Critique of Recruitment Agencies Part 1: Full-Time Employment

I am of the view that not all, but very nearly almost all full-time positions advertised by recruitment agencies can with some searching be found directly on the web, and then applied for directly.

The key to this is that recruitment agents normally are not very technical, and so any particularly technical phrasing tends very strongly to be conserved, rather than obfuscated, as the recruitment agent does not know how to change it whilst still retaining its meaning.

The only exceptions to this are when the recruitment agency is advertising a fake job; usually one which had existed at some point in time, but does no more.

If you apply for a full-time position through a recruitment agency, when you could have applied directly, you put yourself at a huge disadvantage to those candidates who have applied directly.

Firstly, the company will have to pay a substantial fee to the recruitment agency.

Secondly, the agency may mess things up for you; I've seen agencies supply CVs, and then not be contactable, and the company has simply thrown those CVs away.

Thirdly, agencies lie to candidates. Agencies will advertise now non-existent positions, simply to get CVs ("this position has gone, but if you send your CV over, I may have others"), but also to prevent you from applying ("your CV has been sent") when it fact the agency has already sent as many CVs as it is allowed, and they wish to prevent your CV making an appearance via another agency.

In return for this, there are zero benefits or up-sides.

Never apply for a full-time position through an agency.