I’ve been dealing with a lot of recruitment agencies recently, because of my ongoing hunt for a part-time shop job. I’ve had very mixed experiences, which has made me realise that it’s really, really important to deal with decent ones. The bad ones drive me crazy.

It shouldn’t be complicated, really. There are companies out there who want to employ decent workers, and people who want to be employed by decent companies. But, somehow, a lot of recruiters manage to make their role as middleman into some strange unhelpful role that doesn’t solve anything.

I’m someone who generally prefers to communicate by email than by phone – I guess it goes with my personality and life choices, seeing as I work with computers – and it really frustrates me when I provide all my details in writing, in an easy format, then they call me anyway and ask me all the same questions. Sometimes it’s just not convenient to talk – and I get the feeling they’re not listening anyway. I’m just lucky I’m not jobhunting while in other employment.

There are some good recruiting agents, though. The best ones are those who listen to what you want and read your CV and preferences properly before contacting you for further information. And, in short, who just act like human beings instead of gatekeepers. A lot of the time, the job might not even be a good one. Recruitment should always be a two-sided process. I don’t want to be expected to impress a company unless it’s also prepared to try to impress me and deliver a good role. Otherwise, why would I go and work there? It just wastes everyone’s time if someone is recruited, then gets disappointed and leaves. So, yes, in summary – I am going to keep a note of the good recruiters I’ve encountered and ignore the rest.