Incapable
Having dealt with recruiters from both Sydney and London, I have no issues with saying the vast majority of them are utterly useless who have no clue about what their job entails.
Let me share some examples where anyone with a sense of customer service will look at and shake their heads in disgust;
1. Sending in a junior recruiters (freshly graduated) to meet me
To expect someone completely NEW to the workforce to understand the responsibilities of a qualified accountant with circa 10 years international experience, and what I'm looking for in my next role is absurd. It was evident the majority of my words were flying over their heads as they simply did not understand or could not keep up, which was unsurprising given their lack of experience.
And these were meant to be my key contacts for my job search.
2. After meeting with 1-3 recruiters, I don't hear back from any of them for at least three months (in Sydney, it has been +six months and still haven't heard back from the recruiter). Why waste my (and other candidates) time with an initial meeting if you have no intentions of helping?
3. When I took the added step of contacting them about roles that suited my profile, no response was received or had a colleague tell me they'd get back to me only to not do so.
There are certainly quality recruiters out there who have a genuine interest of not only helping candidates find work, but have the right work ethic to do a good job. The people at Michael Page do not possess any of these qualities.
Sheer incompetence would be putting it kindly and I have no intention of working with them again.
10 March 2017
Unprompted review