Dealing with recruiters

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Anyone else have trouble dealing with recruiters? I've been wondering if what's been happening is the way things are or if I'm doing something wrong. I don't want to give to much information away on a public forum but here are some examples:

I'll get a call from a recruiter about a job or a possible job in my field and after talking with them for a bit and giving them my information they set me up with an interview or say they will be working on it. A couple times I've had an interview but nothing came of the job and then I didn't hear back from them at all - even with repeated emails. Another time someone called up and we discussed a possible interview at a later date - but then it kind of fizzled and went no where - again I sent emails asking what's up and never got a reply.

So should I have continued trying to email or call? Or is this typical with recruiters?

I finally figured out that I was just an 'also ran' with one of my recruiters. I was smart and articulate and could interview well and so was sent out with a few others who were smart and articulate and interviewed meeting their eyes and reading and reacting to body lanugage and facial expressions. I was fodder, just window dressing for the other candidates, so the recruiter could send in 5 candidates, or 3 candidates and the employer would have an inplied 'choice' but actually, I was just a warm body they could easily write off.

Every now and then, I would interview with someone that didn't pick up on this, and I would get the job. I would work very hard and learn very fast and keep the job until moving or something else caused me to leave.

Then I would get back in line at the recruiters and try to out fox them at their own game. So, take what you can from their scam. Even a blind chicken finds a kernal of corn sometimes.

Merle

I have had some pretty rough experiences with job searching from the ages 18-19 I applied for a good few hundred jobs in my time and had a few interviews only accepted for one as the one that I have been accepted had only one applicant, me. The more interesting ones I went after had many applicants and when it came to interviews I had no chance coming up against neurotypicals. How is an Asperger syndrome supposed to get a job in the first place if interviewing is a normal stage in recruiting? It is only fair for neurotypical people but not for Asperger syndrome people. It is a bit like running a race and ther other competitors had a head start. In job interviews an Asperger syndrome person is always outcompeted by neurotypical people. We do not have the instinctive skills of interpreting facial expressions and body language. We can compete when filling in application forms especially if you have good spelling and grammar, but the interview itself is a different story. It is no wonder that many Asperger syndrome people spend years on benefits.

A bit lke my experience. Could not get a job out of university. Got my first jobs through networking which helped me at least pick up some experience.

I've had fairly negative experiences dealing with recruiters as well. I'm in IT (Information Technology) and mostly work in Desktop Support (tier 2 support). For those who don't know what Desktop Support is, it's where someone calls into the Helpdesk at their company and for whatever reason the problem cannot be resolved over the phone so someone is sent out to fix it.

For my first several years in IT I worked directly for a company and didn't have to worry about IT outsourcing company's at all. Then I was laid off in 2002 and that started me having to deal with them. In general they don't call me at all, and when they do I feel as Sinsboldly suggested to be an 'also ran'

A former coworker of mine (NT) worked for one of these company's for a while and found them to be highly unethical in their choices of who to send to interviews. It seemed to her that there individual recruiters had favorites which would be a deciding factor over ability.

Unfortunately, in my view most of the work opportunities in Information Technology are through recruiters. I've considered leaving the field for other employment, but don't want to start another career at 39 and rack up another student debt.

If you're employed in a field that produces something, like computer programming, or design then you can do as was suggested in Temple Grandin's latest book and contact someone in the department you would like to work in, at the company that you would like to work at, and show them examples of your work.

In short, yes I have trouble with recruiters if you mean placement firms such as those employed my technical fields. I've got over 11 years IT experience, but it doesn't seem to matter when I have to go through a recruiter.