[Escapee]

There are good and bad agencies, unfortunately most are in the bad category. I only know about agencies dealing with the sort of work that I am involved with, some agencies specialise and others try to be a jack of all trades.

The company that my current employer has done an exclusive deal with is called "Computer Futures" I have without doubt found them to be the most useless agency of the lot. Over the past three years I have spoken with in excess of a hundred agencies (no BS) 90% of the time they have made contact and I recently had an experience where they were promising the earth about a job locally, I made my own enquieries and found the company didn't even have the jobs authorised to proceed. I understand that is still the same situation one month on, a manager happened to mention it to the agency and they advertised the jobs.

I have also found as others have mentioned here, agencies phone you up fishing. They act as though they are your long lost friends and have some great opportunities just around the corner, very often they turn the conversation around and asked who does the hiring in the company that you currently work for.

A good agency are worth their weight in gold, they will match your skills to vacant positions and sell your skills, they will do their best to get you an interview in a way that you could not do yourself.

I only know 2 or 3 agencies that I would say are good from past experience.