Is this happening to anyone else: scam jobs?

MCPWannabe

I just wanted to see if anyone else is getting contacted by a lot of scam sales jobs and other jobs that have nothing to do with Information Technology:

For example, and Keep in mind that these are actual jobs that contacted me:

1. A man contacted me claiming to be from an I.T. recruiting firm with an offer for a 'talented person' like myself. He then assumes without asking me any questions that I will take the job. He tells me to show up at the site the next day with my own tools, drill, and steal-toed boots! I couldn't believe it! A construction job..

2. Scam Sales Jobs: My goodness, everytime that I update my resume, I get 3 or 4 instant emails for an immediate interview for the 'largest insurance company in that area (consequently, I've never heard of the company).' They offer 100K a year and above to a 'self-starter.'

It irritates me..

And of course I have to get the reminder spam, 'You have not contacted us, and we only have X, Y, and Z interview spots left.'

On another side note, I was about to accept a job with a company but they tried to lower my pay to 28K a year. I just couldn't accept it. Even in a low cost of living state, that amount of money is hard to make it on.

So, I'm still stuck in a call center but I'm in negotiations with 2 different companies. Right now, I seem to be offered more to work in a help desk role than to work as a 'Junior Network Administrator."

jryantech

Extremely easy to avoid these... just use Common Sense.

Kaminsky

There are hungry people out there who do/have worked in recruitment agencies that freelance by finding their own prospective <insert industry here> talent on places like monster <yuck spit> and fish < yuck spit > (this is in the UK) and then (without ever contacting you) approach organisations directly with the line "I have such and such type of candidates and wonder if you would be interested" ... {talents learned from their day job}

The companies don't realise they are a one man band and occasionally one will get a bite with the employer saying "ok... send some over and I might be able to fit them in" .... You've got to admire the ballziness of the guys ( they have used their phone sales skills to create a job out of thin air) ... unless your one of the candidates being put forward at the time of course ....

The hungry lion then phones you and gives you the speil you described in this post and tells you when and where to turn up.

To be fair for these entrepeneurs, if you are so desperate to break into the industry, you are willing to put *ANY* of your details on a jobsite that has an advert on television <especially in the IT industry .. I mean ... C'Mon! you should know better > then you IMMEDIATELY turn yourself into a gazell to these lions ! .... it's that simple... Look on this site's boards for "good" job agencies to use .... desperation will make you feel a muppett quite quickly. Remember, this site has got people to where they are now and those people still come back to share their advice so USE IT !

So, what's in it for the freelancer ... In the UK, if it's a permanent job, they will typically get 15% commision of your first year's salary ( cash ) as an introduction fee and for contractors they will shave off about 30%-25% of the hourly rate. (what they offer you will be 70%-75% of what they are tarting you off at to the company) ..... you cannot blame them for their gumption. These are pure sales people. In their industry they are showing signs of brilliance ! All you can do is take the hit and guard against it in the future ( or use them to your own advantage and negotiate harder as you now know what their game is from this post ) so consider your experience as a good lesson learned.

Also while your starting out, any interview experience is GOOD experience. I used to go to interviews for jobs even though I knew I was going to accept a different job. I have known some guys take days off sick to go to interviews for jobs they had absolutely no intention of taking just to get more confidence in sitting on the other side of an interview desk when it really mattered.

Not sure which country you are from but in the UK, I would never use anything but jobserve.co.uk to look for a job. This site acts as a central source for job ads from recruitment agencies around the country/world. An agency will get a possibility of a job and draw up their profile (once they have looked through their cv database for a head start on a short list) of the candidates they want and then they will post it on jobserve. Candidates then search jobserve and go to the recruitment agency of interest at that time via an email link. You sometimes get the same job advertised from several agencies for obviously the same job (make note here of the greediness in the hourly rates reduction) as the employers are getting cleverer and now select from multiple agencies.

The lesser the %age the recruitment agent shaves off, the more candidates he has on his books in placements and earning - q.e.d - the better the agent. The higher and greedier the cut just acts as a measure of the lameness of the agent.


How do I know these things ? Look at the scars on my little striped rump !

We've all been their... It's bloody rude I grant you but you can't blame them for trying if you think about it.... we've all got to put bread on the table.

You've just got to learn how to be a smarter gazelle. (I once got a desperate contractor agent down to 10% an hour .. he needed to meet his boss's placement targets /chuckle ! he really shouldn't have let that slip to an ex-gazell turned Tiger ... noob hehe )

Learn how these people operate and then turn it to your own advantage !

Kam.
PS: I hope I haven't just educated a load of future "entrepeneurs" with this post.