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“Over selling what they have got and under delivering. ...”

Written on: 15/08/2011

The real issue with Pareto is that they try to hold themselves out to be more than a recruitment agency whereas they are just that. And an expensive one at around 30% of starting salary. If you really cannot recruit graduates, then get AIESEC, AIESTE, GTI or JCI to help you. Pareto claim to have sophisticated assessment methods, but in fact they are some 20 years out of date (I know, I used to head up recruitment for one of the Big 4 accounting firms). My guess is that they aim for the second or third quartile graduates. I cannot see them being able to compete at all against the major accountants, banks or direct recruiters. I can, though, see them as being perfectly credible against a large call centre or something similar.

Their training, again, is really aimed at technology FMCG with a slight B2B aspect. Again, rather simplistic and low level and with no feedback or job specific aspects. So, anything other than low level sales, forget.

But, if you are a graduate, have no job, no real CV or 'ands' and little real drive then Pareto could be quite good. But candidates, don't forget that the commission Pareto charge will almost certainly mean that you wonlt get as much as you could have got had you applied direct (and if you want to get into sales, what better way to prove yourself than selling you).

And if you are a recruiter with little skills then again Pareto could help - but they charge you an arm and a leg for a really, really, poor service. Whilst they will give you some comfort that they will replace if the person doesn't work out, the fact is that the replacement will come from the same pool.

This said, there are likely to be some really great candidates and some really great jobs.

I just don't think that Pareto have the skills to match them all up properly. So it's down to pure luck with these guys.

Good luck!