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Wow. I'm glad I chose to go with the agency I did, because I haven't had any of these problems anyone else has posted. It was super easy for me to get my position, and I have been here for a few months. I'm not making half of what the permanent employees make, I actually make more than the average for what I am doing. Yes, the agency did call my references right away, but why should they call AGAIN when I end this assignment and go to another one? That just doesn't make any sense. I talked to two of my references after they had talked with the agency and they both seemed happy with their calls and did not mention any "selling" to them by the agency. They talked directly with my staffing manager, not anyone else even though I am through a big staffing chain.
As some have stated, it definitely makes sense that they would call your references. At least with the one I am with, I did not even have a second interview with the company, I just showed up and started training.
Went through it again with F__ing Aerotek. They called claimed they had some direct hire opportunities available but first I'd need to give them references to check. Had to tell them to buzz off as 2 staffing agencies have already prematurely bothered my references. This is why I stick with real recruiters and smaller staffing agencies. Man those J-Offs are unprofessional. Next thing they will be demanding to talk to your current supervisor before an offer.
I can end up making contact with dozens of recruitment companies in a couple months time frame before I land my next assignment/project/position. If they are sales and trying to meet contact quota's that also mean that it is likely their position(s) they contact you about are not legit opportunities. I have already tapped my references out because of these predatory agencies. I talked to a recruiter several days ago and he was contacting me about a Honeywell contract. He couldn't give me a JobId/ReqID for the positions he was contacting me about. I told him my concerns with that knowing that all opportunities through agencies at Honeywell have a JobId/ReqId. This con artist convinced me to give him the right to represent me. He told me they were interviewing in the next couple days so there wouldn't be any chance of getting crossed up with a double submittal because of the possibility that I was contacted by another agency and couldn't distinguish that the position wasn't the same. A couple minutes ago be contacted me with a form to fill out with references and told me this was the next step in the vesting process. No interview and no mention of the jobs he was supposed to have submitted me to. There are to many scams being played these days if you don't want to ruin your career you need to avoid recruitment agencies like they are the plague.
Last edited by OneSocki; 03-14-2014 at 05:07 PM..
Reason: typos
I had that happen to me as well. I wasted an entire Friday afternoon and drove 30 miles each way after some POS agency contacted me and convinced me they had a legit direct hire position they needed to interview me for. I went down there, had the usual soft-interview spiel from them, gave references, and never heard from them again. I really hate staffing agencies especially since they have almost taken over my profession.
References are called as the last step before an offer is made. It is very unreasonable to pester references every time someone even applies for a job. Most reputable companies understand this. It is just staffing agencies and a lot of the idiot companies that use them that do not.
Again references should not even be a big thing for temp jobs. If the candidate is bad one phone call and their gone. That is the nature of temp. As for Direct hire, again right before the offer.
Staffing companies generally only check references ONCE- not "every time someone applies for a job." Part of their service to their client companies is presenting them with job candidates who have already been screened - and this includes checking their references.
It's really not that difficult to understand.
By the way, many staffing companies do professional placement as well. And finally, a reputable staffing company will generally have MANY so called "permanent" positions, aka "temp to hire" on their books at any given moment.
They don't work for free - that's why if a company wants to go ahead and put a good employee on their payroll, they have the option of paying a one time fee instead of having the employee complete a "temp to hire" time period.
First off there are over a dozen agencies that operate in my area, imagine if I gave everyone of them my references to be considered for a job they may or may not have. I would have a whole ton of p'ed off references. Fortunately when a job opening happens that is a match, the for real agencies have not been shy about calling and emailing me whether or not I have met with them nor given references.
Second stats have shown only 27% of these so called "temp-to-perm" opportunities ever turn perm. That is just carrot-at-the-end-of-stick fraud.
Finally it has been well reported that your supervisory references go straight to their sales team for solicitation calls under the pretense of a "reference check"
Companies generally don't go to temp agencies when they have a permanent worker need unless they are really stupid or they intend to be a churn and burn perma-temp house.
Went through it again with F__ing Aerotek. They called claimed they had some direct hire opportunities available but first I'd need to give them references to check. Had to tell them to buzz off as 2 staffing agencies have already prematurely bothered my references. This is why I stick with real recruiters and smaller staffing agencies. Man those J-Offs are unprofessional. Next thing they will be demanding to talk to your current supervisor before an offer.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MSchemist80
Second stats have shown only 27% of these so called "temp-to-perm" opportunities ever turn perm. That is just carrot-at-the-end-of-stick fraud.
Companies generally don't go to temp agencies when they have a permanent worker need unless they are really stupid or they intend to be a churn and burn perma-temp house.
I have to disagree on this... I've worked for Aerotek twice in the last 5 years and in both cases I was hired on by the client... the first time after 5 months and the second after 3 months.
These weren't minimum wage McJobs either... in both cases I was taking home $900-$1200 per week. As far as checking my references, they may have the first time but I don't think they did the second time.... because I had worked with them previously. I just sent them an updated resume.
Paychecks have always been on time and the staff have been professional. I have nothing bad to say. As with most everything... YMMV.
I had that happen to me as well. I wasted an entire Friday afternoon and drove 30 miles each way after some POS agency contacted me and convinced me they had a legit direct hire position they needed to interview me for. I went down there, had the usual soft-interview spiel from them, gave references, and never heard from them again. I really hate staffing agencies especially since they have almost taken over my profession.
I agree. I have had a similar experience with the agencies here. It is just frustrating to waste time, and gas chasing positions that do not exist.
I have to disagree on this... I've worked for Aerotek twice in the last 5 years and in both cases I was hired on by the client... the first time after 5 months and the second after 3 months.
These weren't minimum wage McJobs either... in both cases I was taking home $900-$1200 per week. As far as checking my references, they may have the first time but I don't think they did the second time.... because I had worked with them previously. I just sent them an updated resume.
Paychecks have always been on time and the staff have been professional. I have nothing bad to say. As with most everything... YMMV.
YMMV indeed. O don't doubt your claim. However, I've had no luck in getting then to return my calls nor emails, and for one guy ive talked to in person who says they got him a job, 4 others say Aerotek was also useless to them.
A former employee of mine had listed me as a reference after reaching out to me to secure my OK in doing so. He's a solid guy both from a character and technical standpoint. He had to quit a his last job due to stress and a crappy work culture and took some time off.
He applied with a certain national IT staffing firm who I resolutely refuse to deal with, having a previous bad experience with them as a client. This firm contacts me asking first if I knew this guy and then begins to ask an array of questions that made it obvious they were fishing for leads.
"Who is the decision maker in your IT dept.?" Well, that's me and then went on and on about the services they can provide. I interrupted the guy and said "is the nature of your call to obtain a reference for so-and-so or are you using his reference to generate leads?"
They guy is stunned and then reverts back to what sounded like a typical reference check. But the questions were short and "on a scale from one to five..." type assessments. I told the caller he would project a better image of their business if they conducted reference checks separately from trying to generate sales leads.
The Millennial-sounding caller fumbles for words and disjointedly says thank you and hangs up. What a toolbag.
I waited a few weeks then called my former employee and asked if he had any progress with his job search. He said he had several interviews with some companies but the pay was abysmal. I asked if he had heard from the company that had called me trying to generate leads. He said no, not a peep. I then explained what happened and he felt very embarrassed, apologizing profusely.
I told him not to worry but wanted to give him a heads-up if he placed anyone else as reference with that certain IT staffing firm, to perhaps warn them ahead of time that they could be given a sales call rather than a reference check.
These IT staffing firms are all the same and they actually make some slimy used car sales people look ethical. Careful to who you give your references, as they should only be used in the final stages of the job application process. If a staffing firm insists upon having them, either reserve a few references that are familiar with the process and will push back to these slime balls and provide only a reference, or better yet, avoid such places completely.
On a more karma-like note, I had the IT staffing company who called me try and worm their way into our midst by conning a VP of Software Development into attending a presentation, hosted in our conference room. I purposely arrived late along with our CEO and sat silently for a while. Towards the end, I questioned the staffing company account manager regarding some negative past experiences I had with them at another company, particularly their lack of vetting employees' credentials and criminal histories. Why should we trust them when they have such a lousy track record? Heads turned as I unfolded the story.
I totally blindsided the account manager, who knew of the issue and with smiles from myself and the CEO, we knew their facade had been exposed. His 'sales' presentation had been totally destroyed. He exit strategy was amateurish and it was clear he couldn't handle being flattened in front of a V and C-level crowd.
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