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There is a HUGE difference between a retained search and a contingency search. The first words out of anyone's mouth, when contacted by a recruiter, is to ask "Is this a retained search or a contingency search?"
If it is a retained search, the recruiter will respond "this is a retained search."
If it isn't a retained search, the recruiter will not answer the question directly, will prevaricate, hem and haw, pretend not to know, etc.
The fact that companies even use these "recruiters" is pathetic.
This looks to be a staffing firm. They get on the vendor list, they are sent requirements by procurement and they act on their own. It has nothing to do with the actual company, because they aren't even aware of how they do anything. It also doesn't mean they are getting the business either.
My husband died in October of 2013. He was a computer network engineer. Every week since he died (FIVE YEARS AGO) I have to go into his email and delete e-mails from "recruiters" with Indian names. Most of the jobs he gets sent have little to nothing to do with what his skills and experience were, and those that did were often out of the area, which meant he was being contacted by people with absolutely no clue about locations in the US.
At first it was dozens every day. And I would answer each one of them until I went to all the job boards I knew about and not just inactivated, but deleted his profile. Fortunately, he only had two passwords so it was easy enough to get into his account. But after three months it got ridiculous so I set a "vacation" message informing the sender that he had died. And still the job listings came.
Now that it has been five years, it is only one or two a week. But they still come. It is ridiculous. These people provide no value added to any company, they peruse the same job boards that everyone else does, they don't have any exclusives.
Sorry for your loss. Simply delete his e-mail account. No reason to continue to get unwanted e-mails.
There is a HUGE difference between a retained search and a contingency search. The first words out of anyone's mouth, when contacted by a recruiter, is to ask "Is this a retained search or a contingency search?"
If it is a retained search, the recruiter will respond "this is a retained search."
If it isn't a retained search, the recruiter will not answer the question directly, will prevaricate, hem and haw, pretend not to know, etc.
Here is the real problem. If you ask "Is this a retained search?" and they say, "Yes, it is a retained search we have been doing business with this company for years and have placed three people there just this last month". It means nothing. These are just words, you don't have any way to verify this information at this point. And even if you took the time to contact that company to verify it, who exactly are you going to talk to about it? The answer is, you won't and you won't do this.
A retained search is for headhunters. That bulk e-mail blasted out was likely from a staffing firm that has nothing assigned to them to do the search. Anyone can start a staffing firm, get on the vendor list to get these requirements and start spamming inboxes. Just ignore them and delete their messages.
Unemployment data is only low because so many of the unemployed are so long separated from the workforce that they are invisible and uncounted. Once your UI expires, the government forgets you even exist. You don't have an active claim, therefore you are not counted as unemployed. Great system!
Out of sight....out of mind.
Anyway, the real not employed number is at least double the official one. Maybe much more than that.
And firms care so little about hiring that they outsource to Indian jobbers....what does that tell you? It should tell you that the job market is indeed terrible as the OP says.
If you cared about hiring people for your business effectively you sure wouldn't offshore the job to India.
And frankly, most firms realize they have so many people to choose from, they are going to hear from the qualified ones anyway.....all they need to do is post a listing on LinkedIn or Craigslist, and they will get hundreds of resumes in a matter of days.
So yah, the market is awful and getting worse by the day. Big companies in tech, retail, manufacturing, etc are planning massive layoffs, while bottom feeders like Amazon will pick up the dregs of desperate workers once their UI benefits have been exhausted, for literal pennies on the dollar of what they made when they had a "real job".
Good insight. Amazon is definitely going to be looked at by the government to be the next big "welfare employer" running toe to toe with Walmart.
Here is the real problem. If you ask "Is this a retained search?" and they say, "Yes, it is a retained search we have been doing business with this company for years and have placed three people there just this last month". It means nothing. These are just words, you don't have any way to verify this information at this point. And even if you took the time to contact that company to verify it, who exactly are you going to talk to about it? The answer is, you won't and you won't do this.
A retained search is for headhunters. That bulk e-mail blasted out was likely from a staffing firm that has nothing assigned to them to do the search. Anyone can start a staffing firm, get on the vendor list to get these requirements and start spamming inboxes. Just ignore them and delete their messages.
In what Universe do you live in where there are still retained searches let alone the concept of a real "headhunter"?
I will put down $20 by 2020 you will have spam recruitment firms tasked with C-suite searches. If not already.
Since you seem to think it's so simple and that everyone is just looking in the wrong direction, perhaps you should provide specifics as I and others have?
Speechwriting/Executive and corporate communications.
At my DC firm, we have several retained searches going on right now for C-level positions.
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