Matching the right candidate isn't their main priority, selling the company an applicant, and trousering the commission before the next agent does, is.

Whether they have the nous to realise that the reason companies employ recrutiment professionals is to weed out those who are not suitable in the first place is another question...maybe the employer seeking people should take as much blame for not recruiting a better recruiter.

Desperation of the applicant is an unknown, maybe you were the right man for the job, and they hoped you would be so glad to land the job, and if highly enough paid would have been prepared to move to get it, i suspect many to whom money is mamon would.

Congratulations on finding something close by.

Edited by gordonbennet on 06/10/2014 at 16:03

A pretty sad state of affairs, I agree. There is a bunch of 'Headhunters': their words not mine, that use one of my local pubs after their work. They are pleasant enough but not overly bright. They seem to rely heavily on commission, which is an incentive to place someone into a role, regardless of the actual requirements. From what I can gather none of them is qualified for anything except being personable, allied to a thick skin. It is not a job I would consider doing in this day and age. When I was working we did our own recruitment and I think we only ever employed 2 people under 45. One was fine and worked out, the other was not so good and was side lined into a less demanding role. Our method was to ask 6 key questions relevant to the role. 2 of the questions were designed as 'killer' questions, which if answered incorrectly automatically disqualified the candidate. Not perfect but quite reliable and not too difficult. However I would not like to be in the job market now. For although since retiring I have worked quite a bit for my old company because they are finding it hard to replace genuine experience, I fear I would be rejected by the so called modern methods of recruitment. But what do I know?

Cheers Concrete