mattvicki

Hi

I'm due to arrive in Sydney in a couple of weeks and am sending off resumes.

Has any one had experience of Recruitment Agents for IT ?
I've been told that they are swamped with resumes and you really need to
chase them.

Also has anyone used seek.com.au careerone.com.au and jobserver.com.au effectively or do they just provide a vechicle for people to bombard recruitment agents with lots of resumes ?

Any advise or comment welcome

Matt

silversurfer

If all goes well in the next 3/4 months I shall be in the same boat as you, as currently patiently waiting for Mr. Dimia to finish his coffee and dougnuts, and get stamping!
I've heard the same as you, that agencies are very bad at getting back to you, and although the IT job market pages may look healthy, it's often the same job being advertised by numerous agencies.
A number of people have told me that it's still "who you know" that tends to have the best outcome to gaining employment.
If you get any more news, please do post, as it would be nice to know whether you have success with an agency or through other channels.
I've started browsing through the whirlpool broadband forum (in Oz), makes interesting reading, alot of these chaps posting, and are in IT jobs. If you ignore the flamers and people who try to puff up their chests, then there is some decent information there, and I've gotten good advice from some posters.
Feel free to PM me if you like.

Cheers!

s2uallas

Can't comment too much on the Sydney area but I just arrived in Melbourne 6 weeks ago. Before I arrived, I was sending out lots of CVs but the agencies were hopeless to say the least. I must have applied to about 40 and had less than 5 replies. In the end I did get 2 job offers but they were both through applications to the companies directly.

nmccallum

Hi

I was very lucky when I arrived last year - I managed to get my job after one interview and it was the first application I sent out. I found it by using Seek.com.au.

Now that I am working for an IT consultancy - I can definitely say that there are a few companies that I have come across in Melbourne who prefer to recruit WITHOUT going through agencies. So they either advertise independently on seek or careerone or it's a matter of word of mouth.

However, having done some work at one of the companies I mentioned above, I would recommend creating your own profile and uploading your CV. Don't hold back - put as much information in as possible. Many recruiters do a search for cv's containing 'keywords' - it's those cv's that get a looking at!

Good Luck!

Paul and Chloe

Hi...

Similar approach is needed as when dealing with agencies in the UK, by this I mean send in your CV and then follow up next day with a phone call to the agency and get the person to review your CV whilst you're on the phone. In the end you have to do most of the chasing work! I do not know any agents in Sydney but have a few contacts in Perth if anyone needs to know any of the better agencies here.

Cheers

Paul

mattvicki

Thanks for the replies, I agree it seems that chasing as much as possible is the best option as it must be near impossible for them to differentiate between 2000 CVs!

Matt

Buzzy--Bee

Judging by the CVs I have been receiving (see my thread in the Barbie about interviewing) most of the ones that look amazing are actually completely crap so I have no idea how anyone judges someone accurately from their CV!



Buzzy

mattvicki

I know....I've been interviewing for my replacement and am quite disheartened by what the CVs say against who turns up....I wish
you could have a concept similar to SSL where someone verifies you!
(I guess that's a reference though!)
I'm just going to plug at it and hopefully strike it lucky sooner rather than
later.....in the mean time the kids will be working in the Northern Beaches
Designer Trainers Sweat shop to pay the bills (joking)

Matt

midwifetanya

Hi,

My husband is in IT, he does .Net programming. He made his CV public on seek.com.au in Sydney and was approached by a few agencies directly. One even said that there were 4 vacancies for every applicant! I guess it depends upon what you do? Unfortunately we aren't going to Sydney...

When the employers do a search on seek they see your name, current position, employer, salary range, current location, and date modified. He wrote his main skills in his current position e.g. Analyst Programmer (VB.Net...), and put in a realistic salary expectation (in the search boxes when you are entering your CV). The current location is shown, so you may want to put something other than England in your address (not necessarily accurate, but it means you won't be excluded immediately).

Good Luck!

Tanya