Agents.... agents never change.....

[sbakoola]

After 13+ years in the business agents still don't bother calling back with interview feedback if you don't proceed to the next stage.

It doesn't help that the interview questions are a multitude of obscure questions that no one ever discusses or thinks about or looks at in the work place.

But that's finance/banking for you.

Why do agents treat contractors like broken goods after their first (stage 3) interview doesn't go well and never call us back ever again ? can't you see that the client is being far too selective and many hours have been spent on my side ? one client has been looking for a candidate since July 2012 for gods sake, doesn't that tell you something ?

rant over.

[BA to the Stars]

Why do agents treat contractors like broken goods after their first (stage 3) interview doesn't go well and never call us back ever again ?

Because there is no money in it for them. All they want is to get a candidate placed and start erning commission. Why waste time calling up someone who didn't get a gig when they could be toting other candidates to clients

[formant]

Why would they bother? The client doesn't want you, that's the end of the agent's interest in you. It's not the agents job to persuade the client to take you. They're better off throwing a few more applicants at the role hoping that one of them is going to do better than you did.

I had an agent fight my case (well mine and 5 others') for a perm role once, but even that wasn't really a fight because basically the local office had decided on us 6, but they'd just been taken over by some US corporation that insisted on everyone passing a psych aptitude test. All of us failed. In fact, every existing employee also failed. Agent tried his best over the course of 5 months, but it didn't help. Eventually they withdrew funding for the roles. Not sure it was a wise idea to bother.

[rootsnall]

Do you really want to know ? If getting knocked back has got you worked up then knowing the ( possibly pathetic ) reason won't do you any good at all.

[sbakoola]

Do you really want to know ? If getting knocked back has got you worked up then knowing the ( possibly pathetic ) reason won't do you any good at all.

Good point. I'll just relax a little and take it as experience. But the whole game just never changes, the agents do, the clients change but the game never changes.

[BA to the Stars]

Even if you get feedback, how do you know it's true and not just a load bull tulip to make you feel not quite as bad.

I don't think that the game will ever change.

[sbakoola]

Although what I don't like is that today, still like previous years you only get one shot at an interview for a single client site per agency (and no more) and you cannot use that agency for another year or two if you fail to win the contract.

That is annoying. Although its taught me to only go for jobs via agencies that I really want and have a reasonable chance to win, I don't waste time on 'warm up interviews' that I don't really want or a contract role that is unsuitable but good only for interview practice.

[SimonMac]

Because there is no money in it for them. All they want is to get a candidate placed and start erning commission. Why waste time calling up someone who didn't get a gig when they could be toting other candidates to clients

Perfect answer, after 13 years you should be used to this, if I really want feed back I would go directly back to the client, thanking them for the opportunity to interview for them (bulltulip I know but more likely to put them in a positive mood) and directly asking for feedback. More chance of getting some information, but again not guaranteed.

[Gruffalo]

After 13+ years in the business agents still don't bother calling back with interview feedback if you don't proceed to the next stage.

It doesn't help that the interview questions are a multitude of obscure questions that no one ever discusses or thinks about or looks at in the work place.

But that's finance/banking for you.

Why do agents treat contractors like broken goods after their first (stage 3) interview doesn't go well and never call us back ever again ? can't you see that the client is being far too selective and many hours have been spent on my side ? one client has been looking for a candidate since July 2012 for gods sake, doesn't that tell you something ?

rant over.

Sounds like you are getting the interviews.

Now, you need to focus on winning them.

I totally fecked up my first 5 interviews in a row, before I did STAR based interview prep with a specialist.

I passed the following four interviews, absolutely nailed them.

Coincidence? Maybe.

Have a couple of Situations, outline what YOU did to turn things around (the Task, Action taken and the Result), and give them the reply they are wanting.

Trust me on this. 3-4 examples you can use and adapt is really key.

[KentPhilip]

Fire and forget
Fire and forget.

Once you've applied for a role and had an interview, what happens is out of your control.
The past is read-only. I only work on stuff where I have "change" access - the future.

The best reply to an agent who calls to give you feedback is "what interview"???