Job Hunting Using Recruitment Agencies

On page 2 of our Job Hunting Guide we introduced 11 ways to find jobs.

Here we cover recruitment agencies, also called employment agencies or job agencies.

Job Hunting With Recruitment Agencies

The good news is that there are many good quality employment agencies around. The bad news is that there are some who promise much but don't deliver. The secret to job search success is finding the right one or ones for you.

Shop around. Don't always assume that a well known job agency will provide a better service than a lesser known one. Like any business, recruitment agencies are run by people -- if the people running the operation are good and have a solid reputation then the service will also be good, no matter how large or small. In fact, some small agencies do provide a better service in order to be able to compete with the big ones.

Types Of Recruitment Agency

There are two main types of employment agency:

• High street chains (most with websites)

  In the US these include:

  • Manpower -- a worldwide operation
  • CBS Personnel -- who have 130+ offices covering 16 states
  • Pro staff -– with 90 locations across the USA

  In the UK, these include:

  • Brookstreet
  • Reed
  • Manpower

  These agencies cover a broad employment spectrum. They advertise positions which are both permanent and contract and cover general activities as well as professional industries.

• Specialist job agencies

  These include Driver Hire, Hayes, Computer People and Accountancy Additions. As each name suggests, these agencies usually specialize in one or more employment sectors and as such have a lot of expertise which may be very useful to you. If you know the job sector in which you want to work, this can give you a real advantage. For general jobs you might have more success with the non-specialized recruitment agencies.

How To Find Agencies

• Ask friends, family and colleagues for recommendations
• Look for ads running in your local or national newspaper
• Search online
• Look in the Yellow Pages

Job Hunting With Agencies -- The Pros And Cons

On the next page we cover the advantages and disadvantages of using employment agencies.

And if you download this Job Search Guide instead, you'll learn 9 Top Tips For Job Agency Success.

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