The average recruiter is a recent grad with little to no experience and often don't receive much training. Most are giving a list of people are are told to start calling until they find someone who is interested. It's sink or swim and the turnover rate for new recruiters is incredibly high.
Why do staffing agencies take this approach? Most understand to some extent its a numbers game. If you call 100 people, 10 are interested, 5 will be qualified, 3 will be interviewed, and one hired. In many cases its cheaper to hire an army of new recruiters who work mostly on commission than it is to hire experienced recruiters who know what they are doing (and understand that they could just start their own staffing agency). This is not a defense of these practices, just an explanation.
There are however lots of great recruiters out there who do "get it" and can help you make the right career portal. Personal referrals from friends who have had good experiences are usually the best way to find those good recruiters.
Very true. What bothered me about this particular agency is that the owners were older folks who I believe were transitioning from design recruiting to tech because they knew there was more potential there. As such, they had nothing to rely on besides titles.
I just went back to their website and it looks like they are back to working solely with creatives, so a small victory there.
This is 100% correct, and the source of the issue. The size of fees is also an incentive to cheat. I was lucky to be hired into my first job by a manager who did lots of training and had high ethics. There are some good ones out there. Some recruiters need to realize earlier in their careers that their name and reputation in the industry need to be preserved and protected through good practices.
The numbers game can be eliminated by engaged and retained search models, which is how I like doing most business.
Why do staffing agencies take this approach? Most understand to some extent its a numbers game. If you call 100 people, 10 are interested, 5 will be qualified, 3 will be interviewed, and one hired. In many cases its cheaper to hire an army of new recruiters who work mostly on commission than it is to hire experienced recruiters who know what they are doing (and understand that they could just start their own staffing agency). This is not a defense of these practices, just an explanation.
There are however lots of great recruiters out there who do "get it" and can help you make the right career portal. Personal referrals from friends who have had good experiences are usually the best way to find those good recruiters.