[GD-General] How I hate recruitment agencies within any industry especially games...

[Anon P. <an...@ho...>]

At the moment I'm looking for a new programming job within the (UK) games 
industry (Well I'm beginning to wonder if I should do something else 
instead) and I'm part playing with the fun that is recruitment agents.  I 
really do hate them.  If they place me the lucky company will have to shell 
out ~25% of the offered salary to the agency after I've been there three 
months.  This has the effect of driving down the salary I will be offered 
which sucks.

So why use a recruitment agency?  The simple reason why I find myself being 
thrown back into that trap when I move jobs is because there is no single 
one place where I can find a list of 'real' jobs currently available - plus 
some companies do not have the time or resources to advertise properly.  Yeh 
you can see job listings on the internet but I can guarantee the majority do 
not exist and have been placed as bait by agents.  This is an appalling 
situation.

I have not yet seen or heard of one example where an agent has been anywhere 
remotely worth the ~25% they charge.  I find it sickening.  All they have 
ever done is get in the way and lose me jobs by not responding quickly 
enough - or by reformating my CV - Ever turned up for an interview and found 
that the company has an altered form of your CV with the wording changed? - 
this is especially great when an agent assumes that his/her technical 
knowledge is far superior and rewords jargon so it no longer makes any sense 
or infact creates new words that have no meaning...

Every time I'm called in for an interview that turns out to be with an agent 
I find it immensely frustrating - as if this guy sat in front of me is 
really is able to fathom my knowledge of C++, assembly language and 3d 
experience!  And as if he was there until 3am the other day doing 'just one 
more room' in Dungeon Siege or fragging someones ass online.  They're 
vultures who provide nothing more than a rip-off introductory service and 
then proceed to pop up in an annoying manor afterwards.

It's annoyed me so much I'm actually thinking of setting up my own games 
recruitment agency (eek!).  As far as I can see it a decent agency should 
provide:

1) A web service where companies can advertise directly for a standard 
decent advertising rate.  ie: candidates can go to one central place and 
find a list of jobs currently available and actually have decent details on 
them and who they're for and how to contact the company involved *directly*.

2) A premier service where employers can ask the agency to filter candidates 
as they simply don't have the time and resources to see everyone.  But the 
filtering service would be provided by people like me who actually knew what 
they were talking about and could properly evaluate a candidates expertise.

I'd be grateful to hear anybody elses opinions on this matter even if you 
think I've gone mad! .... which I probably did a while back ;)

Now I have a strange urge to watch Jerry Maguire....

PS: If I actually do this and I end up being like the rest of the agency 
fuckwits please someone shoot me and put me out of my misery!

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