc.
This is very much a you issue
Top_Mirror211@reddit (OP)
Well looking at the comments it doesn’t seem like it’s just a me issue x
Immaterial71@reddit
From my experience, external recruitment agencies are sales-driven and working with often scant information about the role, leading to some flexibility around the truth- they have to pitch the job to you as well as pitch your CV to the hirer.
Internal HR function recruiters are really good- they will typically have worked with the hiring manager/department to get a decent idea of what type of person they nee to put forward as candidates, and are less bonus-driven.
urtcheese@reddit
90% of recruiters absolutely suck. They are jumped up entitled pricks for the most part, who unfortunately for us are the gatekeepers to something we all need and want.
Almost without exceptions they are self-important, arrogant, liars, and without any sense of decency or moral compass.
There are SOME gems out there, but they're like hens teeth. I speak from experience dealing with them.
motific@reddit
Recruitment is pretty much where people go when they can't be estate agents... and the only reason estate agents exist is to make traffic wardens look good.
ahktarniamut@reddit
Wait, so what if someone is a recruiter for estate agents
motific@reddit
Can you ask an easier one like how are babies made?
constructuscorp@reddit
Last year I spoke to an EA who spelt his own name wrong three times.
N-F-F-C@reddit
At least make it believable!
glasgowgeg@reddit
Traffic wardens are fine, if you don't park illegally you've nothing to worry about.
N-F-F-C@reddit
They add nothing and a lot of them advertise fake roles to fish for information
kiradax@reddit
More people have negative experiences with recruiters than positive ones, due to the nature of the job market at the minute. Just maths
shadow-season@reddit
Recruitment is the pinnacle of reducing people to numbers.
I'm sure many enter it with good intentions. Those are either swiftly beaten out of them by aggressive targets, or dropped in favour of money.
kholekardashian12@reddit
I used a recruiter as a fresh graduate. She was putting me forward for all sorts of roles that I didn't really want to do and lining me up for an interview almost daily. When I told her that maybe I needed a day or two in-between to prepare, she got genuinely pissed off with me and said 'Do you want a job or not? Otherwise you're just wasting my time.'
How professional and charming.
silver_quinn@reddit
Most of us have had bad experiences with them, but what summed it up best was an advert I read for a recruitment role a few years ago - "This is not a role for people who want to change lives, this is a role for salespeople".
Affectionate-Owl9594@reddit
It’s sales. Salespeople do not have a favourable reputation.
Mr_A_UserName@reddit
I think one of the main issues I've had with them is that they keep jobs posted on their website knowing full well the position's been filled, they're obviously just trying to entice you. It's not a great start when they ask you to register with them, the fact that they're already being underhanded.
xcxmon@reddit
It’s looked down upon because of the people stereotypically associated with it.
Recruitment is very easy to get into, meaning it tends to attract people who didn’t do very well at school and/or have little ambition. As such, you tend to find cocky, laddy, airheads there, like the people you see on The Apprentice.
I’ve gone through a couple of recruiters and they haven’t been that bad. Pretty bad at communication which I found odd but they seemed like decent people.
noodledoodledoo@reddit
I think it's a bit like estate agents: everyone knows a shit one, many people have had medium bad experiences, and some people have had truly awful experiences.
jesuisnick@reddit
When I finished uni I registered with a few recruitment agencies. One was excellent - they found me my job, and I'm still with the same company 16 years later.
The other two were garbage. One sent me to interviews that turned out to be nothing like the advertised job (one was apparently for German translation, and in the interview it turned out to be cold-call phone sales). They clearly just threw candidates at every job they were trying to fill and hoped that some worked out.
The other had me wait in a meeting room for my onboarding with the agency for 45 minutes, during which time I could clearly hear the conversation between the recruiters in the kitchen, where they were really viciously slagging off other candidates they had. I wish I'd had the guts back then to knock on the kitchen door and tell them exactly why I wouldn't be working with them.
glytxh@reddit
All the recruiters I’ve personally known that thrive in that environment have been the most obnoxiously annoying, coke addled, better than you at everything, wankers I’ve ever known.
WishfulStinking2@reddit
Not the profession so much as that every single recruiter I’ve ever had to deal with has been a self-centred, horrible prick
Tangie_ape@reddit
Spend 5 minutes scrolling through Linkedin and you'll see what is the main reason for me. Its become a field full of self gratifying people who seem to care more about how they look than trying to get people actual jobs they'd like.
turtleflirtle@reddit
Some recruiters are genuinely really very good, and they help people find a way into roles they wouldn’t have otherwise been able to.
However. The vast, vast majority are not. They often know very little to nothing about the industries they’re recruiting for because they’ve never worked in them. Most of them are effectively a sentient email inbox whose auto response is at best, woefully uninformed and at worst, nonfunctional.
I’ve had the pleasure of working with some genuinely excellent recruiters who are actually very good at it. They’re the same as any job, you’ll get people who are good at it and people who are truly terrible. The reason people hate them so much is because they’ll more often get in the way of you and a good opportunity, more than they’ll help open the door, despite the fact they know absolutely nothing to very little about the industry they’re recruiting for because they’ve never worked in it.
It’s like going to a “Butchery Agent” and you’re a farmer looking to supply to the butchers. You’ve got 20 years experience raising over 100 cows for butchery, and the Butchery Agent will tell you that your farm is very impressive but your cow’s spots are in the wrong place on their body and their tails are too short so they won’t put you forward. The Butchery Agent is a life long vegan and thinks cows are actually zebras.
dbxp@reddit
They tend to just throw as many applicants as possible at hiring managers so they can collect their commission, they don't care about matching people to jobs. After 6 months at a job when they've got their commission they'll call up the employee and offer them something else so they can get more commision.
seriousrikk@reddit
It’s because, for the most part, recruiters are fucking idiots at best. They will lie to get people through the door with only the end commission as their goal.
Good recruiters who are both genuine and want to (and are capable of) match folks with the roles are a rare breed.
They are basically the sleazy salesman 1 except what they sell takes up 40 hours a week of your life and you can’t get a refund.
Separate-Region2070@reddit
I thonk the many agencies also HR services and us seen the employment police who enforce management policies. They often also don't really technically complex jobs so often mismatch them
LowM93@reddit
Try and get into internal recruitment. The money isn't as good usually, but it removes 95% of the elements most people find unsavoury about recruitment and the people that work in it.
adi_mrok@reddit
Cause if as electrical engineer you get notoriously offered jobs outside your field of expertise (roof constructor, mechanical engineer) you just know you deal with people who are going to be opposite of helpful.
Also the fact they take away sometimes 20% of annual salary as a commission makes me sick to my bones. But thats just my personal opinion, I don't hold any grudges to people working in HR and you should not feel ashamed because of it
Glittering-Knee9595@reddit
Snobbery - I’ve always liked recruitment within an HR function.
Easy_Imagination6383@reddit
They have a similar vibe to estate agents, car salesman, etc. They can be pushy, transactional, no problem with lying which tends to leave a bad taste. The good ones are fine but a lot are useless. There is a low barrier to entry so you have people trying to recruit for jobs they have no idea about.
Wise-Pay-8993@reddit
Most recruiters job are just lying to others. I've used a few recruitment agencies for white collar work and other jobs before. They warehouse ones all lied about the factories, job roles, horly pay, breaks, etc. So many also don't tell you the salary, ghost you or wont stop spamming you with calls.
Scasne@reddit
There's a general perception that the recruiter isn't actually trying to do the best for the person looking for a job or for employers, so they just chuck those who seem "meh near enough" honestly I've used recruiters for a job placement and found some good places, I can see it being industry specific as there can be ambiguity in what specific roles and requirements actually are on the other there are those playing a numbers game.
MissingLink101@reddit
Finding a decent recruiter who actually keeps you updated or responds is like a needle in a haystack. Most of them couldn't give a shit about the people or jobs they deal with.
Zealousideal_View47@reddit
I worked for literally a week in a temp position at a recruitment agency. I left after a week because it sucked so much. I was spending my entire shift just trawling through people’s CVs on job sites. I had to make a list of all the people I thought might be suitable for the role I had. Then my supervisor would cut down my list to a handful of people. I’d have to call those people, most of them wouldn’t answer the phone. Then start over.
One I do remember was a woman I spoke to who seemed genuinely excited about the job - she had been in England for a few months with her family and now her child was in school she was looking for work but not having much luck. She seems really grateful that we had called and when I told her I’d call her back soon she said she was looking forward to it. I then spoke to my supervisor and my supervisor told me that we couldn’t offer this woman an interview because she didn’t have the right credentials or visa or something. I asked if I should call back golet her know so she doesn’t keep waiting and my manager told me not to bother. I felt so bad!
grimaces111111@reddit
Because recruiters dont care about who they recruit, they only care about the company they recruit for. I've been actively fucked over by multiple recruiters who will lie about positions so they can sell me a job. You're like the real estate agents of employment, largely cunts.
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