Do professional recruiters waste your time? Do they post non-existent jobs?

Following is an email I sent to a recruiter about my suspicions concerning fake jobs. Am I off-base or do your experiences coincide with mine?

Hello Charron,

I have decided to cancel our appointment for this afternoon. I have come to the conclusion that using professional staffing companies and recruiters is not an effective use of my time. In all of your contacts with me, never once did you refer to the job listing to which I had responded. Your only concern was to get me "re-activated" in your system. The clincher was when, during our phone conversation yesterday, I asked if the job to which I had responded was still open. Your response: "Which job was that?"

I've heard rumors over the years that recruiters and staffing companies place want ads or job board postings for non-existant jobs simply for the purpose of building up their pool of candidates. My experience with recruiters leads me to believe that this is likely to be true. Robert Half, Ajilon, Andersen Staffing and all the rest; it always seems to be the same. In almost every case I will respond to a job listing for which I seem to be well-suited. When I get there (the recruiter's office) I spent all my time filling out skill assesments and data files, but never hear anything about the specific job. When I ask about it, the answer I get is, "for some reason that employer is dragging his feet" or, "that employer seems to have put off their hiring decision" but, "we are always having clients looking and we'll get your resume out there."

From that point forward, I never hear a word from the recruiter. Our only contact will occur if I initiate it. Often, I have seen these recruiters place ads or postings for jobs that seem to be a good match for me. I ask myself why I am seeing their ad for this position and yet, they haven't bothered to contact me to see if I would be interested. When I contact them, they assure me that I am being considered and yet, I never hear any feedback on

From that point forward, I never hear a word from the recruiter. Our only contact will occur if I initiate it. Often, I have seen these recruiters place ads or postings for jobs that seem to be a good match for me. I ask myself why I am seeing their ad for this position and yet, they haven't bothered to contact me to see if I would be interested. When I contact them, they assure me that I am being considered and yet, I never hear any feedback on how my submission went. Shouldn't I expect to recieve at least one referral when I am "in the system" of these recruiting companies? Is there something about my resume or background that makes me difficult to place? If so, why hasn't a recruiting professional given me any feedback or guidance? I can only conclude that the goal of recruiters is get their pool of candidates as large as possible.

If you can prove me wrong, I would be willing to speak with you. Can you show me documentation from my file before it was "de-activated" showing how many of your clients recieved a copy of my resume? showing how many times my file was pulled as a possible match for one of your clients? showing how may times any attempts were made to contact me? showing any activity in my file before it was de-activated? If not, I will stick with my decision to rely on my own efforts to find the job I'm looking for.

Thanks,
Kyle

I will also add this: recruiter's fee is about $10k to place a $50k per annum job. Most employers would rather use their own resources to find the help versus paying a recruiter to find the candidate. I have given my fair share of opportunities to recruiters- 95% of the time, the efforts are bogus and I find the opportunity on my own.

I will also add to your poo poo list: Randstat, IQ partners, and Bilingual Source. These headhunters really suck.

Many outside contract recruiters are shifty. Obviously it's best to make a connection with an internal recruiter. I can't tell you how many times I have seen a dozen different recruiters posting ads for the same job. Often a recruiter will repost an ad from a employer's own website in the hopes that they can "pitch" you to the company for a fee, so the employer is not even their actual client. Why deal with them at all? Google a phrase from the job description and you will very likely find the same verbiage posted to the employer's own website. Now you know the company's name. Now go on LinkedIn and see who you know there or if any of your connections do. If not, you can use LinkedIn to identify the hiring manager, HR or internal recruiter and contact them directly.

Of course they do. What they're doing is providing us with false information. They always give you a song and a dance if you call about a particular opening. I think that they use this to collect resume so that when the position does become available, they know who to contact.

I have a question about a staffing agency called Mindlance. A recruiter named Bikash e-mailed me today telling me he had a position for a contract loader/data entry position. He gave the most briefest overview via e-mail and called me a few times. I asked him to give me a rundown of the job in writing along with the payscale and what company it was with and he told me he would tell me all that over the phone and requested that I give him a time when I'm available to talk.

Has anyone dealt with Mindlance before, and if so, could someone give me some advice about this place?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Kyle, you are NOT off base at all! This is soo true! Yes it happens all the time. These staffing agencies post these fake ads, you send the resume to them, they call you and want to meet with you, you fill out the application which tells them were you worked, your references, and some even want to know of the places you recently applied to, all the information they crave.for So now they can call these companies and have a name to ask for provided that the companies you worked for are still around and tell them that they have such great candidates to fill your openings. When you keep calling the firms back they never seem to have jobs that you would be a good match for, because they don't really have jobs to fill. Makes you wonder how a business can keep going on, as posting fakes jobs on the major boards is not a free service. I am glad you sent them a letter like that. Find out the branch manager, the President at HQ and email them a letter as well. I am sure that they know that some of us know they are fake, especially people who have been out of work for a while will catch on after following the boards and realizing that your voice mails never get returned, that is why they always want to know who is calling, so if you are not a company wanting a temp, they are not interested in talking to you once they have what they wanted...your information.

At this point I'm convinced that the overwhelming majority of recruiters are outright full of it. They make you jump through hoops with for a lead and then, time and time again they just stop contacting you.

I recently applied for a position that the recruiter posted 20 MINUTES prior. I'm perfect for the job, no doubt in my mind. After getting the customary form letter email and general info about their wonderful agency I waited a few days for them to "let me know how we can be of assistance in the course of my career". Then I decided to call, thinking that they should surely want me to come in for an introduction/initial interview as a new candidate with their agency. All I got was the receptionist's stone walling when I called. "Be patient, we receive a lot of resume's". But this was by far the best... She told me that since I just signed up with them that I should "check their website for jobs that interest me" and call to speak with a recruiter about that specific job and they'll be happy to help me... HELLO!

That's EXACTLY what I was doing and still they won't let me talk to anyone or show me even the slightest interest or courtesy. I feel that I was a victim of the "filling the applicant pool" tactic. They just wanted me to sign up.

So what can I do? I'm thinking that I give them until Monday to contact me and if they don't I will request that they remove me from their applicant pool as I'm longer interested in working with them. I know some may say that this will hurt your chances of finding a job but I feel that if enough of us stand up to this BS and do this they might... Just maybe change their way of doing things.

I'm going to agree with you on this. I've had two interviews with two different recruiters. The first one was actually referred to me personally (meaning the recruiter actually knew my contact and was constantly calling my contact asking for candidates). I went to meet with her, and she kept me waiting for 45 minutes! She said she would forward some jobs to me later that evening. I never heard back.

The second one I went to seemed really great. I had a good feeling about her. She said she would contact me weekly. The first week after the interview I followed up with her (I've heard following up with recruiters/jobs lets them know you're interested). She said she had forwarded my info on to the top recruiting manager. The next week she emailed me with general bs.
I never heard back from her either.

I'm done with recruiters as well.

I have had the same experience with these agencies. They call you about what sounds like a great job and schedule you to come in supposedly to discuss the possibilities. You get there and the secretary sits you down by a computer screen and gives you these time-wasting tests for an hour or so before you actually meet with someone. You then get grilled for 10 minutes and told even if this job doesn't materialize, they've got plenty of others. And oh yes, either way, they will call you back with the decision.

They never call you back. You never hear from them again. I've had these "little girls" from agencies call me with these supposed jobs many times and then promise to get back to me always with no intention to do so. They flat out lie.

I never thought about the jobs not existing in the first place until I read the stuf on this thread. It all makes perfect sense now.

I am with one now. They have put me in a few jobs. Both of the jobs I had, the company gave me no notice that they didn't need me anymore. The first one, I came in to find the lady I was filling in for came back. I was then told to go home. The second one, on my day off told me not to come back the next day. They have called me a few times, but you have to call them. 99% of the time they don't answer so you end up leaving messages for weeks.

The others I signed up with did the same thing. They have you come in, waste an hour of your life with worthless tests, interview you, tell you they have tons of jobs you are qualified for and that they will put you forward for, then you never hear from them again. When you call a week later, they magically don't have anything. I would not waste your time with them, if you want a permanent job.

Look I dont condone their actions but they are sales people with little experience and need to make a living like everyone else. Unfortunately, in this world you get what you pay for, if it was $$ up front than I would expect action period. If there is the potential down the road for $$ from you or the future employer, than it is best to throw something, anything at the wall, hopefully something will stick.
I am retired, but in the past sold hitechnology to the tune of a few million dollars per month. My job required extensive knowledge, travel, and smarts, although the main criteria was a win/win situation with the customer, based upon constant repeat business. Will you represent future or repeat business for this recruiter? or is he in this slot to actually find a better job for himself, think about it. At times when I was unemployed the best means of finding a job was to be involved as a conduit between the future employer and myself prior to you the customer. In most cases they dont care, the firm has little incentive to find you a job, its a number game, just like cold calling, 2% will actually buy. Yes the recruiter needs resume the more the better, and remember in most cases he is on commission, and possibly pays for his desk, his phone, his computer usage, and just another body out there.

Mark2m,

Yes they are sales people in a sense but I think the topic of this thread is more the bait and switch they pull. Not to mention the posting on non-existent jobs for the sake of collecting leads and pumping up their applicant pool to make themselves look better to potential clients when they have no intention of filling a job that doesn't exist. If they don't have any potential matches for you they shouldn't ask you into the office to fill out the paper work, go through the motions and waste your time, simply so they can get another resume in the system or worse yet... To use your information to market themselves to your past employers and references, etc.

I agree that they waste your time and hope you find a job another way. Linkedin is another waste of time.

I've been in IT for 14+ years, haven't received a single job through a recruiter.

When Office Team contacted me, I found out that the recruiter had just started that week. Why are they hiring more staff when they don't have the jobs to place people. I was cleaning out my drawer and came across their business card and looked them up in Linkedin and noticed that the person no longer works there, it was just under a year. Talk about job hoppers, every year or two was a different job, and these were not temp jobs either.

These recruiting jobs are basically sales jobs. You don't meet your quota and you're out the door.

hoapres in San Jose, California said: We don't need more recruiters.

We need more jobs.

I wholeheartedly agree.

They're a complete waste of time.

Recruiters do have the entire temp market cornered though, so sometimes you have to deal with them. It's a shame that the temp market is hidden and handled exclusively by these agencies.

In my field in my city, it's all through the agencies. I wouldn't be surprised if at some point everyone working in my field and in my position is a contract employee. That's how bad the employment situation has gotten in this job sector.

I'm no fan of recruiters either, all they do is fill you up with false hope and then give you the run around. I took my resume off careerbuilder so they wouldn't bother me anymore.

TryingHardToFindWork in Arlington, Virginia said: These recruiting jobs are basically sales jobs. You don't meet your quota and you're out the door.

Of course they are. They're salespeople.

Don't you just hate it when recruiters say they found your resume online and want to set up some time to "Go over your job history" you have the resume, that should tell you my job history, don't waste my time with that, Talk to me about Jobs that fit that resume!!

hoapres in San Jose, California said: Companies doing a "broadcast" which is sending the same job to multiple agencies makes it worse. It is not uncommon for 10+ agencies to compete for the same job.QUOTE]

The last company I worked for would routinely give a posting to at least 5 different agencies. They were looking for the lowest bidder.

Why do hiring coordinators rely on recruiters? I know they do it so save time, but recruiters are morons who are full of guff. They're going to lie to the hiring coordinator just the same as they do to the candidates. It's all bull.

Hiring coordinators should simply post the job to their website so that it's captured by sites like Indeed and SH. They'll get a ton of resumes that way. I realize many will be unqualified, but it's not too hard to screen resumes.

Going through a moron recruiter and paying the recruiter $10K if they end up hiring someone through the recruiter is a waste of money. Do firms really save that much money going that route?

It all just boggles the mind.

Also, recruiting firms post fake ads. That means that even if you search the language used in their ads you won't find the office hiring. There's no way Robert Half has 10 new jobs a day in this city in my field. Absolutely NO WAY.

I am seeing the same thing happening to me. I have been applying for jobs but nothing. All they want me to do is just open an account with them through their website. I was told by a recruiter that things like that do happen. Waste of time.

What is your profession / field Parafreegal?

Lots of fake job postongs on job boards looking for personal info and contacts. I am now babysitting for $350 a week while collecting unemployment. I can only do this for so long.

Resume submissions via CL (where you're responding blindly) are the likely source of the recorded calls I get re health insurance and "my credit card" as well as the one spam email I get every couple of days or so.

Good post, hoapres.

It's a cycle that never ends and results in nothing other than the job sites pulling in revenue from the recruiter ads. I'm not about to feel sorry for anyone working for a recruiter though. No way.