Using Recruitment Agencies

Rewind to a year ago and I knew nothing about recruitment agencies and neither did my friends. We were all talking about moving to London and looking for jobs and we thought the way we would do this would be by looking online and networking. We didn’t realise that there were people who would help us find our dream jobs. A couple of months into our year of studying on a secretarial course, some recruitment agencies came in and started talking to us about our options following our graduation. Two of these talks in and I was still none the wiser. Why would people help find us jobs and if they would, how much would it cost us? At the end of one of these talks, someone plucked up the courage to ask how much the service of using recruitment agencies cost, and they told us “nothing”. That couldn’t be right could it?

Fast forward a year and I have been working at a recruitment agency for a few months now, and I couldn’t recommend signing up with an agency any more. Thinking back to my naivety and now seeing how the job market works, I wonder how anyone can get a job without the help of an agency. Using an agency to help you find a job couldn’t be any easier. All the hard work is left to your consultants and you can continue with your day to day life without worrying about constantly checking online for new roles. All the communication with the client is done for you, you just have to do the research, turn up at the correct address given to you at the right time and blow the clients away at interviews. Easy right?

The role of consultants at agencies isn’t just to put you forward. The consultants offer you advice on how to properly present yourself, what sort of questions you should ask and general interview tips along with a whole host of other things you might have queries about. After you have been to the interviews they then provide you with feedback from the client and help you improve in the areas where you might be lacking. Agencies are a support for people interviewing and looking for jobs, they are there to help you and they listen to what you are looking for as well as anything else that you want to talk to them about. As a result of this, you are never alone in the interview process which can be a challenging time. People are still wary of using agencies to help them find a job, but I’ve seen first-hand the amount of time and care invested in each candidate and how consultants feel when they get their candidate their dream job and similarly I’ve heard how excited to candidates are. The idea of someone helping you find you a job can make the process seem less personal but you are involved at every step of the application and you will never be forced to go for a role that doesn’t feel right with you. At the end of day, they found me the best job!