THE PURPOSE OF THE INTERVIEW

When dealing with a recruitment agency, you have to be aware of why they are interviewing you. There are several possible scenarios:

• You may have approached them, looking for a job.
• You may have answered an advertisement and they are handling the job.
• You may have applied to a particular company, and the agency handles the company’s recruitment.
• You may have left your details on an Internet site and they are contacting you.
• They may have contacted you out of the blue. This is commonly referred to as head-hunting, and will be dealt with in the next chapter.

Basically, we can split these into two main reasons:

• 1They are interviewing you generally, as part of their process of registering you onto their database of candidates.
• 2They are interviewing you in connection with either
  • a specific position or
  • a specific company which has a vacancy.

General interviews

Surprisingly, not all recruitment agencies interview you before accepting you onto their pool of candidates, and this is something you should give some thought to. If you were a company looking for a member of staff, would you be happy for an agency to send candidates to you for interview, if you knew the agency had never seen them? How could that agency possibly know whether you are presentable, can communicate with others, can fulfil the requirements of the job etc, without meeting you?

Most companies either make it a requirement that candidates from agencies have been seen by the agency, or they assume that this has been done. An agency that just accepts your CV and then starts trying to match you with companies cannot ever be as professional as one that gets to know you, and sees what sort of person you are, so that they can assess where you would enjoy working.

Establishing a relationship

To get the best service as a candidate you need to establish a relationship with your agency, so that you can be confident they will be able to find you suitable employment openings. If they just send you for an interview with a company or client without having seen you, you have to ask yourself whether they themselves have done something similar with the job on offer – have they really a good understanding of what that job entails? How well do they know you? How well do they know the job? Can you be sure that they are matching you with a job you will want to do and enjoy doing? It’s not very likely.

This general interview should be an opportunity for the agency (or at least, your consultant at the agency) to assess you and your personality. They should get a feel for the type of work you like and can do, and the type of organisation where you would fit in and be successful.

Specific interviews

If a recruitment agency asks to see you about a particular job or a specific company, however, then this is really the first hurdle in the recruitment process. You should think of this as the first interview for this job.

THE BALANCE OF POWER

You might think that when you go for any interview, the balance of power lies with the interviewer. Not so. When interviewing at a recruitment agency, a lot of power actually rests with you. Recruitment agencies derive their income and profit from placing candidates with employers. Basically, you represent a fee to the agency, and therefore it is to some extent in their own interests to find you a job.

How do they earn their rewards?

There is, however, another consideration. Although if they find you a job the agency will earn a fee, the person who interviews you is a consultant, working for the agency. Depending on the agency concerned and the way it pays its staff, consultants can be rewarded in two ways. Most agencies pay a basic salary plus commission or bonus. The relative proportions of commission or bonus in a consultant’s pay packet can either be dependent on the number of placements a consultant makes, or on the number of people signed onto the agency’s database (or both in some instances).

Consultants paid more for making placements will obviously try hard to find you a job, as you represent income to them personally, as well as the agency. However, agencies that reward consultants mainly for signing up new candidates may have a large database which in no way guarantees you much help in finding a job. In fact, they may make little or no effort to do so, as the consultant is busy making more money by signing up other people, and not finding you work.

In any event, an interview with a recruitment agency will usually mean that they are keen to get you onto their database. The interview may not be easy, but it shouldn’t be too difficult, and you could get some useful advice for future interviews if you remember to ask for feedback on your performance afterwards.

Who pays the bill?

Always remember, the agency is working for the employer. They may offer you career advice, and some agencies are fantastic at helping you towards finding a really good job. But just be aware that any careers advice an agency gives you may be more in line with their commercial intentions as to what they want you to do, rather than what is actually best for you right now. Always remember that the employer pays their fee, not you.

MAKING THE RIGHT IMPRESSION

So how can you make the best impression at an interview with a recruitment agency? Remember, the agency is looking at you as a potential fee. The more jobs they can match your skills and experience with, the more likely they are to get you a job, and gain their fee.

Making the best impression with an agency, therefore, may mean being flexible. The more roles you are happy to consider, and the more companies, the better. Candidates who only want to work in banking, or who only want to do administration but don’t want a job involving filing, are limiting their options.

As well as being flexible, be interested and proactive. Impress on the agency that you are keen to work and to progress your career, and they will see you as motivated and therefore easier to place.

Dress well, so the agency knows that they can send you to any of their clients with confidence. It can be tempting to think it’s ‘only an agency’, especially if you have already done the rounds of several agency interviews. But dressing inappropriately may well put them off sending you to important clients for an interview, in case you let them down.

ESSENTIALS TO GET ACROSS

You are worth their effort

The essential fact to get across to a recruitment agency is that you will represent a good investment for them; that any time spent in marketing you to their clients will be likely to result in you performing well at interview and earning them a fee.

Financial requirements

You also want them to be very sure of your financial requirements. When clients come to them with a job they will be briefed as to the likely salary – whether or not they tell you what that is! So you want to be sure that you are only sent to interviews for jobs that will meet your financial needs. It’s a waste of time going to interviews for jobs that pay less than you need. When going via an agency you aren’t in control of the recruitment process, and you often don’t know the salary for the job, unlike when you respond to an advert.

Flexibility

Make sure the agency knows what you might consider, as well as your ideal move. We all have ideal jobs, but we usually also have other things that we would consider, so bring them into the equation. This means that you will possibly be matched with a wider number of vacancies, and more likely to get a job. If you are not willing to take a particular type of job, be open about it, or you may waste a great deal of time later being sent to interviews for jobs that are of no interest to you.

Limiting factors

Of course if you do have limiting factors, such as being unable to work late, or that you can’t work weekends, let them know. It looks bad for both you and the agency if it comes to light at interview with an employer that you cannot fulfil an essential part of the job. It’s demoralising for you, and the agency may suffer loss of reputation with that client.

Your own requirements

Be firm about what you are looking for – what you do and don’t want. Ask the agency to check all jobs with you first before submitting your CV. This ensures, of course, that you only get put forward for jobs that you have agreed are of interest to you. This should prevent your time being wasted. According to REC, the Recruitment Employment Confederation (the industry body for recruitment consultants and employment agencies), standard practice for all its members is to ensure that candidates agree to each application for a role that the agency or consultant makes on your behalf. Recruitment consultants may get you the job you want. They may also try to get you to take the job they are trying to fill. Just be wary and hopefully you will be dealing with reputable agencies, so you will have nothing to be concerned about.

QUESTIONS TO ASK

How many vacancies do you have at present?

It is useful to assess how many vacancies they have. This gives you an idea of how quickly they may be able to get you an interview with one of their clients. You could also ask how many of them you might be right for, to check how well they can help you with your search for a job.

Do you have vacancies at the moment that I might be right for?

It’s also useful to know if there is anything at the moment which you might be suitable for: if so, you need to be ready for an interview quite quickly. It also helps to know if there’s nothing at present, so you aren’t waiting for the phone to ring and getting discouraged when it doesn’t. If there will be a delay it’s better to be aware of it.

How soon will it be before I’m likely to hear from you?

This gives you an idea of when you may be contacted. But it also serves another purpose: you have to remember that, at some agencies, you are one of literally thousands of people on their database. It’s easy to be overlooked or forgotten. So get an idea of when they might get back to you, and if they don’t, call them for an update. Keeping your name in the consultant’s mind is important when you are up against a large database of people competing for a job opportunity when one comes up.

Who is my point of contact?

This is essential – some agencies have consultants employed specifically to interview new candidates, but these people aren’t the ones who will be dealing with them if and when vacancies arise. So make sure you leave the agency with a point of contact that you can call when you want to know what’s going on.

Is there anything else I need to do to maximise my chances of getting a job?

It’s very useful to seek advice. If your image needs a bit of a boost, you talk too fast, or if finishing a qualification would greatly increase your chances, you want to know about it now. It’s too late in six month’s time, when they have been unable to find you work and finally tell you why. Get advice now and act on it – these people are professionals in placing candidates with employers. Use them and the experience they have in finding people jobs.

What happens now?

Find out what the process is. If it takes a week for them to rewrite your CV and enter it into their system, it’s pointless you waiting for a phone call in four days’ time. Find out what happens next, and by when.

Can you give me some feedback?

After the interview, if there is time, ask for feedback on your interview performance. If the consultant has another appointment, phone them back the next day and ask. This is all good information about how you perform in an interview, and you can learn from it. These people see hundreds of candidates, after all – this is a golden opportunity to get some useful feedback.

WHAT HAPPENS NOW?

There are a number of possibilities. Basically, the aim of using an agency is for them to get you a job with one of their clients. So the next step would usually be that the agency arranges an interview for you when they have a suitable vacancy with a client.

Sometimes, they might ask you to come back in for a briefing first. It’s not unusual for you to go to the agency for a quick briefing and then on to an interview. If not, you may get a phone call to brief you. Getting a briefing is a very good thing – the more information you have about the job, the better your chances of giving a good interview when you get there.

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