“Every job advertised on SEEK, My Career, and Career1 is fake.”
June 30, 2008 by Geoff Jennings
Okay…settle down.
The words in the title, they’re not mine. They’re a quote from an email I received from a distressed ex-employee of a graduate recruitment agency. And I don’t want to go into the particulars of her experience, or others like her. I want to broach this issue in a more general way. (here’s a link to the discussion, in case you’re interested)
As we’re all aware, the recruitment industry is unregulated and this has resulted in some pretty dodgy business practices, especially in regard to reverse-marketing. The results of this affect folks in the industry, but also cause misery on a larger scale.
How so? While there are instances of reverse marketing being ethical, the practice often requires an all-out lie. That is, recruiters place an ad. for a job that does not exist, in order to attract a cohort of people who might be then on-sold, or reverse-marketed. If we consider the lowest common denominator of good and decent human behavior, lying to folks does not rate as a cool thing to do, and not an accepted way of behaving. It does not improve the credibility of recruiters, nor the validity of the work we do.
Further, the cohort that is frequently preyed upon is the graduate population. Good one. With each time this occurs, there is a group of people, possibly embarking on their first experience of searching for professional employment, left with a very sour taste in their mouths.
It also calls to question the validity of job boards, which the public doesn’t easy separate from the recruiters themselves.
Then there is this: the work we do, looking for it, choosing a career, arranging our lives so that we are available to do it, these things take up a large portion of our lives. Our work is important. So why would anyone in their right mind choose to stuff people around by placing fake ads., by building hopes where none deserve to exist? Consider the last time you knew someone on the job hunt. How excited were they to get an interview? I’m ticking the prospect of an opportunity meant heaps to them….and probably to you too, if you cared for them any.
People who wanted work would probably be just as likely to turn up for a cattle-call interview if they knew the truth, that at the end of the day they would be used as bait for recruiters looking to make placements.
And just while you’re thinking on it, recently a recruiter that built a substantial part of their business on reverse marketing sold out for a pretty hefty sum – forty-odd mil, in fact. Good on ‘em, some might say…I’m suggesting that the purchasers of this business weren’t the only ones paying a price.
“Every job advertised on SEEK, My Career, and Career1 is fake.”
Although (it is alledged) ProGrad take it to extremes, fake ads are something every job seeker suspects recruiters of indulging in.
I’d believe this. A few weeks ago I sent off an application for my dream job advertised by an agency on all of the above websites. I had more experience than required and matched all the specs, yet at the interview, my agent was extremly elusive and unwilling to give any further details about the role. I sais he’d tried to contact the ‘client’ that morning but to no avail. and preoceeded to ignore my enthusiasm for it. A week later I’ve only been offered other roles lacking the perks of the original.
I left another agency to join this one on the hope of getting what no seems to be a ‘fake’ job.
Thanks noname recruitment- you’ve cost me over a months pay that I can’t afford to lose.
I’m sure the
Gemteq Executive are major offenders in this scam. They currently have a number of ‘java’ roles listed on seek and I’m convinced that not a single one of them exists (or has ever existed).
I went through a prograd assessment, and got accepted. The actual assessment day was nowhere near as bad as the forums make it out to be. We got water, and toilet breaks. Generally it was no different to any of the major company’s graduate program assessment centres.
I have not received a job from prograd, nor any calls about jobs (I received one call after the day, but it was for an industry I was not interested in) Every time I call, I get the same response. I’ll email around the account managers and see.
It has been a big disappointment. I know of other people who have got interviews from Prograd, and they have ALL been pure cold-calling sales roles.
So I have come to the conclusion that yes, all of their jobs are fake, but I think that is obvious. I am also of the opinion that they do not have any clients, besides the ones that they bring on the day, and that ALL of their jobs are PURE SALES roles, not even the Business Development roles they claim them to be. Also it seems most of their clients are small businesses, I don’t even think they place any people with the blue chip clients they claim to have. I only know one person out of my assessment centre who got a job through them, and it is with a small suburban IT company.
They do not ‘look after’ their graduates. If you do not get a job from them within the first week or so, I would give up. I have been calling for about a month now.
Although if you are looking to get some general interview experience, it is a good opportunity. Just dont bank on it for a job, unless you have a passion for a small IT sales related job…
Take a look at this for proof about Gemteq’s fake jobs, and possibly other recruiters too.
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1124414