9-20 Recruitment www.9-20recruitment.com

I was just replying to another comment on Review Centre and wanted to thank you for your recommendation. It is always good to hear feedback and we are very proud of our advocates.

I've got to say, this review reflected my experience with this agency exactly.

After applying for a role that had been advertised, I was invited to an 'interview' (in a pub!), only to be met by the least-qualified and most inexperienced child I have ever encountered in my professional life - she was literally 20 years old, just out of Uni, and very clearly didn't have a clue what I did, or what the client she was ostensibly recruiting on behalf of needed.

The most damning thing was, after I heard nothing back from this 'interview' (another classy move), and I had chalked it up as a bad experience, I was subsequently contacted on no less than seven occasions by this bunch of jokers over the following year - each time by a new person contacting me afresh about the same job I'd already been 'interviewed' for! (which by this time, they'd decided, miraculously, I was "perfect" for).

When I eventually got fed up with all these unsolicited invitations to re-interview for a job I'd already had my time wasted on once already for, and got in touch to tell them I'd never consider applying for any job through them again, let alone one I'd *already* interviewed for, I was told that the ill-qualified person that they'd chosen to conduct my earlier interview had apparently "left the company because she wasn't doing a very good job".

My advice, for what it's worth, to companies looking to recruit skilled and experienced staff: only use these idiots for your recruitment needs if you *really* want to put the top talent permanently off of ever working for your company - the best prospective staff wont put up with being made to run a gauntlet of your unqualified lackeys before you deign to meet them, especially when those lackeys are as incompetent as this bunch. I've noticed since my bad experience that the end employer concerned has stopped using 9-20 as their 'exclusive' recruiter. I can only advise this was a good move on their part.

Thank you for your comments. Obviously we are really disappointed to hear that your experience with 9-20 recruitment was not a good one, particularly as Candidate Care makes up a central pillar of our company ethos and operational policy.

To aid any confusion as to the reasoning behind our practices we would like to address the following:

"They rang to say that their client was interested in seeing me. Later, it became apparent that what was actually meant by this was that they would like to interview me on their client's behalf."

To ensure a successful match, finding the right people for the right job, 9-20 Recruitment aim to address the needs of Clients and Candidates.

In our recent market survey 60% of Clients stated the primary reason for selecting a recruitment supplier was their ability to short-list the right candidates. Moreover 40% of candidates said that it was the selection process that will have the biggest impact on recruitment.

We therefore meet all our candidates prior to a client interview to reduce the chance of an unsuitable pairing; which would waste both the client and candidates time. As such we are adding value to basic recruitment provision and our clients pay for an enhanced service provision with 9-20 Recruitment that they do not always get when paying other recruitment providers.

"their proposed venue for said 'interview' was "whichever pub or coffee shop is handiest for you""

At 9-20 Recruitment we appreciate that it is not often easy for candidates to attend interviews at a set time and location, as such, we offer to meet candidates at a location suitable for them, often out of normal working hours (our MD is interviewing an executive this Saturday). It is very rare that a bar is chosen as the most suitable location by the candidate.

An article featured in the Sunday Times Magazine (30.03.08) highlights that coffee house events are becoming more and more common in the "aim to bring the informal business culture“ that go “for“ it Californian positivity“ of Silicon Valley to the UK".

"the staff member conducting the interview is quite ignorant of both the specifics of the job under discussion, and what it is that the potential candidates they're vetting actually do"

One of our 4 Candidate Care promises is to bring knowledge to the candidate at every stage of the recruitment process and we are very proud of our recruiters understanding of the IT market and role specifics. It may have been that, in this particular situation, the candidate was unsuitable for role, reasserting our reasoning for meeting each candidate before a client introduction.

We would like to apologize again for any misunderstanding of our recruitment processes and service and would be more than happy to discuss your experience further to ensure any remaining upset is addressed. Moreover we will be happy to help with any career progression needs you may have at present.

You can contact me directly at [email protected]