CV Fishing

I won’t work with any recruitment agency that sends speculative candidate profiles.

Once you respond, that candidate has already been placed in a role, but then you can discuss any roles you do have, agree terms and off the agent goes to get a new candidate for you.

This is because they are fake candidates and that is dishonest and I don’t think that’s a good basis for any relationship.

I’m aware it’s common practice as the only way to get a foot in the door, and with the state of the market and the challenges of hiring, agents might get more bites. But hiring managers will quickly learn, if they don’t already know, that the candidates don’t exist.

In my experience, most agencies using this technique will not be taking the time to understand the role and find the right candidates. It’ll just be a keyword fishing job. They will search their CV database, LinkedIn etc for anyone who matches a few key words they managed to understand from the job spec. Approach the candidate, put them forward for the role and hope. It won’t matter if the keywords match but everything else doesn’t, they’ll be trying to convince both sides it’s a perfect match.

Often, I’ll find they don’t ever deliver any candidates. It’s too specific, they can’t get a quick set of CV hits to send over, so they move their attention elsewhere.

It’s a numbers/volume game for the agent, maximum automation, minimum effort. Hit target, get commission, move on.

It’s often the worst of the industry, part of the reason that the recruitment industry has such a toxic image for so many candidates and hiring managers.

Now - I say often and in my experience. I am sure there are good agencies that use this approach to start things off, but, time and attention are a managers most precious resources and I won’t risk wasting it on a bad agency relationship.

I’ve recently had candidates through like this, which I responded to for a few reasons, asking them to send terms prior to CV, but only if the candidates are genuinely available. No reply. It’s really not helping anyone.