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Job Centre
by Mistyrain
I stopped going to uni for a year because I had some health issues I had to get sorted out so I had a gap-year so to speak.
My mother couldn't stand seeing me mope around the house and upon this particular day the local paper had an article about the local job-centre despartely looking for disabled clients to join them in ... search of work. Thursting the article in my face my mum pleaded for me to join them.
Being someone who doesn't want to be reminded that her own body is weak (I have mild weakness in my body and a heart condition) I tossed it around for a few days and decided that since it would be hard to start off a career without finishing my degree I would try this job centre.
Well let me tell you. I met with the case worker who had a folder with conditions, clauses etc on what would happen between me and the case worker and after talking about an hour about my medical condition, my interests and my uni course, I thought this wouldn't be bad so I signed on. I wish I hadn't.
Two weeks later I get a call by the case worker telling me to come in and she passed me off to a new case worker. Entering the case worker's office, I was confronted by patronizing posters on the walls of silly headings like "Your are able if your disabled" and "It's not bad to be disabled" etc. Now I want to be treated like a normal everyday person. My body is sick not my intelligence.
Ignoring the posters, this new case worker had a good chat with me and said she found me a volunteering job one day a week at a preschool for a month and then she would find me something else after. Uh I want to work not volunteer.
In the mean while I find a job that was what I was looking for and I was successful at gaining the job. Telling this to the case workers, I hoped to be taken off their list of clients. Oh no they wanted to know every gritty detail on how I got the job, how much I was being paid and I had to sign documents. It was as if my case worker was claiming she got me the job. Every three weeks they wanted to see me to "check on how I was getting on."
All I could think of was "Hello I got the job myself, without your aide."
The most humliating thing for me was when the first case worker asked me to do some tests to see where my strenghs and weaknesses were in terms of my "capablities". As I said before I'm not stupid so having asked these questions by the case worker, she asked "How fast do you read?", I replied I'm a fast reader. To which she picked up a booklet and goes "Are you sure you are? Can you read this faster?" Flicking the book fast that no average person could read it.
I got teary as I know I'm a fast reader and typer and she made me feel like I wasn't capable to do it. In the end I ended up telling the job centre I was going back to univeristy and I no longer required their service.
All in all to summarize:
No help in finding an actual paid job. Will keep harassing you even when you find a job on your own. You are treated like a number/commission. You are tested to see if you are even worthy to get a good job.
After this exprience I would never ever go to a job centre of any kind for the rest of my life.
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Recruitment Agencies in general
by jellymonty
Spring Personell:
I signed up with Spring about four years ago and I must say they were pretty efficient. Their offices in Chiswick were a pain to find but were professional. The staff are very friendly, know what they are doing and very supportive. The lady that was my recruitment manager was very efficient. She was in ... constant contact with me at all times, kept me abreast of what was happening. The tests that you're required to do where all a breeze and she was very helpful in every query I made. I got a job like three days after I signed up, which was impressive. Unfortunately, the boss I was assigned to was an absolute nightmare! I only worked there for like a month and had to get these guys to get me a new job. I got a new job and again the same thing happened.. another nightmare. But the third time I got lucky that they hooked me up with a pleasant boss and the company too is wonderful to work for. I still got my job till now despite 1,000 of my colleagues losing theirs to retrenchments. In the three years I've worked under Spring, they've never missed a payment (I get paid every Fridays). If there's a problem they call me in good time to inform me. Their website is constantly updated and they always send me email alerts or sms alerts to let me know what's happening. They also have those employee bonus schemes where if you're chosen as the employee of the month, you get £100 bonus. At the end of the year, the person that won the most employee of the month contest gets £500 bonus.
The good thing about Spring is they charge the employer half of what you earn. So if you earn £20 an hour, Spring charges the employer £10 per hour, which is brilliant. The only hiccup I had with Spring is they do have a lot of undesirable clients, so do make sure you emphasize the need for an easy going employer. I would definitely recommend Spring if you're looking for a job that suits you.
Hays Recruitment:
The worst recruitment agency ever!! I was with them before I went to Spring. First they made me wait for almost an hour after my scheduled appointment with them. Then when I was doing my tests, their computers kept freezing and I had to like retake the tests twice. After taking the test I had to wait another half an hour before I got my results. After four miserable hours there, they said they would get back to me. I waited a week and no one got back to me. I called them and I kept getting a busy line. I emailed them, no reply. Finally after several attempts, I got through only to be told that the lady in charge of my file quit her job and I was assigned to another person. When I finally got a job interview, it was actually the employer that called me in and not the Hays guys which I found weird because normally its the recruitment agency that you correspond with.
Nevertheless, I got the job but it was a pain getting paid. Sometimes I would go two weeks without being paid and their excuse was either "we're understaffed or we had technical failure" In the 8 months I worked under Hays they paid me late over ten times and every week I had to argue with them about getting paid. Then I found out I was being underpaid. They told me I was getting paid £18 an hour and yet on my time sheet it said £14.50. Then I found out my employer was actually being charged £29.50 per hour! One time they even hanged up on me whilst I was making a complaint, and every time I called the receptionist always said "they're in a meeting can they call you back?" and they never did. Finally I had enough and quit after my friend recommended Spring to me.
My advice.. STAY AWAY FROM HAYS RECRUITMENT!! they're absolutely terrible. Unfortunately the majority of recruitment agencies are like Hays so do be careful when choosing them. But if you're still struggling to get a job, you should consider work at homes jobs (not the surveys PTC sites affiliates etc) I mean telecommute jobs like transcriptionsits, translators, virtual administrators, web designers etc. Do an extensive search on google and yahoo and you'll find them. I personally would recommend www.odesk.com or www.guru.com
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