@booboo14
At that time though SA was the best option for you, ISS likely wouldnt have even accepted you. ISS is the boutique experience and you get great attention when your a high value candidate for them, if you arent your going to get ignored by ISS. Not that SA is any better, except that everyone pretty much gets the same level of attention which is not very much.
Thats just the change in recruitment, ISs especially those with a lot of recruiting are finding it more cost effective to manage their own application systems.
TIE is simply a lot more cost effective, they are about a quarter or less the cost of a premium agency. Not only that but you have efficiency of scale. An IS can put a single generic vacancy on TIE for a "science" IT and use it to collect applications for more than one science vacancy without paying an individual placement fee or attempting to obfuscate additional placements with a premium agency.
The premium agencies including SA do have strong benefits, the ability to look at confidential references is very advantageous for an IS. Fairs are high value access points to appointments for ITs. The convenience of the job boards notifications is a valuable convenience.
I would look into adding CIS (free) along with TIE and TES.
Best Recruitment Sites
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Thames Pirate
- Posts: 1150
- Joined: Fri Jul 05, 2013 8:06 am
Re: Best Recruitment Sites
If you expect the offers to roll in just by signing up you will be disappointed with any agency. You will only get either garbage schools or last minute/hard to fill/desperation vacancy contacts. In general YOU will need to do the legwork for the good schools (obviously there are exceptions, but in general). If you expected anything different, you will be disappointed with any major agency.
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@booboo14
I concur completely with @Thames Pirate, if you are thinking of a premium agency or any agency/service in IE like an executive recruitment or head hunter you will be very disappointed, that doesnt really exist for ITs. The agencies give access, by means of a jobs board and fairs, but you have to do ALL the work. They dont rep you and pitch you to ISs, the agencies dont work for you. The recruiters, leadership, ISs are the client, you are a commodity. This isnt professional sports where some talent agent reps you, you arent some fortune 100 CEO looking for the next startup or troubled company. You are at best some nobody actor/actress, fairs are casting calls, and all your agency does is give you the contact details and openings available. Some reps will hold your hand a little more than others, but they arent making phone calls to recruiters to get you a job. They arent pushing you to anyone, and the closest you are going to get to a phone call saying theres this perfect IS in X place that wants to talk to you, is a mass email introducing some bottom tier IS with a lot of vacancies.
I concur completely with @Thames Pirate, if you are thinking of a premium agency or any agency/service in IE like an executive recruitment or head hunter you will be very disappointed, that doesnt really exist for ITs. The agencies give access, by means of a jobs board and fairs, but you have to do ALL the work. They dont rep you and pitch you to ISs, the agencies dont work for you. The recruiters, leadership, ISs are the client, you are a commodity. This isnt professional sports where some talent agent reps you, you arent some fortune 100 CEO looking for the next startup or troubled company. You are at best some nobody actor/actress, fairs are casting calls, and all your agency does is give you the contact details and openings available. Some reps will hold your hand a little more than others, but they arent making phone calls to recruiters to get you a job. They arent pushing you to anyone, and the closest you are going to get to a phone call saying theres this perfect IS in X place that wants to talk to you, is a mass email introducing some bottom tier IS with a lot of vacancies.
Re: Best Recruitment Sites
I was just frustrated with them, because in hindsight there was little chance I was going to get hired by a decent school. So that's a plus if ISS doesn't just take anyone. The bottom rung schools were the same ones on TIE and I was surprised SEARCH represents some really crappy schools. Then again when you are looking for a job you want to look at all options. I didn't mind doing the legwork, so I did made a list of schools on SEARCH that I would work for and the number is around 300. I will apply to them directly next time around. I realize I will miss out on any new ones with SEARCH.
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Thames Pirate
- Posts: 1150
- Joined: Fri Jul 05, 2013 8:06 am
Re: Best Recruitment Sites
I don't think you quite understand how recruitment works and what we mean by legwork.
Agencies are paid a (relatively) small fee by the teachers, but their big clients are the schools. We get access to the database of schools and jobs, but the reverse is also true--they pay to have a database of teachers. While we click through the job benefits, salary ranges, school websites, and job descriptions, they do the same--click through our endorsements, our recommendation profiles, etc. However, the good schools don't need to do this--they just click through the people who have directly applied to their vacancies (a good school might get 100 applications for a vacancy through agencies and direct apps). Therefore those schools won't reach out to even the best teachers because it's easier to sift through the 100 apps than the thousands of listed teachers, many of whom might not be interested in their school. So the schools reaching out are the ones not getting enough or quality applicants--in other words, only the lower schools or the desperate schools (come to OurCountry for a 6 month maternity cover that is mid-year!).
Even if ISS is allegedly "selective" (something only PG believes), this is how it works--they still won't reach out to you. In fact, if ISS is selective on candidates, they will go elsewhere. If they are selective in schools, candidates will go elsewhere. ISS's services (whether through selectivity or through their services offered) did not keep up with the times, and the result was that there was a shift to Search. So schools that recruit through fairs and databases are more heavily represented in SA, while schools that need a bigger pool are with both. Fewer schools are still with ISS, and there is a strong regional element. Of course more and more schools are going to Schrole as this is cheaper for both candidates and schools (though this is still new and its market niche and impact is not yet fully carved out). However, with the cheaper alternatives like TIE and TES (and the myriad others like Dave's ESL Cafe), there is the "get what you pay for" factor going on. The databases are unwieldy and the candidate pools too large for the more selective schools who are already getting so many applications, and the lack of a selection process means they are getting applications from people they would never consider that they then have to weed out. By only advertising with the self-selecting agencies that eliminate non-teachers, for example, they can keep that 100 down to 100 instead of 500 applications--and for an overworked HR person, that is a big deal.
By legwork, we don't mean find each school you like and apply to it outside of the agency, though of course you can do that (boy, that is unwieldy to check 300 individual school websites for open positions each week). We mean that within the agency you search for open jobs and reach out to those schools, either through the agency contacts or then going to the website and applying directly. The agency eliminates the need to search 300 school sites each week (though you should check your top 10 each week or so as some schools list on their sites before they do with an agency in the hopes of saving the fees).
Once you realise that the agencies are a tool for simplifying legwork (and for fair access if applicable), you can look at schools that are in your list of 300, see if they advertise actively with the other agencies or postings (if the information is available), and decide based on your resume and realistic self-evaluation where you can find the most listings valuable to you.
Agencies are paid a (relatively) small fee by the teachers, but their big clients are the schools. We get access to the database of schools and jobs, but the reverse is also true--they pay to have a database of teachers. While we click through the job benefits, salary ranges, school websites, and job descriptions, they do the same--click through our endorsements, our recommendation profiles, etc. However, the good schools don't need to do this--they just click through the people who have directly applied to their vacancies (a good school might get 100 applications for a vacancy through agencies and direct apps). Therefore those schools won't reach out to even the best teachers because it's easier to sift through the 100 apps than the thousands of listed teachers, many of whom might not be interested in their school. So the schools reaching out are the ones not getting enough or quality applicants--in other words, only the lower schools or the desperate schools (come to OurCountry for a 6 month maternity cover that is mid-year!).
Even if ISS is allegedly "selective" (something only PG believes), this is how it works--they still won't reach out to you. In fact, if ISS is selective on candidates, they will go elsewhere. If they are selective in schools, candidates will go elsewhere. ISS's services (whether through selectivity or through their services offered) did not keep up with the times, and the result was that there was a shift to Search. So schools that recruit through fairs and databases are more heavily represented in SA, while schools that need a bigger pool are with both. Fewer schools are still with ISS, and there is a strong regional element. Of course more and more schools are going to Schrole as this is cheaper for both candidates and schools (though this is still new and its market niche and impact is not yet fully carved out). However, with the cheaper alternatives like TIE and TES (and the myriad others like Dave's ESL Cafe), there is the "get what you pay for" factor going on. The databases are unwieldy and the candidate pools too large for the more selective schools who are already getting so many applications, and the lack of a selection process means they are getting applications from people they would never consider that they then have to weed out. By only advertising with the self-selecting agencies that eliminate non-teachers, for example, they can keep that 100 down to 100 instead of 500 applications--and for an overworked HR person, that is a big deal.
By legwork, we don't mean find each school you like and apply to it outside of the agency, though of course you can do that (boy, that is unwieldy to check 300 individual school websites for open positions each week). We mean that within the agency you search for open jobs and reach out to those schools, either through the agency contacts or then going to the website and applying directly. The agency eliminates the need to search 300 school sites each week (though you should check your top 10 each week or so as some schools list on their sites before they do with an agency in the hopes of saving the fees).
Once you realise that the agencies are a tool for simplifying legwork (and for fair access if applicable), you can look at schools that are in your list of 300, see if they advertise actively with the other agencies or postings (if the information is available), and decide based on your resume and realistic self-evaluation where you can find the most listings valuable to you.
Re: Best Recruitment Sites
I never expected to sit back and get contacted without reaching out to schools first. LIke psy said it was the best for me at the time, even if not appropriate.