Can anyone suggest a decent employment agency?

Hiya,
I’ve just come out of the same situation after 8 years in the Mother Country. Started looking for jobs in Jan – no good everyone’s on hols.

I signed up with heaps of agencies and can give you a run down on my experiences with them:
Kowalksi – came highly recommended and were highly professional at interview, however, I never heard from them again. Even when I rang them, they were shite at returning calls.
Manpower- promise the world, delivered nothing
Hayes – i was apprehensive, but they were great, kept in touch and really tried. They got me the job I am in now (Daff)
Cantelie – found them by accident and they were great too. They are a small, boutique (their words, not mine) operation who are very professional
tpa – found them a bit stuffy at interview, but actually they turned out pretty good too. Was pleasantly suprised.

Hope this helps. Oh – and after being out of the pubic service for so long – I’d forgotten how long things can take (still waiting to hear about job I applied for in Jan), so I hope you find something soon 🙂

Call Trish at Effective People, she’s brilliant.

Hays Policy & Strategy got me a good policy job at Environment…

Select Appointments are great for Admin Positions

taninaus said :

Effective people tend to place in ACT Gov – we don’t have a recruitment freeze and no pending slash and burn like the feds!

I agree. I went to Effective People when I was returning to Canberra. They were really professional and found me work with Dept of the Environment quickly.

My current department (ACT Govt)uses Drake.

I found SOS, Select and Wizard to be very good. A friend also got work through Effective People in Weston but they tend to place at the lower clerical end of the market. Many many years ago I temped through PCA as well and they were very good then. I think now they tend to place in the Accounting field but will place clerical/policy roles as well.

Most Canberra agents place in government and the freeze on govt recruitment at the moment may actually mean more temp places because the costs show up in another part of the budget. Go figure!

Just make sure whichever agency you use honour the casual loading and allow you to choose you super company (required by law) if they are paying you directly on a per hour rate.

Cantlie are an excellent agency, they’re local and staffed by adults. Hudsons are also good at the moment (they can have ups and downs).

Most contractors I’ve met are with SOS. So much better than who I was with…

Effective people tend to place in ACT Gov – we don’t have a recruitment freeze and no pending slash and burn like the feds!

quest are a good agency and deal with ps….particularly dhcs