Reasons why you should use a Recruitment Agency…

Despite their faults, and yes there can be a few (!!), recruitment agencies can actually do great things for your job search and job success. Therefore, take off your blinkers and put aside your past experiences for a moment, and check out the reasons we have listed below on why you should use a recruitment agency to help you find your next job…

Remember they are paid commission when they place candidates into jobs…
Admittedly, I appreciate that this is a broad statement, however, put it this way; if you have a suitable CV, you will be considered for a job, since every consultant makes their money and is targeted on shortlisting and placing candidates into temporary, contract and permanent jobs. Therefore, don’t think that recruitment consultants will forget about your CV – they will probably just be storing it somewhere for a time that they can use it, when a suitable job appears!

Recruitment Agencies can create Jobs
Yes, even in a recession, recruitment agencies can be a positive influence in creating jobs in your local area. If a fantastic, hard to come by, experienced and skilled candidate who is really hard to find, happens to send their CV to a recruitment consultant, you can guarantee that the next thing that said recruitment consultant does is start to tell all the ‘I-need-that-type-of-candidate’ businesses in their local area. Some companies, with no active intention of recruiting, may be influenced by this type of approach to create a job, specifically so they do not lose out on a particular hard-to-come-by candidate. You may be this candidate, and not necessarily see it that way, feeling that there are no jobs out there to apply for when in actual fact a recruitment agency may be able to open doors for you.

They can offer you testing and support
Most high street recruitment agencies that deal with general office recruitment will expect you to undertake computer testing when you register with them. Although this approach can be rather daunting, testing your IT capabilities, on MS packages and the like; it can help you assess where you are at compared to the others in your local area applying for jobs – your competition as it were. They may also be able to offer you ongoing support to improve your IT skills, as it is in their best interests to get you as IT competent as possible.

They can help you find experience
Whether or not this point is relevant, depends entirely on what level of position you are looking for. For example, if you are a graduate or a first time job seeker, a recruitment agency may be a good place to start if you are looking to build up a portfolio of work experience. If you are prepared to work any temporary job (within reason) that becomes available, drop everything at the last moment to help out, and be committed and reliable – you may find that you get regular temporary work through 2-3 agencies. Also, the more work experience you get, the better the temporary work opportunities hopefully will become. Therefore it is worthwhile keeping in there even when the jobs you get themselves may not seem very worthwhile.

They do a lot of the work for you
As explained above, Recruitment Agencies are targeted on and responsible for finding suitable candidates for specific jobs with particular clients. With this in mind, and if you have been fully registered as a candidate (in their office, not just online) then expect the Recruitment Agency that you register with to be proactive in finding you work opportunities. Combined with the fact that Recruitment Agencies often work on jobs that are never really advertised, means you can be well placed to be notified of jobs that others may never hear about. If all you ever have to do is 1.create a CV and 2. register with the agency, the time you save after this point can be invaluable.

Agree, disagree or would like to add more points to the above – please comment below.

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