what i am experiencing lately when I apply to jobopenings that the recruiter(s) reply is that the job is already assigned to somebody else or that the jobopening is on hold due to the credit crisis. While the job was publised very recently (< 1week). I have the impression that these recruiters are collection CV just to load there database. To me this is very frustrating because I put a lot of time and effort in applying and when I apply I sincerely want that job. In addition, I am getting more reluctant to apply to these jobopenings - but it&apos;s one of the few ways of getting another job. Any experience from this forum?btw I experienced this once on a jobopening publised on this website.

It&apos;s really frustrating when that happens. Best advise is to only use one of the larger and more reputable agencies.As for some of the firms that advertise on this site, they really do need to be vetted.I spent a lot of time tailoring my CV for a very sexy job in response to an advert here some time ago, and then was bombarded with e-mails trying to get me to go on some overpriced consulting expertise course. The job advert was obviously just a ruse to get my details.Really dishonest

JobSeeker - given the market at present, I&apos;m inclined to believe the recruiters. Unless you are a stellar performer willing to work for peanuts, you&apos;re unlikely to make it past first filter. The way to go is to build up your reputation with specific recruiters - once they have confidence that you are a strong and credible candidate, they are more likely to call you as soon as they get the recruitment commission. By the time you&apos;ve blind-fired a CV at a job advert, most of the shortlist will already have been identified. A week is a long time in recruitment.Job hunter - you do need to practice a certain amount of common sense. If an advert looks too good to be true, it probably is so do extra due diligence.

Funnily enough I came onto this site to comment on just this and saw a thread had been started recently.Agree completely. This is very irritating and happens at both ends of the spectrum in terms of how busy the market is. Some recruiters will post "catch all" adverts when there are a lot of roles around and collect CVs in the downturn because they have nothing else to do.One thing I would say though, Job Hunter, is that the larger agencies are generally the worst at this. I&apos;ve had a several contacts of mine complaining about recruiters in general because of the underhand practices of some of the biggest recruitment companies in the world.The good recruiters move to smaller companies where they can do their job properly without being harassed to meet all kinds of KPIs, unless we are talking about real Executive Search firms, Egon Zehnder, Stanton Chase, Boyden etc.JobSeeker. I&apos;d also recommend doing as Holgen says. Build a relationship with a recruiter you feel you can trust, ideally through a colleague or contact you already know. Work with the individual, not the company.

Have a look at the earlier thread for ConsultingPoint.As my name suggests I am also a job hunter having been made redundant. Yesterday I found that the 3rd job had seen on the Michael Page web site was &apos;not available&apos; Their response is &apos;something funny has happened to the web site and old jobs are appearing&apos;!!!!!!!!You have to remember that companies are posting jobs on sites to make it appear that they are &apos;doing well&apos; - even if they then have staff posting information regarding redundancies. You then have agencies with nothing better to do than gather CV&apos;s or play the same game as the employers.I am sure that people will write responses to my comments pointing out that I have got it all wrong. However, they are probably &apos;currently&apos; employed and unless you are in my situation you really do not know just how bad it is.

Forget about Michael Page...Experienced once when I received a CV from Michael Page out of the blue, trying to push a candidate to me, when I was not looking to recruit whatsoever. Coincidentally, I know this candidate (family friend) and I know this candidate was happy where she was working as we do catchup and talk about work. Then decided to call her to check if she was looking...ended up that she wasn&apos;t as she was still happy where she was. She was fuming when I produced what Michael Page faxed to me a few earlier - her CV, without even seeking consent. And she&apos;d could easily approach me direct for a position, if she needed one rather than going through the hassels with recruiters.Also, I noticed that the ads are often outdated and left on the sites...to prove whatever point??? And when candidates called to seek out more infor on a position, they&apos;d reply that the position had been filled! Why don&apos;t remove the ad after the position had been filled then???!!!

Good to see Michael Page moving with the times and sending a CV by fax!? Yes, times are tough. It is a terrible time to be unemployed. It is also a terrible time to be a recruiter, basically offering a service that no-one needs. Unless you are very high tier or operating in a specific niche which is still hiring, you are really feeding off the scraps. It is widely rumoured that 50% of UK recruitment consultancies will go under in the next year.... good riddence... you might say.... possibly... but remember that a lot of other people are also fighting for their lives. As management consultants or MBA grads or whatever you are, you will be a lot more employable than a 25 year old who has spent the last 2 years in recruitment...I do understand the frustration, however. Messing you around is not the solution...I also agree with the point about the bigger recruitment firms. I have 10+ years in the business, only 2 of which were gained in a big player. They attempted to train me to post bogus job adverts, to head-hunt senior candidates for jobs which did not exist etc all to create the illusion that we were more established in a particular market than we were. The idea was that once we had the trust of some high calibre individuals, we could "sell" them around the market. Fortunately, those days are in the past and I have long since left behind those who were offering this advice.... what a load of cr@p... In the short term, we suffer from over supply. In the medium term, many of the weaker/less ethical recruiters will disappear so we should clean up our market a bit during the recession and be able to offer a better service in the future.

All,Thanks for the replies, at least I know now it is not only me who&apos;s experience this behaviour (and it is true). I agree with the advise to build a strong relationship with a trustfull recruiter. As a matter of fact I am doing that right now. And this guy gave me some good leads. Thanks and I wish you all the best jobhunting!

There are of course cowboys out there but in my personal experience 1) often genuine process glitches means the job isn’t removed. Process is often not a recruiter’s strength 2) clients often tell us jobs are on hold so there is sense in leaving the role open for candidates to apply: potentially in all party’s interests 3) we are inundated with candidates: rest assured we don’t want to attract people we can’t place

I tried collecting CVs... everyone uses similar fonts etc, so after a while it just got boring and no amout of &apos;interesting&apos; slide shows livened it up. A real dinner party mood killer :)Recruiter Too makes a fair point: as a breed, recruiters are not process orientated people (if they were you/everyone would be complaining that they were treated like numbers). Even an old ad can be useful, if it puts you in touch with a recruiter you can work with, and therein lies the truth: find one or two you trust, like as individuals, and who understand their clients and your experience. A good recruiter - especially in this market - can be an enormous help uncovering opportunities you are not aware of. A really good one will even throw leads your way which they are not working on, if they cannot otherwise help.

Re: Advertising jobs which no longer existJob boards will keep adverts live for a week after which you will be given an option to renew the advert or leave it off the board. A job is normally advertised until that job is filled, if the job is not filled on the same day that the advert drops off the site then there will be a period of time when a role which no longer exists will be advertised. This could be for a period of one week. Never heard of people advertising jobs which don&apos;t exist - I&apos;m not saying it doesn&apos;t happen, but in my experience it is rare and I believe now it is also illegal.

I assume that you are somewhat &apos;younger&apos; than most of us involved in this thread - at least the job hunting ones.Life is not as simply as you would like it to be and as for what is &apos;legal&apos; this is the real world.I actually know people in recruitment who openly admit to knowing clients are &apos;benchmarking&apos; when they ask for CV&apos;s and because they are an important client they are happy to go along with it. All these things do happen, and in the present market these and a lot of other unprofessional and unpleasant things are taking place each day.

So it&apos;s the consultancies that are CV collecting, not the recruitment agencies, they are just reacting to their clients requests.

actually it&apos;s not only recruiters posting bogus ads but companies themselves doing this on their job boards as well. it&apos;s quite disgraceful actually...stop wasting our time!