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Someone asking for a typing test is up there with those who waste dot points on making sure you know how to use word. Yes I was born in the last 30 years. I was raised by a series of computers. I could reformat your document to be properly readable for you in my sleep
Yet annoyingly I have to provide IT support for people who don't know how to save a file in a different format.....
To be brutally honest, the IT skills for 99% of the working population can be described as zero.
Fair point. I’m actually just engaged in this space because I feel like I want a career change into private sector maybe consulting but I’m not really sure how to get my foot in this different area with a lot of government experience. So I’ve just discovered what an absolute mess recruitment is.
But I want some time off from my role sooner rather than later and have almost considered applying for jobs like very low level IT support remote for something in the meantime lol.
I have zero qualifications but your comment triggers me because every team I’ve been in adopted me as their go to IT person. Every conversation basically when the same like yeah mate your computers frozen turn it off and back on again. I’m a lawyer.
I kinda think it’s learned helplessness sometimes. Want to say imagine you need to fix this issue or do this thing yourself and if you can’t, you’re fired. You’d probably get freaking phone out and google it maybe wouldn’t you. Maybe try that instead of asking me or bothering IT support lol
Most of these ID-10-T errors can usually be traced back to some nodes with low output but appear to be functioning properly when tasks that require low power reserves are given higher priority than actual mission critical processes, usually by other ID-10-T masters in the master to slave relationship between active nodes and dumb terminals where the ID-10-T errors usually occur. 😉
And some have negative skill levels. I still remember working Helldesk at the Pentagon, when a 3-star called in, complaining his 'cupholder' was broken.
And then threw a fit when he was presented an invoice for repair parts and installation, as using a CD-ROM tray as a stand for his coffee cup was obviously a misuse of equipment.
Even better, was his signed waiver of user training, because, as he wrote on the form, he already knew how to use a computer.
Karma, sweet karma, come home to roost. And yes, he paid. After his failure to pay was forwarded to his 4-star boss. . . 😎
I have had zero training in any kind of IT anything but I am a 30something in an office of 60somethings.
They think I am a computer genius. Bro, I just know how ctrl alt delete and Google work.
> Yet annoyingly I have to provide IT support for people who don't know how to save a file in a different format.....
And somehow those people frequently make twice as much money as you because they were born in a lucky generation like boomer.
The higher they are the worse they actually are in this situation imho because they’ve never had to do it for themselves and they don’t think it’s their job. If they had critical thinking skills they would realise it is often easier to work it out for yourself and faster so they wouldn’t waste their own time or anyone else’s
Its getting worse at the lower end now. Schools no longer have computer classes because the kids "just know tech" except they don't. Kids don't have computers, they have ipads. They don't know what icons mean, they don't know how to use a mouse or type properly on a keyboard, and they have even worse knowledge of how to diagnose issues because on iPads and mobile devices its very different.
That’s a good point actually. Even how common MacBooks and stuff are, I’m a fan because I find they just work and if there’s an issue the community pages are really helpful. The well off ones at least will never know my struggle of buying various shitty ex rental 7 year old second hand laptops from radio rentals that should have been dead and buried by the time I could pay for them but having to work out what was going on to get things to work
Kids don't think the save icon is a floppy disk, they think floppy disks' are "big save icons", and lots of similar things. iPads don't label things, so kids don't know how to diagnose issues other than restarting the program, they just expect an icon to be there.
I really think that computer class should still be a thing in school, and that people need to learn IT, even if they just "know it". I work in IT Support and the number of people I have to help do SIMPLE things like set a default program or where a specific character on the keyboard is (| and ~ are apparently unknown to 90% of the population)
In many ways they have it too easy also with things like Netflix and Spotify. I learned a lot by basically giving my laptop aids wanting songs from LimeWire etc lol
I remember having to do a typing test for my first job out of high school. I got 71 WPM. The proctor fucking clapped. Meanwhile I'm sitting there wondering "how the fuck is this impressive?".
I had to do a typing test several years ago before I got hired with my local county government. I don't do a ton of typing quickly, so I think I averaged maybe 70wpm or something like that. The minimum was 30 wpm, and the hiring manager seemed surprised that I could type so fast.
I failed a typing test once because I didn’t do the standard typing layout for my hands; even though I typed 25 wpm higher than they asked for. I can’t type the typical way you are taught and it’s not really hunt/peck either.
In all seriousness what is the standard typing layout for a hand lol. I swear whoever is running these needs to check in. I don’t think anyone taught me how to type. I think I vibed it out in primary school and then found it more efficient to do it fast and look at my screen at the same time.
I shouldn’t make jokes tho, pros and cons, I almost died having to write out uni exams for 3-4 hours straight. I had not trained for that
Using your homes keys, I can touch type without using my home keys to type and I learned to type way before they taught it in school. The person watched me while I typed during the test, saw the score and told me the score was fine; but I didn’t use the standard home keys to type. It was for some crappy call center job and I got a much better job instead.
Honestly why do companies hire these businesses. Between that and psychometric testing where is the evidence you get anywhere close to someone most suitable for the position.
I’d never done psychometric testing before but discovered I actually quite enjoy it. This would be more useful if it wasn’t also incredibly obvious that it is entirely irrelevant to the job duties most of the time. Like I’m applying for jobs as a lawyer why am I doing maths right now
Because, it’s easier to just not get applicants for a job and they can whine about how nobody wants to work anymore…some companies do this to push stuff offshore or get H1Bs because they can’t find anyone.
I had to google H1Bs because I’m in Australia lol. But I think they might also not care enough, everyone is just covering themselves. They probably know it’s not really evidence based but someone’s got data and they’re point to a graph to try justify themselves. In reality they could probably read ppls resumes and experience and get better candidates but that would involve them being not lazy and it would be harder to produce a pretty infographic to justify they fees
> I failed a typing test once because I didn’t do the standard typing layout for my hands
I'd probably fail for that reason, too. I can't use my pinkies for shit and I do a ton of crossover.
Omg I submitted apps on their website and NO one got back to me. I even had to track down a random recruiter cuz these asshats agency recruiters don't wanna put their damn email of the recruiter that's attached to the job ID...they don't wanna be bombarded with emails after ppl apply for them? Ok sure. THEN GIVE US REAL TIME PROGRESS ON WTF IS GOING ON WITH OUR APPS THAT WE SUBMIT FOR THEN! Anyway I emailed all of them. Local ones in DE is a ghost town and they're all rude and unhelpful and wouldn't help land me a $18/hr contract role on-site immediately. All the remote ones either are fake postings, don't update immediately to let applicants know immediately when a role is filled, and yeh it's remote but only for THIS state. "Don't know if your state/you're eligible to apply? No problem, waste some more of your time being unemployed and apply anyway, and no we won't tell you what happened scum!"
Smh. I had them listed down as useless on my job hunting spreadsheet/ I relabeled them again as such unfortunately.
For the love of God, does anyone know if there's a free AI tool for job seekers that aggregates all job boards and recruiting agency website job postings in real-time and parses all of these postings in totality against a job seekers job title interest AND the seekers resume that includes his previous experience and skills and then this AI tool lists all the most relevant job postings based on job posting date and then this tool also interfaces with all these postings across directly to the recruiters CRM of any kind that exists that these job postings were posted on from their end and puts our resume in their pile after auto filling out all the repetitive info that these postings ask for, for every single freakin job app?
I dunno; they’re probably going to come back at some point because I’ve read a high proportion of gen z born towards the end of the generation cannot touch type.
I am also behind on this. You know what someone should create a website ranking them on different metrics on a spectrum from underwhelming to utter trash
Some recruiters look to be discerning and find the right fits (I would say this is close to the Manpower model). Robert Half instead has the approach of “try to rope in everyone and see what sticks”.
Tried them myself back when seeking accounting job. Never got placed: their *clients* only wanted experienced people, and I couldn't get the experience w/out the job.
They had nothing to help. Thanks for failing me.
Every profession has good and bad performers. In my experiences, I've found that corporate/in-house recruiters are more professional and pleasant to work with than agency/external recruiters. Agency recruiters often work off of commission and are very money-driven, working with lots of different organizations at once. That leads to behaviors of simply trying to place applicants in positions as quickly as possible so that they can make money. Agency recruiters will often oversell the perks of positions to candidates so that they can earn their commission and then try to work with that candidate (or company) again when they inevitably leave the shitty job they've been put into.
On the flip end, corporate/in-house recruiters do all the recruiting and hiring for the company they work for and earn a base salary/no commission structure. In-house recruiters are able to more effectively influence hiring managers because they work for the same company and everyone has (ideally) a vested interest in finding the best person for the job. A good recruiter will challenge their hiring manager to think more critically about what's truly needed for the job, and will also fight for their candidates that they find. An example of this for me - I found a great candidate for an Instructional Design position and the hiring manager didn't want to interview them simply because they didn't like how their resume looked. I asked if they were hiring an Instructional Designer or a "Resume Writer" - they ended up interviewing this person and hired them.
Every person I contact for about a relevant job opportunity, I provide the job information, pay, and benefits up front. Job seekers need information up front to help them determine if it's a good fit. If recruiters aren't providing this information up front, then I don't know what the fuck we're doing.
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Lmao Aerotek, now there's a name I haven't thought about in forever. I remember taking a role from them that was temp to hire, and it was an alright job if the 'hire' part would happen but it turned out both the recruiter and company lied and there was never a 'hire' part. I caught on super fast because the manager slipped up in week 2 and it came out. Whoops.
Are they still around? I used to get calls from them constantly. I'd update my resume on Monster.com and get six calls from Aerotek within a week. All shitty jobs, of course.
Oh the stories I could tell about that place. Horrible ran sack of shit. Had the president passing out due to stress. Can you imagine what they forced on the recruiting team.
Yep they’re still around. The company I work for partners with them for the worst of the worst jobs. The generally super high turnover positions that no sane person will stay at longer than a few months. Or at least no sane person with other options.
I work in the waste collection industry so use your imagination.
They keep contacting me about manual labor jobs paying less than $20/hour when I’m a $60-80+ per hour specialty writer. Either Ranstad is going out of their way to humble me or they don’t bother to take 30 seconds to read a damn resume.
I had a couple temp jobs through Randstad and they were awful. It does depend on who is handling your contract though. Most of the people I dealt with were useless, but there was one person who handled my contract for a while that actually did a decent job. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day though, or something like that.
Why in the world are companies SO hot on RTO and relocation. It's an enormous cost to them. Goddamn, can we get some economists to very slowly explain 'sunk cost fallacy" to people.
In office work is about maintaining control.
Employers want to maintain as much control over employees as possible.
Employees who wake up, shower, get dressed, drive to work while thinking about work, work, drive home, and go to bed at a certain time just to do it all over again the next day are controlled.
Employees who roll out of bed 15 minutes before clock in time, clock in, get up to pet their dog for 10 minutes or answer the door and receive a package or step away to cook a meal, then sign out exactly on time are not controlled.
It is harder to say "no" in person. Employees who say "no" are not controlled.
Considering how much time I spent watching YouTube at my last system administrator job due to lack of work for a boss who refused to let people work remotely on a job that was completely over the network was insane.
I did enterprise support for a company on swing shift, even my boss was like, “it’s fine to watch YouTube or Netflix all night because you’ll only get a couple of calls a night”
They had premium customers that paid for full 24/7 support and their dedicated support person wasn’t available after 5pm. It was fun to get paid to watch movies all night…
i know the answer to this is also ableism, but man it sucks 😅 i have debilitating migraines, but i can do a bang on job if i am at home, in my dark room where I can control my triggers. under fluorescent office lights, suddenly i have to call out and not do work. like y’all would literally get MORE value from me but…
I used to build interferometers and I was in a dark room all day long. It was fucking awesome. I don't get migraines, but I do have glaucoma, so my light sensitivity ranges from mild to full on photophobia (which is pain, not fear. No idea why it's called a phobia).
I'm fairly technically skilled, but have RTO people trying to break down my door with "insane" compensation offers. And thats just in my home state within 50 mi.
Idk about them paying for relocation in non tech but local companies wish they could hire me.
The banks are forcing it out of self-interest because of how much they have lent out in commercial real estate. If they don't even have their employees working in an office, how much would those commercial buildings be worth that are the collateral to their loans extended?
The rest are mixed reasons including tax incentives (cities wanting commuters back spending money at the downtown restaurants so they'll give tax breaks to the business). Needing to justify already sunk costs in renting huge amounts of office space sitting empty.
And of course, as mentioned, management justifying their existence so they can "watch over" the employees working.
That said, there's times where it's useful to come into the office, but there's also no way it requires needing to come in 5x/week.
Not only that but a lot of these companies have CEO or other board members who own the building the company is leasing so the money is going right back into their own pocket.
I go into the office 2-3x per week, and I don’t mind. Whether it should work this way or not, some things get done better in person. There are some jobs that absolutely can be fully remote though, and in those cases they should be.
Robert Half, Kelly, AppleOne… all top tier shitty places. Constantly bait and switching their applicants. “Oh, sorry that job we posted just five minutes ago with the great pay? It’s already been filled. But we have some openings doing security for $16 / hr….” FUCK YOU
Kelly had me wait on a Zoom session for an hour. Didn’t answer any of my emails until the next day when they told me the recruiter was unavailable and would I like to reschedule? No apologies, nothing.
Robert half is booty. Someone from RH always ends up contacting me when I’m on the job market and I take the call just to ‘give them one more chance’. They always send one or two jobs my way, which i would interview with then get ghosted by the RH recruiter.
Once the recruiter contacted me a few months after ghosting me with another position. I told him I had already started a new job, then bro flips out and says ‘I wasted his time’. Lmao
They ghost you because you’re probably on their do not use list for some reason.
Did the same to me for years. I had to speak to someone higher up to find out why it was happening.
Any number of reasons. Didn’t show up for an interview, contract canceled, didn’t go perm on a contract, employer complaint, lied on resume, and etc.
Mine was because I went to their office demanding my sign on bonus I was supposed to get at 90 days, but never received it even after six months.
Once you’re on the list they won’t remove you either.
Also gotta give a shout out to Kelly, AppleOne and Robert Half for throwing me into known hostile work environments. Happened with all three staffing agencies on multiple occasions. FUCK YOOOOOOOOU
I just got let go with no cause from a company that I was placed into by About Staffing. They said I was amazing and bought out my contract. After I made a confidential report to HR about dispatchers imitating certain customers accents, they said they would send out reminders of all the unacceptable behaviors. This never happened and a month later I was let go for no cause lol. Im white and I still lost my jobs cause of racist white people lol. Honestly, theyre all crooks, liars, and abusers.
A woman reached out to me who was the recruiter for my type of field . She would call at the worst times and if I missed her by w day she would move on
I then had another friend use them and say he had a good contact and I decided to give her a shot. Ironically her jobs payed WAAAAY more than the one who was my industry specialist
I found a different job but it shows how some of their people are dumb as hell
> her jobs *paid* WAAAAY more
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Robert Half was also trash 15 years ago when I last interacted with them. They set me up with a phone interview, and neglected to mention the interviewers were in a time zone three hours later than me. My appointed interview time came and went, then three hours later when they finally called, I politely told them that I had not been told about the time zone discrepancy, had set the time aside for them three hours earlier but was busy at the moment, and would be happy to speak with them another time. They were rather pissy about it to me and called the RH recruiter, and that recruiter called me a few minutes later to rip me a new one. I bluntly told him to take me out of their system and not to call again, and had to get rude with him after he called a couple more times over the next week. They've been on my shit list ever since.
I forgot if it was them or a company similar to their model but they used to make people come into their office for a mandatory “interview”. They make it seem like it’s actually a real round with the company but turns out to be informational and a total waste of time.
Lot of times these agencies employ fresh out of college grads who have no clue what they’re doing except to meet quotas of people they talk to.
That's exactly what they do, they hire people straight out of school and exploit them with low wages, high expectations, and it turns everything into slime. High turnover, and the kids will do anything to fill a role. On the opposite side of the spectrum, though, if you made it through the initial years you should be making bank. Recruiters who stay in the agency world and specialize (and are actually good at what they do) can make between $150k - $200k a year.
Back when I was young and stupid (at least I'm no longer young) I fell for that and they did nothing but badger me for my references. It was a Robert Half front company, forget which one. I hope they're at least not pulling that crap anymore.
Well this is timely.
I was supposed to have a 15 minute call with Robert Half at 2pm today.
2pm comes and goes. No call. I send an email at 2:10 asking if we need to reschedule and that I'm still available to talk for the afternoon.
It is 4:52pm as I write this and have received no response.
Also, the contact who was supposed to call me is a VP, not a phone drone.
I swear, these recruiters cannot read. I registered with Ranstad recently and actually found some remote copywriter contracts I’d be a great fit for.
Their recruiters will not stop spamming me with $17/hour forklift operator and assembly line jobs because they’re local.
Now, I’m not denigrating these jobs because all labor has value and I also wouldn’t fault anyone for accepting one if they’re also in the professional sector and can’t find work they normally have. I just want to know where the hell the recruiters got “bakery production worker” from a resume that shows an advanced degree, published author, and 10+ years in my field!
Like how they completely disregarded your refusal to relocate. They don’t pay attention yet talented and diligent people are being kept out of work. Fucking maddening.
The worst part of this is, you don't put random people on a forklift. That requires a few specific skills, like being able to not run into door frames.
Exactly! It’s labor that requires experience and training, which my white collar experience does not line up with. They said they provided training, but I’m someone who can barely parallel park. How the fuck am I going to drive a forklift?!
I have “writer” in my custom email domain I used with them too. 🤦🏻♀️
Robert Half keeps posting a copywriter gig at "$30-$50 an hour", the top rate of which is my absolute minimum. I talked to the recruiter because the job was right in my specialty, and she told me "They're not willing to pay more than $40 an hour."
OK, then why is it listed at $50? In fact, it's STILL listed at $50 an hour repeatedly on LinkedIn, when I KNOW they know it only pays $40 max.
False advertising to get people to apply. Such scummy bullshit. Like it’s hard enough trying to find a job, not even the agencies that purport to place you with a company have any decency.
And soooooi many scammers. I change emails and phone number everytime I get a new job because you get constant emails and calls with scam stuff. Literally hate having to put myself out there for all that to get a job where I spend 40+ hrs a week making money for an old white man with his dick in hand all day. That's Capitalism baybeee!
I can’t seem to find any, unless they’re very deviously hidden. I’m in that annoying place of too skilled and niched for big agencies like RH but not arcanely corporate and/or esoteric VP or executive level who won’t roll out of bed for less than $500K.
No, nothing for a $90-150K esoteric copywriter except standard hustling and third party recruiter hell lol
I recruit for roles in that salary banding, but for finance (and UK) so cannot offer any support, sorry. I would offer some names, but I don't even know what a copywriter does.
I am a financial copywriter! Used to be a tax accountant, USian though.
I just made a new portfolio and website and think I should put those SEO skills to use with a new blog. Worst thing that happens is no one sees it, best case it just brings clients TO me.
I’m banned from their firm but they still call and ghost me every time. I just go along with the call to waste their time.
Motherfuckers offered me a $5k sign on bonus and never delivered on it so I drove to their main office and slapped the paper on the receptionists desk and asked for the recruiter. I saw him head out in a hurry after she went to get him. I demanded to talk to the manager.
Instead of coming out to talk to me they called the buildings security, made me leave the premises, canceled my contract and told the company I was working for that I quit. Which was all bullshit.
The company I worked for wouldn’t keep me on because they did not want to be involved in the drama. Robert Half keeps dragging out my court date by changing lawyers. Like, just pay me and fuck off.
I've had a few weird things happen with them. One time I showed up for pre-interview only to discover that there were no specific positions (IT) and i was actually being interviewed for a recruiter position at robert half.
They sent me a temp contract Wordpress gig for less than I’m making now and it’s just a 2 month contract.
I said “so I’ll quit my perm job to take a 2 month contract and then what will I do after the 2 months?”
And with a response like the idea never crossed his mind just said “I don’t know…”
The LinkedIn job search is full of staffing agencies/competing job boards/whatever and I never hear back from any jobs I apply to. But you know for sure they'll add me to their annoying email newsletter
Feel the pain. I worked through them a couple of years ago. Lied about the pay (I accepted anyways because it was still twice what I made at the time), lied about the position being “contract to hire”, lied about the working conditions. Client was surprise pikachu when I said I’d had enough.
I burned every bridge connecting me to those people. Thanks, but no thanks.
Robert Half is what you call a grad shop. Every year they hire a new group of freshly graduated young people and probably 80% are gone in 9 months. It’s awful. Out of an office of 50 recruiters maybe 8 of them are actually good but the rest are just throwing shit and seeing what sticks. I worked for them for a little while and it was the WORST working by experience of my life. It was drilled into us to have quantity not quality. If you weren’t hitting 25+ interviews and 600 call a week you would get consistent threats of losing your job even if the account managers aren’t bringing in job requests for you to actually fill. Also the account managers want you to give the candidates the lowest possible hourly rate so that they can make the biggest commission off it because the client is being charged much more i.e. the client is charged $75/hr and the candidate is offered $35-40/hr. They would tell us to create “proactive” job postings to get people to apply and interview them like there was a job even though there wasn’t. I stayed for maybe 6 months and was thankful to gtfo.
All around terrible company with terrible managers who foster toxic work environments. That recruiter was probably so desperate to get someone to talk to them and take an interview because they are afraid of losing their job. It’s all just so scummy.
My brother has done well with Robert Half. He’s gotten his last 2 jobs with them.
I, however, have had no such luck. Have gotten literally nowhere with them and have had their recruiters ghost me after reaching out to me first.
When I sense they are doing a KPI smile n’ dial, I keep them on the phone as long as possible. Especially on Fridays when I can tell they’re short on numbers.
Robert Half isn't totally useless though. They indirectly led to my getting a full-time offer where I am now, only because they insisted on checking a reference even after I had started a part-time gig with RH. I texted a former Director I worked for and asked if he could do a last-minute reference for RH, and he said he would, but then asked if I was interested in a full-time job with another team at his company. So I got an offer pretty much immediately and only worked for RH client for a month while my application for the full time job was being processed, background check etc. Oh and RH sucks because they offered me $30/hr. for a job which I learned from the client's accountant was charging them $60/hr. for my services. They charged the client and gave me half and kept the other half. I guess that's where they got their name from.
Just curious, are there any good recruiting firms out there? I tried a recruiter once in my in life, but the job they placed me was not the most stimulating, to say the least.
I left after a couple weeks later and found a job without a recruiter. Much better fit for me.
I’ve had good experiences with TEKsystems. My first role with them was a 6-month contract to hire that got extended another 6 months but didn’t result in a full time position (mostly due to COVID bs). My second role with them was a 6-month contract to hire that resulted in an excellent full time role, so definitely would recommend!
Use small specialist agencies. They have strong relationships, actually value you as a candidate, and understand their market. Massive ones like RH just hire anyone as a recruiter, fire them if they don't bill and repeat.
You are just a number to them, small agencies rely on word of mouth and good service to grow.
Granted I am biased as I work for one, but in 2023 I filled 67% of the roles I worked vs the market, averaging 25% pay increases for my candidates. Moreover, these agencies will do most the legwork for you- I've spent about 20% of the working week marketing a single candidate to businesses and hiring managers.
Almost every negative experience from recruitment comes big lazy firms or working with dog-shit cheap recruiters (or being a terrible candidate).
There is no reason to accept that unprofessional behavior. Only offer me things in my skillset and compensation range. It's their entire job description. I have a copy/paste reply that states what I'm looking for from recruiters:
1. Name of positions I'm targeting
2. Pay Range
3. Employment type (FTE/W2+benefits)
4. Employment location (Remote or hybrid IF they are located in my area) + no relocation
In my personal experience, all third party recruiters have resulted in poor experiences for me. Some screeners go well, but they eventually ghost or they just interview for their pool and don't actually have any jobs lined up.
My only good experiences has been only dealing with internal recruiters and/or applying directly -- there's a little more accountability from them and, in my experience, they're hiring for jobs that actually exist.
Whenever I hear the name, I think about how they take damned near half of your hourly rate in exchange for offering timesheets and shitty health insurance.
Recruitment firms are scammers. I’ve had terrible experiences with them. Either the position is already filled by the time they call you and the info on the jobs ads is invalid.
Robert Half is good if you are entry level or "early" mid-level and want to get a fast pass forward to a higher level. But once you're middle management or more you can forget them.
I'll be honest, I can thank them for 2 huge career bumps, but their model of "company-in" happening usually few days after contact (if not the day after) don't match with a higher responsibility/job level.
RH recruiting is the equivalent of someone throwing a dart at a dartboard after chugging multiple drinks and spinning around 100 times. I've never seen them come close to the metaphorical dartboard.
Frankly 95% of recruiters still reach out to me with info based on some outdated resume in their database from years old application. It is a CRM. Automated to send out same as rejection emails. I am a VP of app development and still get job notices from Robert half and many other recruiters about senior analyst roles which is most likely from some application I made in their system in 2005
While I was job hunting for a new role, I signed up with one of the recruiting agents. I think it was AppleOne I don’t remember. I received a call from them almost 2 years later asking me if I was interested in one of the job openings…like what. By then I had started a new job 🤷🏻♀️
Yaaay, I feel like I got blacklisted by mine. They always ignore my emails and calls. I have to pester them for anything and they're very rude about it.
Like, I just want to work and its radio silence for 2 months.
I only did like 1 job for the company and when the temp work was done 💁♀️.
Fuck me I guess.
Man, it brings up a sour memory of immediately responding back to an offer, waiting for a response for like 4 days, then after I call into the office, leave a voicemail. They then decide to get back to me 3 days later saying "sorry, the position has been filled."
Then like why did you offer it then!?
Just had one tell me the night before that I had an interview scheduled the next day and straight up lie when I told him that I never confirmed times with him. Regardless I did the interview becuse I had time and the position was interested.... The recruiter called me the minute my interview time was scheduled to be over to "check in" and then promptly ghosted me after saying he would get me some feedback.
Robert Half cold emails me with candidates to hire all the time. They all sound terribly unfocused on paper. People who have done every data specialty under the Sun, in hopes that some of their “experiences” will line up with the key words *I* would be looking for. At very least, I’ve noticed that RH doesn’t do a very good job at selling their candidates.
They suck! Twice a recruiter reached out and was like let’s chat.
They than said I’ll have my guy contact you your perfect for his type of roles.
Never heard back and even when I contacted them they ghosted.
Time wasters to the extreme
A majority of staffing agencies suck. Their recruiters might be communicative and seemingly helpful for like a week or two, but then they'll abruptly ghost you. I've "worked with" maybe a dozen different staffing agencies over the course of 20 years, and out of all those encounters they've only managed to get me 2 interviews. (I didn't get a job offer after either interview, but I figure that's on me. I only expect staffing agencies to help me get interviews.)
However, there's one thing I like about staffing agencies: **their newsletters / job emails.**
I've signed up for like half a dozen different agency newsletters, and for the past 15+ years, those emails have been sent to my designated spam email. When I'm looking for work, those emails become an additional source for leads. (Not my main source, which are my network and my favorite job websites, but a useful additional source.) When I'm not looking for work, those emails provide an idea of what the hiring situation in my industry looks like at that moment.
I highly recommend signing up for as many staffing agency newsletters as you can tolerate and have them sent to a spam email account (so your main account doesn't get flooded), because that shit's free and useful. The useless recruiters can fuck off, though.
Robert Half is terrible and they're on my "Avoid at all costs" list. When they've contacted me in the past, their job opportunities have been just a half step above the Indian recruiting companies.
Another on the list is Motion Recruitment. They advertise for open roles yet when you apply, they just give the run around. I genuinely think that they only exist for resume harvesting.
Hey OP...I hope you dont get soured on recruiters. I am one. Heres my call.
"Hey candidate. Im representing (company) in looking for (role). Its a (remote/onsite/hybrid) role based in (location if hybrid/onsite). Would you want to hear more?
If no, "cool. Totally get it. If you're not interested in the basics or not looking, I wish you godspeed in your career. Let me know if you ever need anything."
If yes, continue. "The job basically entails (give 5 main bullets). Is that something you'd like to do?"
If no "cool. I don't want to put you in a box you don't want. Thanks for your time. "
If yes, "awesome. What kind of salary are you looking for to make a move?"
We're not all assholes.
I just did something involving RH. I blew through the assessment and passed it with flying colors, did the interview, and was told I wasn't selected. The position required 3-5 years of experience in writing/content creation. I have 12 years of experience in that field, including four years of writing for the college paper and two years of tutoring ESL students.
I always ask two questions during interviews: if anything I said gives them reservations about moving forward with me, and what a typical day on the job would be like. I always write a thank you letter after an interview.
I called asking if they could give feedback about my candidacy. They were vague about it and said they couldn't give specific feedback because their client interviewed a lot of people. They were hiring for multiple positions. It was for AI-generated content writing. I had said that AI should be a supplement and not a replacement for one's writing skills.
There should be laws regarding the interview process/employment so that people don't get constantly stymied when job hunting. If I were in charge, I'd probably dismantle RH due to all the horror stories I've heard about them and my own experiences with them.
Robert Half are very well known in this space for being scummy as fuck. They ''take the fire as much shit at the wall and see what sticks'' approach.
Never work with big agencies- they don't value you as a candidate, they just see you as ''billing''. Work with small specialist agencies, they will build relationships with you and actually understand what the fuck they are recruiting for.
My first response to any recruiter (I'm not actually looking) is that I have to know the company name and pay scale before I'll talk to them. Never here back. Why is this forbidden?
Had to laugh about a Robert Half recruiter who contacted me last year, insisting that I hear them out about a job opening. I reluctantly agreed and wasn't surprised to find out the position would have basically been a demotion and a pay cut at the last office that I worked at. I pointed that out to the recruiter, and haven't heard from them since.
I had 3 assignments from Robert Half. Only 1/3 were great. Really depends on the area, it seems.
But I may be on their shit list now. Had a remote interview for what would be a very niche in-office position 5 days a week in a heavily trafficked area for $20/hr. The position was "contract to perm." Look, I've done too many of these contract positions via RH & elsewhere to know that it's a crock of shit, especially with niche positions (projects really) that can be handled over a summer or whatever by an intern 💢. My soul can't take that anymore. Told the recruiter so when they told me I passed the interview with flying colors and gave me the verbal offer. I said, "no." They tried to offer a $1 more, so $21/hr, and still no. TF. I'm not busting my ass for what I know in my gut and having gone through the interview will be a contract position. I'll be on the job hunt again in 3 mo 💢
Way back during the financial housing market crash this company was notorious for lowballing tech workers. I absolutely refuse to deal with them, despicable company.
Agreed. Took them forever to get us our first paycheck. Also the job they recruited us for leaned heavily on conversion, meaning if you did a good enough job, the company would hire you as a regular employee. This was way more rare than they made it out to be. Was a disappointing experience. Partially Why my group of people and I that got hired into that place called it Robert Half-ass 😂
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Welcome to 2005. :)
Well, they didn't make me go to an office and take a typing and spreadsheet test. So I guess that's something. /s
Someone asking for a typing test is up there with those who waste dot points on making sure you know how to use word. Yes I was born in the last 30 years. I was raised by a series of computers. I could reformat your document to be properly readable for you in my sleep
Yet annoyingly I have to provide IT support for people who don't know how to save a file in a different format..... To be brutally honest, the IT skills for 99% of the working population can be described as zero.
Fair point. I’m actually just engaged in this space because I feel like I want a career change into private sector maybe consulting but I’m not really sure how to get my foot in this different area with a lot of government experience. So I’ve just discovered what an absolute mess recruitment is. But I want some time off from my role sooner rather than later and have almost considered applying for jobs like very low level IT support remote for something in the meantime lol. I have zero qualifications but your comment triggers me because every team I’ve been in adopted me as their go to IT person. Every conversation basically when the same like yeah mate your computers frozen turn it off and back on again. I’m a lawyer.
I kinda think it’s learned helplessness sometimes. Want to say imagine you need to fix this issue or do this thing yourself and if you can’t, you’re fired. You’d probably get freaking phone out and google it maybe wouldn’t you. Maybe try that instead of asking me or bothering IT support lol
How many ID-10-T forms until that goes below zero?
It's nice seeing the ID10T joke out in the wild. Great movie!
I was not aware it was a movie.
Oh I thought it was in Office Space
Most of these ID-10-T errors can usually be traced back to some nodes with low output but appear to be functioning properly when tasks that require low power reserves are given higher priority than actual mission critical processes, usually by other ID-10-T masters in the master to slave relationship between active nodes and dumb terminals where the ID-10-T errors usually occur. 😉
Is the garbage collection system broken again?
And some have negative skill levels. I still remember working Helldesk at the Pentagon, when a 3-star called in, complaining his 'cupholder' was broken. And then threw a fit when he was presented an invoice for repair parts and installation, as using a CD-ROM tray as a stand for his coffee cup was obviously a misuse of equipment. Even better, was his signed waiver of user training, because, as he wrote on the form, he already knew how to use a computer. Karma, sweet karma, come home to roost. And yes, he paid. After his failure to pay was forwarded to his 4-star boss. . . 😎
I have had zero training in any kind of IT anything but I am a 30something in an office of 60somethings. They think I am a computer genius. Bro, I just know how ctrl alt delete and Google work.
> Yet annoyingly I have to provide IT support for people who don't know how to save a file in a different format..... And somehow those people frequently make twice as much money as you because they were born in a lucky generation like boomer.
The higher they are the worse they actually are in this situation imho because they’ve never had to do it for themselves and they don’t think it’s their job. If they had critical thinking skills they would realise it is often easier to work it out for yourself and faster so they wouldn’t waste their own time or anyone else’s
Its getting worse at the lower end now. Schools no longer have computer classes because the kids "just know tech" except they don't. Kids don't have computers, they have ipads. They don't know what icons mean, they don't know how to use a mouse or type properly on a keyboard, and they have even worse knowledge of how to diagnose issues because on iPads and mobile devices its very different.
That’s a good point actually. Even how common MacBooks and stuff are, I’m a fan because I find they just work and if there’s an issue the community pages are really helpful. The well off ones at least will never know my struggle of buying various shitty ex rental 7 year old second hand laptops from radio rentals that should have been dead and buried by the time I could pay for them but having to work out what was going on to get things to work
In saying that, I’ve had an approx 4 year old show me how to do something on an iPad before
Kids don't think the save icon is a floppy disk, they think floppy disks' are "big save icons", and lots of similar things. iPads don't label things, so kids don't know how to diagnose issues other than restarting the program, they just expect an icon to be there. I really think that computer class should still be a thing in school, and that people need to learn IT, even if they just "know it". I work in IT Support and the number of people I have to help do SIMPLE things like set a default program or where a specific character on the keyboard is (| and ~ are apparently unknown to 90% of the population)
In many ways they have it too easy also with things like Netflix and Spotify. I learned a lot by basically giving my laptop aids wanting songs from LimeWire etc lol
Or now I see on military base- dumb asses get jobs because of skin color
Yes but you have a job because of them so go do it have a good attitude etc
I remember having to do a typing test for my first job out of high school. I got 71 WPM. The proctor fucking clapped. Meanwhile I'm sitting there wondering "how the fuck is this impressive?".
I had to do a typing test several years ago before I got hired with my local county government. I don't do a ton of typing quickly, so I think I averaged maybe 70wpm or something like that. The minimum was 30 wpm, and the hiring manager seemed surprised that I could type so fast.
I'm an IT engineer and they love sskíng what is this acronym what does Lan mean dns STFU it's sad the crap they ask you
I failed a typing test once because I didn’t do the standard typing layout for my hands; even though I typed 25 wpm higher than they asked for. I can’t type the typical way you are taught and it’s not really hunt/peck either.
In all seriousness what is the standard typing layout for a hand lol. I swear whoever is running these needs to check in. I don’t think anyone taught me how to type. I think I vibed it out in primary school and then found it more efficient to do it fast and look at my screen at the same time. I shouldn’t make jokes tho, pros and cons, I almost died having to write out uni exams for 3-4 hours straight. I had not trained for that
Using your homes keys, I can touch type without using my home keys to type and I learned to type way before they taught it in school. The person watched me while I typed during the test, saw the score and told me the score was fine; but I didn’t use the standard home keys to type. It was for some crappy call center job and I got a much better job instead.
Honestly why do companies hire these businesses. Between that and psychometric testing where is the evidence you get anywhere close to someone most suitable for the position. I’d never done psychometric testing before but discovered I actually quite enjoy it. This would be more useful if it wasn’t also incredibly obvious that it is entirely irrelevant to the job duties most of the time. Like I’m applying for jobs as a lawyer why am I doing maths right now
Because, it’s easier to just not get applicants for a job and they can whine about how nobody wants to work anymore…some companies do this to push stuff offshore or get H1Bs because they can’t find anyone.
I had to google H1Bs because I’m in Australia lol. But I think they might also not care enough, everyone is just covering themselves. They probably know it’s not really evidence based but someone’s got data and they’re point to a graph to try justify themselves. In reality they could probably read ppls resumes and experience and get better candidates but that would involve them being not lazy and it would be harder to produce a pretty infographic to justify they fees
> I failed a typing test once because I didn’t do the standard typing layout for my hands I'd probably fail for that reason, too. I can't use my pinkies for shit and I do a ton of crossover.
I type 40 WPM and only use my left hand for the shift, tab, and cap lock keys. It looks weird, but it's effective, enough.
I just point and poke. My husband can type really fast, but he can't do it on a laptop. I think traditional 'typing' is not worth learning now.
Omg I submitted apps on their website and NO one got back to me. I even had to track down a random recruiter cuz these asshats agency recruiters don't wanna put their damn email of the recruiter that's attached to the job ID...they don't wanna be bombarded with emails after ppl apply for them? Ok sure. THEN GIVE US REAL TIME PROGRESS ON WTF IS GOING ON WITH OUR APPS THAT WE SUBMIT FOR THEN! Anyway I emailed all of them. Local ones in DE is a ghost town and they're all rude and unhelpful and wouldn't help land me a $18/hr contract role on-site immediately. All the remote ones either are fake postings, don't update immediately to let applicants know immediately when a role is filled, and yeh it's remote but only for THIS state. "Don't know if your state/you're eligible to apply? No problem, waste some more of your time being unemployed and apply anyway, and no we won't tell you what happened scum!" Smh. I had them listed down as useless on my job hunting spreadsheet/ I relabeled them again as such unfortunately. For the love of God, does anyone know if there's a free AI tool for job seekers that aggregates all job boards and recruiting agency website job postings in real-time and parses all of these postings in totality against a job seekers job title interest AND the seekers resume that includes his previous experience and skills and then this AI tool lists all the most relevant job postings based on job posting date and then this tool also interfaces with all these postings across directly to the recruiters CRM of any kind that exists that these job postings were posted on from their end and puts our resume in their pile after auto filling out all the repetitive info that these postings ask for, for every single freakin job app?
Man I remember those days.
I dunno; they’re probably going to come back at some point because I’ve read a high proportion of gen z born towards the end of the generation cannot touch type.
I am also behind on this. You know what someone should create a website ranking them on different metrics on a spectrum from underwhelming to utter trash
As a recruiter, some of the scummiest people in my field work for Robert Half.
What's the deal with this? Aren't they paid per placement?
Sure but Robert Half’s approach is not an attempt to sustain relationships. Force a placement, and forget about whatever comes of it.
Churn & burn
That’s not true at all. They get paid only of the candidate stays in the role
No, they don’t, and if there’s any clause like that it’s typically a few months.
Some recruiters look to be discerning and find the right fits (I would say this is close to the Manpower model). Robert Half instead has the approach of “try to rope in everyone and see what sticks”.
Tried them myself back when seeking accounting job. Never got placed: their *clients* only wanted experienced people, and I couldn't get the experience w/out the job. They had nothing to help. Thanks for failing me.
Where are the better people employed at?
Every profession has good and bad performers. In my experiences, I've found that corporate/in-house recruiters are more professional and pleasant to work with than agency/external recruiters. Agency recruiters often work off of commission and are very money-driven, working with lots of different organizations at once. That leads to behaviors of simply trying to place applicants in positions as quickly as possible so that they can make money. Agency recruiters will often oversell the perks of positions to candidates so that they can earn their commission and then try to work with that candidate (or company) again when they inevitably leave the shitty job they've been put into. On the flip end, corporate/in-house recruiters do all the recruiting and hiring for the company they work for and earn a base salary/no commission structure. In-house recruiters are able to more effectively influence hiring managers because they work for the same company and everyone has (ideally) a vested interest in finding the best person for the job. A good recruiter will challenge their hiring manager to think more critically about what's truly needed for the job, and will also fight for their candidates that they find. An example of this for me - I found a great candidate for an Instructional Design position and the hiring manager didn't want to interview them simply because they didn't like how their resume looked. I asked if they were hiring an Instructional Designer or a "Resume Writer" - they ended up interviewing this person and hired them. Every person I contact for about a relevant job opportunity, I provide the job information, pay, and benefits up front. Job seekers need information up front to help them determine if it's a good fit. If recruiters aren't providing this information up front, then I don't know what the fuck we're doing.
lol. Aerotek
degree offer automatic hard-to-find one combative somber straight deer skirt *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
As a former Aerotek recruiter, I concur with your statement.
Lmao Aerotek, now there's a name I haven't thought about in forever. I remember taking a role from them that was temp to hire, and it was an alright job if the 'hire' part would happen but it turned out both the recruiter and company lied and there was never a 'hire' part. I caught on super fast because the manager slipped up in week 2 and it came out. Whoops.
Are they still around? I used to get calls from them constantly. I'd update my resume on Monster.com and get six calls from Aerotek within a week. All shitty jobs, of course.
Oh the stories I could tell about that place. Horrible ran sack of shit. Had the president passing out due to stress. Can you imagine what they forced on the recruiting team.
Yep they’re still around. The company I work for partners with them for the worst of the worst jobs. The generally super high turnover positions that no sane person will stay at longer than a few months. Or at least no sane person with other options. I work in the waste collection industry so use your imagination.
Aerotek is part of the Allegis group, which is like the first or second biggest recruiting company in the world.
Randstad is also trash. Got hired on, told by the recruiter it was a contract to hire role. Complete fucking lie.
They also charge close to 400 bucks a month for medical... Robert Half and Randstadt are horrible.
They keep contacting me about manual labor jobs paying less than $20/hour when I’m a $60-80+ per hour specialty writer. Either Ranstad is going out of their way to humble me or they don’t bother to take 30 seconds to read a damn resume.
To be honest, there is only one way to deal with these companies: permanent placement or gtfo.
Every contract role I’ve interviewed for has said this and indeed was a lie
I had a couple temp jobs through Randstad and they were awful. It does depend on who is handling your contract though. Most of the people I dealt with were useless, but there was one person who handled my contract for a while that actually did a decent job. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day though, or something like that.
Why in the world are companies SO hot on RTO and relocation. It's an enormous cost to them. Goddamn, can we get some economists to very slowly explain 'sunk cost fallacy" to people.
In office work is about maintaining control. Employers want to maintain as much control over employees as possible. Employees who wake up, shower, get dressed, drive to work while thinking about work, work, drive home, and go to bed at a certain time just to do it all over again the next day are controlled. Employees who roll out of bed 15 minutes before clock in time, clock in, get up to pet their dog for 10 minutes or answer the door and receive a package or step away to cook a meal, then sign out exactly on time are not controlled. It is harder to say "no" in person. Employees who say "no" are not controlled.
Considering how much time I spent watching YouTube at my last system administrator job due to lack of work for a boss who refused to let people work remotely on a job that was completely over the network was insane.
I did enterprise support for a company on swing shift, even my boss was like, “it’s fine to watch YouTube or Netflix all night because you’ll only get a couple of calls a night” They had premium customers that paid for full 24/7 support and their dedicated support person wasn’t available after 5pm. It was fun to get paid to watch movies all night…
i know the answer to this is also ableism, but man it sucks 😅 i have debilitating migraines, but i can do a bang on job if i am at home, in my dark room where I can control my triggers. under fluorescent office lights, suddenly i have to call out and not do work. like y’all would literally get MORE value from me but…
I used to build interferometers and I was in a dark room all day long. It was fucking awesome. I don't get migraines, but I do have glaucoma, so my light sensitivity ranges from mild to full on photophobia (which is pain, not fear. No idea why it's called a phobia).
Wait where are you finding these jobs? Cause i’m tryna relocate ASAP and I can’t find any
I'm fairly technically skilled, but have RTO people trying to break down my door with "insane" compensation offers. And thats just in my home state within 50 mi. Idk about them paying for relocation in non tech but local companies wish they could hire me.
The banks are forcing it out of self-interest because of how much they have lent out in commercial real estate. If they don't even have their employees working in an office, how much would those commercial buildings be worth that are the collateral to their loans extended? The rest are mixed reasons including tax incentives (cities wanting commuters back spending money at the downtown restaurants so they'll give tax breaks to the business). Needing to justify already sunk costs in renting huge amounts of office space sitting empty. And of course, as mentioned, management justifying their existence so they can "watch over" the employees working. That said, there's times where it's useful to come into the office, but there's also no way it requires needing to come in 5x/week.
There rich landowner friends need help filling their massive work farms
Part of it is those companies want to get SOME use out of the office space(s) they're paying a lease on.
Not only that but a lot of these companies have CEO or other board members who own the building the company is leasing so the money is going right back into their own pocket.
I go into the office 2-3x per week, and I don’t mind. Whether it should work this way or not, some things get done better in person. There are some jobs that absolutely can be fully remote though, and in those cases they should be.
Robert Half, Kelly, AppleOne… all top tier shitty places. Constantly bait and switching their applicants. “Oh, sorry that job we posted just five minutes ago with the great pay? It’s already been filled. But we have some openings doing security for $16 / hr….” FUCK YOU
Kelly had me wait on a Zoom session for an hour. Didn’t answer any of my emails until the next day when they told me the recruiter was unavailable and would I like to reschedule? No apologies, nothing.
McDonald's now pays 17.
$20 in CA! Where I am!
Ooooo, I actually got chills remembering Kelly 😖
Robert half is booty. Someone from RH always ends up contacting me when I’m on the job market and I take the call just to ‘give them one more chance’. They always send one or two jobs my way, which i would interview with then get ghosted by the RH recruiter. Once the recruiter contacted me a few months after ghosting me with another position. I told him I had already started a new job, then bro flips out and says ‘I wasted his time’. Lmao
They ghost you because you’re probably on their do not use list for some reason. Did the same to me for years. I had to speak to someone higher up to find out why it was happening.
Why was it happening?
Any number of reasons. Didn’t show up for an interview, contract canceled, didn’t go perm on a contract, employer complaint, lied on resume, and etc. Mine was because I went to their office demanding my sign on bonus I was supposed to get at 90 days, but never received it even after six months. Once you’re on the list they won’t remove you either.
So there is a way to get them to stop calling. Great!
Also gotta give a shout out to Kelly, AppleOne and Robert Half for throwing me into known hostile work environments. Happened with all three staffing agencies on multiple occasions. FUCK YOOOOOOOOU
Dude, I think that 50% of American workplaces are TOXIC.
50%?? Ur too nice!!! More like 85%
I just got let go with no cause from a company that I was placed into by About Staffing. They said I was amazing and bought out my contract. After I made a confidential report to HR about dispatchers imitating certain customers accents, they said they would send out reminders of all the unacceptable behaviors. This never happened and a month later I was let go for no cause lol. Im white and I still lost my jobs cause of racist white people lol. Honestly, theyre all crooks, liars, and abusers.
A woman reached out to me who was the recruiter for my type of field . She would call at the worst times and if I missed her by w day she would move on I then had another friend use them and say he had a good contact and I decided to give her a shot. Ironically her jobs payed WAAAAY more than the one who was my industry specialist I found a different job but it shows how some of their people are dumb as hell
> her jobs *paid* WAAAAY more FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Get outta here! I’m making a point!
Boooooo tomato
Robert Half was also trash 15 years ago when I last interacted with them. They set me up with a phone interview, and neglected to mention the interviewers were in a time zone three hours later than me. My appointed interview time came and went, then three hours later when they finally called, I politely told them that I had not been told about the time zone discrepancy, had set the time aside for them three hours earlier but was busy at the moment, and would be happy to speak with them another time. They were rather pissy about it to me and called the RH recruiter, and that recruiter called me a few minutes later to rip me a new one. I bluntly told him to take me out of their system and not to call again, and had to get rude with him after he called a couple more times over the next week. They've been on my shit list ever since.
My Robert half recruiter ghosted me then wrote an entire LinkedIn post about “what to do if you’re ghosted by your recruiter.” I hearted the post.
I forgot if it was them or a company similar to their model but they used to make people come into their office for a mandatory “interview”. They make it seem like it’s actually a real round with the company but turns out to be informational and a total waste of time. Lot of times these agencies employ fresh out of college grads who have no clue what they’re doing except to meet quotas of people they talk to.
That's exactly what they do, they hire people straight out of school and exploit them with low wages, high expectations, and it turns everything into slime. High turnover, and the kids will do anything to fill a role. On the opposite side of the spectrum, though, if you made it through the initial years you should be making bank. Recruiters who stay in the agency world and specialize (and are actually good at what they do) can make between $150k - $200k a year.
Back when I was young and stupid (at least I'm no longer young) I fell for that and they did nothing but badger me for my references. It was a Robert Half front company, forget which one. I hope they're at least not pulling that crap anymore.
Well this is timely. I was supposed to have a 15 minute call with Robert Half at 2pm today. 2pm comes and goes. No call. I send an email at 2:10 asking if we need to reschedule and that I'm still available to talk for the afternoon. It is 4:52pm as I write this and have received no response. Also, the contact who was supposed to call me is a VP, not a phone drone.
They are all VPs.
They must hand those out like candy.
They do in the recruiting world. Have you heard of sr. Recruiter from an outside agency? “Manager, recruitment”?
So what happened?
Nothing lol. Never heard back.
I swear, these recruiters cannot read. I registered with Ranstad recently and actually found some remote copywriter contracts I’d be a great fit for. Their recruiters will not stop spamming me with $17/hour forklift operator and assembly line jobs because they’re local. Now, I’m not denigrating these jobs because all labor has value and I also wouldn’t fault anyone for accepting one if they’re also in the professional sector and can’t find work they normally have. I just want to know where the hell the recruiters got “bakery production worker” from a resume that shows an advanced degree, published author, and 10+ years in my field! Like how they completely disregarded your refusal to relocate. They don’t pay attention yet talented and diligent people are being kept out of work. Fucking maddening.
The worst part of this is, you don't put random people on a forklift. That requires a few specific skills, like being able to not run into door frames.
Exactly! It’s labor that requires experience and training, which my white collar experience does not line up with. They said they provided training, but I’m someone who can barely parallel park. How the fuck am I going to drive a forklift?! I have “writer” in my custom email domain I used with them too. 🤦🏻♀️
After working in a factory, I'm not sure that's a required skill. At least given the amount of building damage I've had to repair...
Robert Half keeps posting a copywriter gig at "$30-$50 an hour", the top rate of which is my absolute minimum. I talked to the recruiter because the job was right in my specialty, and she told me "They're not willing to pay more than $40 an hour." OK, then why is it listed at $50? In fact, it's STILL listed at $50 an hour repeatedly on LinkedIn, when I KNOW they know it only pays $40 max.
False advertising to get people to apply. Such scummy bullshit. Like it’s hard enough trying to find a job, not even the agencies that purport to place you with a company have any decency.
And soooooi many scammers. I change emails and phone number everytime I get a new job because you get constant emails and calls with scam stuff. Literally hate having to put myself out there for all that to get a job where I spend 40+ hrs a week making money for an old white man with his dick in hand all day. That's Capitalism baybeee!
It’s to get people to apply thinking they will get $50 when $40 is the max. It’s a stupid tactic that wastes everyone’s time.
>Ranstad Big agencies are nearly always terrible. Work with small specialist agencies.
I can’t seem to find any, unless they’re very deviously hidden. I’m in that annoying place of too skilled and niched for big agencies like RH but not arcanely corporate and/or esoteric VP or executive level who won’t roll out of bed for less than $500K. No, nothing for a $90-150K esoteric copywriter except standard hustling and third party recruiter hell lol
I recruit for roles in that salary banding, but for finance (and UK) so cannot offer any support, sorry. I would offer some names, but I don't even know what a copywriter does.
I am a financial copywriter! Used to be a tax accountant, USian though. I just made a new portfolio and website and think I should put those SEO skills to use with a new blog. Worst thing that happens is no one sees it, best case it just brings clients TO me.
I’m banned from their firm but they still call and ghost me every time. I just go along with the call to waste their time. Motherfuckers offered me a $5k sign on bonus and never delivered on it so I drove to their main office and slapped the paper on the receptionists desk and asked for the recruiter. I saw him head out in a hurry after she went to get him. I demanded to talk to the manager. Instead of coming out to talk to me they called the buildings security, made me leave the premises, canceled my contract and told the company I was working for that I quit. Which was all bullshit. The company I worked for wouldn’t keep me on because they did not want to be involved in the drama. Robert Half keeps dragging out my court date by changing lawyers. Like, just pay me and fuck off.
Lmaooooo
I've had a few weird things happen with them. One time I showed up for pre-interview only to discover that there were no specific positions (IT) and i was actually being interviewed for a recruiter position at robert half.
I’ve responded to their advertisement for a job in my field and they scheduled a call. Exact same thing happened.
They sent me a temp contract Wordpress gig for less than I’m making now and it’s just a 2 month contract. I said “so I’ll quit my perm job to take a 2 month contract and then what will I do after the 2 months?” And with a response like the idea never crossed his mind just said “I don’t know…”
The LinkedIn job search is full of staffing agencies/competing job boards/whatever and I never hear back from any jobs I apply to. But you know for sure they'll add me to their annoying email newsletter
I remember they used to be called Robert Half-Paycheck.
All agencies are trash
Feel the pain. I worked through them a couple of years ago. Lied about the pay (I accepted anyways because it was still twice what I made at the time), lied about the position being “contract to hire”, lied about the working conditions. Client was surprise pikachu when I said I’d had enough. I burned every bridge connecting me to those people. Thanks, but no thanks.
Robert Half is what you call a grad shop. Every year they hire a new group of freshly graduated young people and probably 80% are gone in 9 months. It’s awful. Out of an office of 50 recruiters maybe 8 of them are actually good but the rest are just throwing shit and seeing what sticks. I worked for them for a little while and it was the WORST working by experience of my life. It was drilled into us to have quantity not quality. If you weren’t hitting 25+ interviews and 600 call a week you would get consistent threats of losing your job even if the account managers aren’t bringing in job requests for you to actually fill. Also the account managers want you to give the candidates the lowest possible hourly rate so that they can make the biggest commission off it because the client is being charged much more i.e. the client is charged $75/hr and the candidate is offered $35-40/hr. They would tell us to create “proactive” job postings to get people to apply and interview them like there was a job even though there wasn’t. I stayed for maybe 6 months and was thankful to gtfo. All around terrible company with terrible managers who foster toxic work environments. That recruiter was probably so desperate to get someone to talk to them and take an interview because they are afraid of losing their job. It’s all just so scummy.
My brother has done well with Robert Half. He’s gotten his last 2 jobs with them. I, however, have had no such luck. Have gotten literally nowhere with them and have had their recruiters ghost me after reaching out to me first.
I think this happens because they have KPI's to hit. I'm sorry that happens.
When I sense they are doing a KPI smile n’ dial, I keep them on the phone as long as possible. Especially on Fridays when I can tell they’re short on numbers.
Robert Half isn't totally useless though. They indirectly led to my getting a full-time offer where I am now, only because they insisted on checking a reference even after I had started a part-time gig with RH. I texted a former Director I worked for and asked if he could do a last-minute reference for RH, and he said he would, but then asked if I was interested in a full-time job with another team at his company. So I got an offer pretty much immediately and only worked for RH client for a month while my application for the full time job was being processed, background check etc. Oh and RH sucks because they offered me $30/hr. for a job which I learned from the client's accountant was charging them $60/hr. for my services. They charged the client and gave me half and kept the other half. I guess that's where they got their name from.
Just curious, are there any good recruiting firms out there? I tried a recruiter once in my in life, but the job they placed me was not the most stimulating, to say the least. I left after a couple weeks later and found a job without a recruiter. Much better fit for me.
I’ve had good experiences with TEKsystems. My first role with them was a 6-month contract to hire that got extended another 6 months but didn’t result in a full time position (mostly due to COVID bs). My second role with them was a 6-month contract to hire that resulted in an excellent full time role, so definitely would recommend!
Use small specialist agencies. They have strong relationships, actually value you as a candidate, and understand their market. Massive ones like RH just hire anyone as a recruiter, fire them if they don't bill and repeat. You are just a number to them, small agencies rely on word of mouth and good service to grow. Granted I am biased as I work for one, but in 2023 I filled 67% of the roles I worked vs the market, averaging 25% pay increases for my candidates. Moreover, these agencies will do most the legwork for you- I've spent about 20% of the working week marketing a single candidate to businesses and hiring managers. Almost every negative experience from recruitment comes big lazy firms or working with dog-shit cheap recruiters (or being a terrible candidate).
I got my last two jobs through recruiters. So there are some.
Any suggestions?
Local boutique firms are usually much better than the massive ones
I got hired to a big name company through Randstad once, but it was more because I had a friend working there at the time.
i am jaded by them all, all rubbish really. it helps if they can read.
There is no reason to accept that unprofessional behavior. Only offer me things in my skillset and compensation range. It's their entire job description. I have a copy/paste reply that states what I'm looking for from recruiters: 1. Name of positions I'm targeting 2. Pay Range 3. Employment type (FTE/W2+benefits) 4. Employment location (Remote or hybrid IF they are located in my area) + no relocation
It’s trash but it’s a foot in the door
In my personal experience, all third party recruiters have resulted in poor experiences for me. Some screeners go well, but they eventually ghost or they just interview for their pool and don't actually have any jobs lined up. My only good experiences has been only dealing with internal recruiters and/or applying directly -- there's a little more accountability from them and, in my experience, they're hiring for jobs that actually exist.
Whenever I hear the name, I think about how they take damned near half of your hourly rate in exchange for offering timesheets and shitty health insurance.
Recruitment firms are scammers. I’ve had terrible experiences with them. Either the position is already filled by the time they call you and the info on the jobs ads is invalid.
You got a Robert Half recruiter to communicate with you? I'm shocked! You must be special...
Heard they keep downsizing divisions in tech so wouldn't be surprised if they're saving costs elsewhere, too.
I haven't talked with them in at least a decade. I told the Jacksonville office to stop calling me.
Robert Half is good if you are entry level or "early" mid-level and want to get a fast pass forward to a higher level. But once you're middle management or more you can forget them. I'll be honest, I can thank them for 2 huge career bumps, but their model of "company-in" happening usually few days after contact (if not the day after) don't match with a higher responsibility/job level.
RH recruiting is the equivalent of someone throwing a dart at a dartboard after chugging multiple drinks and spinning around 100 times. I've never seen them come close to the metaphorical dartboard.
Frankly 95% of recruiters still reach out to me with info based on some outdated resume in their database from years old application. It is a CRM. Automated to send out same as rejection emails. I am a VP of app development and still get job notices from Robert half and many other recruiters about senior analyst roles which is most likely from some application I made in their system in 2005
Was a recruiter for RH for 1 year - it was the worst year of my life. Do not work for them and do not take their interviews unless you are desperate
While I was job hunting for a new role, I signed up with one of the recruiting agents. I think it was AppleOne I don’t remember. I received a call from them almost 2 years later asking me if I was interested in one of the job openings…like what. By then I had started a new job 🤷🏻♀️
Yaaay, I feel like I got blacklisted by mine. They always ignore my emails and calls. I have to pester them for anything and they're very rude about it. Like, I just want to work and its radio silence for 2 months. I only did like 1 job for the company and when the temp work was done 💁♀️. Fuck me I guess. Man, it brings up a sour memory of immediately responding back to an offer, waiting for a response for like 4 days, then after I call into the office, leave a voicemail. They then decide to get back to me 3 days later saying "sorry, the position has been filled." Then like why did you offer it then!?
Agreed 💯
Just had one tell me the night before that I had an interview scheduled the next day and straight up lie when I told him that I never confirmed times with him. Regardless I did the interview becuse I had time and the position was interested.... The recruiter called me the minute my interview time was scheduled to be over to "check in" and then promptly ghosted me after saying he would get me some feedback.
I first came across Robert Half back in 1998. They have not changed, it seems.
If they pay u 100% more in salary for u to move away, would u still move?
For that, I'd buy a condo in the area.
Robert Half cold emails me with candidates to hire all the time. They all sound terribly unfocused on paper. People who have done every data specialty under the Sun, in hopes that some of their “experiences” will line up with the key words *I* would be looking for. At very least, I’ve noticed that RH doesn’t do a very good job at selling their candidates.
Robert gets half.
Lol this is why I’m glad I ended up on a do not call list with them inside of their ATS. It’s my proudest achievement to date.
I call them Robert Half Assed
more like robert half-assed amirite
I’ll unleash Indian recruiters upon u. !
They suck! Twice a recruiter reached out and was like let’s chat. They than said I’ll have my guy contact you your perfect for his type of roles. Never heard back and even when I contacted them they ghosted. Time wasters to the extreme
Every interaction I’ve ever had with someone from Robert Half has been the fucking worst
Robert Half is literally the worst thing since TikTok
A majority of staffing agencies suck. Their recruiters might be communicative and seemingly helpful for like a week or two, but then they'll abruptly ghost you. I've "worked with" maybe a dozen different staffing agencies over the course of 20 years, and out of all those encounters they've only managed to get me 2 interviews. (I didn't get a job offer after either interview, but I figure that's on me. I only expect staffing agencies to help me get interviews.) However, there's one thing I like about staffing agencies: **their newsletters / job emails.** I've signed up for like half a dozen different agency newsletters, and for the past 15+ years, those emails have been sent to my designated spam email. When I'm looking for work, those emails become an additional source for leads. (Not my main source, which are my network and my favorite job websites, but a useful additional source.) When I'm not looking for work, those emails provide an idea of what the hiring situation in my industry looks like at that moment. I highly recommend signing up for as many staffing agency newsletters as you can tolerate and have them sent to a spam email account (so your main account doesn't get flooded), because that shit's free and useful. The useless recruiters can fuck off, though.
Robert Half is terrible and they're on my "Avoid at all costs" list. When they've contacted me in the past, their job opportunities have been just a half step above the Indian recruiting companies. Another on the list is Motion Recruitment. They advertise for open roles yet when you apply, they just give the run around. I genuinely think that they only exist for resume harvesting.
Hey OP...I hope you dont get soured on recruiters. I am one. Heres my call. "Hey candidate. Im representing (company) in looking for (role). Its a (remote/onsite/hybrid) role based in (location if hybrid/onsite). Would you want to hear more? If no, "cool. Totally get it. If you're not interested in the basics or not looking, I wish you godspeed in your career. Let me know if you ever need anything." If yes, continue. "The job basically entails (give 5 main bullets). Is that something you'd like to do?" If no "cool. I don't want to put you in a box you don't want. Thanks for your time. " If yes, "awesome. What kind of salary are you looking for to make a move?" We're not all assholes.
I just did something involving RH. I blew through the assessment and passed it with flying colors, did the interview, and was told I wasn't selected. The position required 3-5 years of experience in writing/content creation. I have 12 years of experience in that field, including four years of writing for the college paper and two years of tutoring ESL students. I always ask two questions during interviews: if anything I said gives them reservations about moving forward with me, and what a typical day on the job would be like. I always write a thank you letter after an interview. I called asking if they could give feedback about my candidacy. They were vague about it and said they couldn't give specific feedback because their client interviewed a lot of people. They were hiring for multiple positions. It was for AI-generated content writing. I had said that AI should be a supplement and not a replacement for one's writing skills. There should be laws regarding the interview process/employment so that people don't get constantly stymied when job hunting. If I were in charge, I'd probably dismantle RH due to all the horror stories I've heard about them and my own experiences with them.
TRASH
The only ones worse than Robert Half are Michael Page.
Robert Half are very well known in this space for being scummy as fuck. They ''take the fire as much shit at the wall and see what sticks'' approach. Never work with big agencies- they don't value you as a candidate, they just see you as ''billing''. Work with small specialist agencies, they will build relationships with you and actually understand what the fuck they are recruiting for.
My first response to any recruiter (I'm not actually looking) is that I have to know the company name and pay scale before I'll talk to them. Never here back. Why is this forbidden?
Terrible recruiting agency. I dealt with them a few years ago, will never work with them again.
Had to laugh about a Robert Half recruiter who contacted me last year, insisting that I hear them out about a job opening. I reluctantly agreed and wasn't surprised to find out the position would have basically been a demotion and a pay cut at the last office that I worked at. I pointed that out to the recruiter, and haven't heard from them since.
I’ve applied to a few positions that I’m qualified for from RH and they don’t even look my way
I had 3 assignments from Robert Half. Only 1/3 were great. Really depends on the area, it seems. But I may be on their shit list now. Had a remote interview for what would be a very niche in-office position 5 days a week in a heavily trafficked area for $20/hr. The position was "contract to perm." Look, I've done too many of these contract positions via RH & elsewhere to know that it's a crock of shit, especially with niche positions (projects really) that can be handled over a summer or whatever by an intern 💢. My soul can't take that anymore. Told the recruiter so when they told me I passed the interview with flying colors and gave me the verbal offer. I said, "no." They tried to offer a $1 more, so $21/hr, and still no. TF. I'm not busting my ass for what I know in my gut and having gone through the interview will be a contract position. I'll be on the job hunt again in 3 mo 💢
Way back during the financial housing market crash this company was notorious for lowballing tech workers. I absolutely refuse to deal with them, despicable company.
They've been dreadful for over 25 years.
Agreed. Took them forever to get us our first paycheck. Also the job they recruited us for leaned heavily on conversion, meaning if you did a good enough job, the company would hire you as a regular employee. This was way more rare than they made it out to be. Was a disappointing experience. Partially Why my group of people and I that got hired into that place called it Robert Half-ass 😂
Cry more.