Waiting By The Phone

Sydney Morning Herald

Wednesday July 13, 2005

Belinda Cranston

Your recruitment consultants haven't called back? They may be looking for another job, writes Belinda Cranston.

They were possibly the most soul-destroying two months of Matt Sheumack's life. After returning from three years in Chile last year, the information technology worker needed to find a job, quickly.

Sheumack's search involved 40 hours a week of contacting recruiters, searching the internet, cold-calling prospective employers and "exploiting every friend of a friend" he could find. In addition to the discomfort of trudging around Sydney in summer heat wearing a three-piece suit, he endured discouraging comments from recruitment consultants.

"I'd been in IT for the best part of 10 years and they were trying to push entry-level telesales jobs at me," he says. "They said there was no way I was going to get the money I was asking for. I felt they didn't care."

Sheumack eventually landed a job as senior systems engineer at a large IT company. Now he recruits staff himself and his experience influences his choice of recruitment firms. "The big national and international recruitment companies can go to hell," he says. "I found that the recruiters who were most useful were those from smaller companies. They took more of a personal interest, were more likely to send 'sorry you missed out' letters, remembered my name and called me about other positions that maybe I hadn't considered."

Sandra Ambrozic, a Bayer HealthCare human resources manager, says dealing with agencies can be positive and frustrating. "When we are looking for a specific type of candidate, we want to use an agency's database and other resources they have because we are so flat out we don't have time to screen applicants," she says. Although impressed with agencies "that take the time to get to know an organisation", Ambrozic is wary of a "meat market" approach from others. "For some, it's just a sales job. They push candidates at you [who] are not ideal."

Like real-estate agents, recruitment consultants earn a base salary plus commission if targets are met. A consultant with a couple of years' experience and on a base salary of $40,000 might be expected to bill about $20,000 to $30,000 a month. If the target is not reached, the consultant does not earn commission. If after a couple of months the target is still not reached, the consultant may not be retained.

If the idea of working in recruitment hadn't been suggested to office support recruiter Johanna Peters (pictured), it is unlikely she would have entered the field. "I hated recruitment companies. I had bad experiences, like everybody else. Now I understand why."

Like many who work in the industry, she was "discovered" when she applied for a job advertised through an agency. Peters says she cringes at the thought of candidates feeling less than important if resumes are not acknowledged or phone calls not returned. "It's not intentional. We get so busy, it's not possible to give individual attention to everyone."

The pressure to perform takes its toll. "There's a huge turnover," she says. "It's a bit sad. You do need to have a tough skin to survive."

Social worker Kim Brauer is one of thousands who have walked through the revolving door of the recruitment industry. While she found it relatively easy to break into, she left her recruitment job after just five months and took another in a different field. "I wasn't tough enough for the industry," she says. "It essentially clashed with my values."

Pressure to place accounting staff in contract roles before rival agencies beat her to it was a part of Brauer's daily frustration. From the perspective of many agencies, she says, so long as people are placed and fees are charged to clients, a consultant's job is done. "There wasn't time for quality. It was all about shoving people in jobs," Brauer says.

Unlike a business that sells a tangible product, recruitment involves selling people - intangible products who walk and talk and change their minds. Candidates display interest in roles only to reject them once they are offered, reference checks reveal discrepancies between CVs and reality and clients' needs change. "You are only as good as your last placement," Brauer says. "When you are going well it's champagne all round, but when you are down, there's no support."

Rosemary Scott, managing director of Scott Recruitment Services, says some agencies give inadequate guidance to consultants. Some recruiters, she says, "are dumped at a desk and given the Yellow Pages to source clients from".

Agency reward systems are another common area of contention. "Some companies have a habit of changing goalposts," Scott says. "People work towards certain goals and then the parameters change, making it difficult for consultants to earn commission. It's extremely unfair."

To that end, she offers one-day courses covering interviewing techniques, reference checking and telephone sales.

Recruitment is a predominantly youthful industry, with many agencies reluctant to hire consultants over 30 - but it is here Scott believes the industry has shot itself in the foot. "A consultant needs to be able to guide people in their careers. A senior executive may find it demoralising to be interviewed by a younger person, and a young person may feel overawed by such a situation."

So, what's a job seeker to do? Nicholas Tuckfield, of recruitment giant Talent2, advises candidates to be prepared. "Recruiters are very busy. It's not a good idea to come to an interview and say, 'I don't know what I really want to do.' That's not very helpful. You should have an idea of the sort of role you want, and the culture you are looking for," he says.

Loretta Safajou, managing director of Carter and Stone Recruitment Services, likes to see well-written covering letters attached to CVs. Safajou says these should be tailored to the role candidates are applying for, and followed up with a telephone call. "This shows the consultant you are enthusiastic about the position, especially if it's a position where you know a large number of people will apply."

Before starting an agency with co-directors Diana Kraljevski and Vicky Kouknas, Safajou worked for a medium-sized agency specialising in jobs for accountancy staff. Within 12 months, she says, there was a 100 per cent turnover of consultants. These days, she assures her clients they won't experience the frustration of phoning her agency only to discover the person they last made contact with has left.

"I stress they are dealing with people who own the business," she says. "We're not going anywhere."

© 2005 Sydney Morning Herald

Back to News Index | Back to Home