I heard that recruiting agencies help job seekers, but every time I send to a recruiting agency, they reply to send my resume, and then they reply we will get back to you if we find something for you!! I also uploaded my resume on a couple of recruiting agencies, and no one got back to me, and when I follow up, almost always I don't get a reply, or I get the same first reply ("if we find something ..."). One recruiting agency told me to apply for the listed jobs on their website, and if I am a good match, they will contact me!! Maybe I misunderstood the role of recruiting agencies, but I thought they help job seekers by meeting with them, and help them find the right job for them, but it seems to me that recruiting/employment agencies are no different than HR in a company. Is it like this everywhere in Canada, or I am being treated differently for some reason, like because I have employment gaps, or my field doesn't benefit them ... etc?
Recruiting Agencies in Canada
- Thread starter CaBeaver
- Start date
Recruiters are typically hired by the companies to find the right people.
If you're a candidate, unless you hire a recruiter, they're generally not working for you.
As a candidate, you can submit your information to a recruiter, and if they find a position suitable for you, they may engage with you. But they won't go out of their way to find you a position unless they have a way to make money out of it.
If you're a candidate, unless you hire a recruiter, they're generally not working for you.
As a candidate, you can submit your information to a recruiter, and if they find a position suitable for you, they may engage with you. But they won't go out of their way to find you a position unless they have a way to make money out of it.
I am talking here about recruiters in recruiting agencies, not recruiters in the HR in a company. My understanding is that recruiters in recruiting agencies are paid IF they find the right people for a company, and for that they can help the job seekers by understanding their needs and skills. That way they can benefit from job seekers. As you describe it, recruiting agencies then are just an HR in a company, which are actually hired by the company for find the right people. I sometimes read, though, in the reviews that recruiter X in recruiting agency Y helped a job seeker finds their career goals and the right job ... etc. So, it seems to me there is some consulting, unless these recruiters are hired, and there is no mention about that.
How can I hire a recruiter? Can I hire recruiters from recruiting agencies?
They are hired by companies to act as extensions of their HR departments.
A recruiter will only care about you if they think you can fill a vacancy that they have been hired to fill.
Recruitment agencies are not hired by you. They care about who is paying them - the company. They need to have a wide and deep pool of candidates that they can consider for positions. So they'll take your resume, and consider you, but they will not go out of their way to find positions for you because their job is to find people to fill positions.
That is because the recruitment agencies ask people to fill in reviews, or they write them themselves. Don't consider the reviews to be honest.
Working with temporary foreign recruitment is a lot different than dealing with local recruitment. For an employer to hire a foreign worker they (usually) require an LMIA. This is not easily attainable for every employer and their are restrictions on the positions that they can apply for. Recruiters and/or consultants working with an employer will have to ensure that the individual to be named on the LMIA can meet the requirements of the job being offered. e.g. you only have 5 years experience as a Doctor and apply for a Restaurant Supervisor position, even though it is a lower skilled job you are not likely to be approved so they wont put your name forward to the employer. Your selection depends entirely on your experience/education and the vacancies available.
Why are people using them then if they can apply directly to the companies? I didn't know they are like this. I wouldn't have contacted them in the first place. I seem to misunderstood the process completely. But I agree, there is no free lunch, and I talked about why not job seekers pay the recruiters somewhere else, then recruiters would care about job seekers, and not just pleasing employers who pay them. Having said all of this, I am still puzzled why no one considers my resume with my qualifications and skills, and I graduated with a PhD in engineering from Canada. I am treated like a useless person by every recruiter to the point now I am broke and about to leave Canada for good. I am not expecting to be handed a job, but I tried everything, and I am willing to start from the bottom, but for some reason no one is willing to consider me. I thought recruiting agencies could help me, but was I wrong.
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Because job seekers don't usually use recruitment agencies aside from submitting resumes. Companies use recruitment firms.
Recruitment firms will also often help fill temporary absences (a few days to a few weeks) for a lot of companies.
Most of the high quality jobs that recruitment firms try to fill are not available for applications directly through the companies.
I am confused because when I apply for a position that requires a PhD, I am told that I need industrial experience, too (which I don't have. I have academic experience, though). And when I apply to positions that don't require a PhD to gain experience, I am told that I am overqualified and companies don't hire PhDs for these positions!! I made the mistake of not taking any internships during my PhD in the industry, because I wasn't aware about this problem, and my PhD supervisor didn't discuss this with me to open my eyes about my career paths. I don't have a Canadian engineering license, because I don't need it, and I didn't see any job I applied for require it.
As mentioned and also in my experience most recruitment companies are not there to get you a job. They are there to get someone a job so they get their commission. But there are also good ones, I found a permanent position through a recruitment company.
Most of the time when I sent my resume to them I also didn't hear anything. And with those that I did have some communication with they were not really eager or went out of their way to get me to succeed.
But as mentioned it was also a success story for me overall since I got a permanent position that way. Not sure if it is a great recruitment company or if I was just a great fit from the beginning, but from the first contact on they were really professional and helpful. I applied for a job that was originally meant to be a contractor for 6 months with possible extension or conversion to permanent, but during the interview process the main company that was working with the recruitment company found that I was such a good fit that they offered me a permanent position right away. That was - by the way - a position not listed on the main companies career page, so the recruitment company did have some additional value there.
The person I was working with at the recruitment company was always very helpful in preparation for interviews, in keeping me up to date on the process and also gave me some hints on how to best tailor my resume for the hiring manager. Unfortunately this recruitment company only has openings in the IT sector and only in Montreal, so I don't think it would help you in any way.
Overall I would think that as a job seeker you shouldn't have any expectations of landing a job through them, but it also doesn't hurt to give your resume. It might be your lucky punch.
Most of the time when I sent my resume to them I also didn't hear anything. And with those that I did have some communication with they were not really eager or went out of their way to get me to succeed.
But as mentioned it was also a success story for me overall since I got a permanent position that way. Not sure if it is a great recruitment company or if I was just a great fit from the beginning, but from the first contact on they were really professional and helpful. I applied for a job that was originally meant to be a contractor for 6 months with possible extension or conversion to permanent, but during the interview process the main company that was working with the recruitment company found that I was such a good fit that they offered me a permanent position right away. That was - by the way - a position not listed on the main companies career page, so the recruitment company did have some additional value there.
The person I was working with at the recruitment company was always very helpful in preparation for interviews, in keeping me up to date on the process and also gave me some hints on how to best tailor my resume for the hiring manager. Unfortunately this recruitment company only has openings in the IT sector and only in Montreal, so I don't think it would help you in any way.
Overall I would think that as a job seeker you shouldn't have any expectations of landing a job through them, but it also doesn't hurt to give your resume. It might be your lucky punch.
I understand that they work on commission, which is problematic for the job seekers, because they are not the focal point of their work. But I thought if they see someone with some of the qualifications of some of the jobs they have, they might invite him/her in and discuss them.
Can I ask you how you contacted them? Did you upload your resume to their website, or applied to the position on their website, or contacted them through the website contact form, or contacted a specific recruiter in person ... etc?
Recently, I contacted an agency through the contact form, and someone replied to me asking me to send him my up-to-date resume, and I did, and I haven't heard back from him, even when I sent him back a couple of days later to follow up with my resume!! I guess he wanted to know if I am any good to him, which I wasn't, apparently
What you mentioned (helping in the resume tailoring and stuff) is what I imagined they would do. But from this discussion, this doesn't seem the norm, or at least they do this only if they understand you can be a good fit according to their understanding to the role and your qualifications.
Personally, I don't see any contradiction between helping job seekers who have some backgrounds, and getting commission. Usually people who go to recruiting agencies have some trouble, and they need help in doing things right.
Can I ask you how you contacted them? Did you upload your resume to their website, or applied to the position on their website, or contacted them through the website contact form, or contacted a specific recruiter in person ... etc?
Recently, I contacted an agency through the contact form, and someone replied to me asking me to send him my up-to-date resume, and I did, and I haven't heard back from him, even when I sent him back a couple of days later to follow up with my resume!! I guess he wanted to know if I am any good to him, which I wasn't, apparently
What you mentioned (helping in the resume tailoring and stuff) is what I imagined they would do. But from this discussion, this doesn't seem the norm, or at least they do this only if they understand you can be a good fit according to their understanding to the role and your qualifications.
Personally, I don't see any contradiction between helping job seekers who have some backgrounds, and getting commission. Usually people who go to recruiting agencies have some trouble, and they need help in doing things right.
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This is mostly the case.
Tech recruiters often spend more time with candidates since there are a lot of jobs hiring tech candidates, and highly qualified tech candidates are in high demand so commissions for recruiters are higher.
Perhaps you need to spend some time finding different recruiters.
The thing is I have tried different recruiters from at least three recruiting agencies, and all were the same, with the exception of this recruiter who I contacted through LinkedIn, and he invited me in only to tell me I don't have industrial experience, although many consider PhD as experience in itself!!