[462Kb] (campus only) 
Find a graduate job: using recruitment intermediaries
Where to look for vacancies
For many of our students and graduates, the best source of graduate vacancies and internships is MyFuture, where new opportunities are added every day all year round. We do not charge to advertise, and of course our advertising is precisely targeted at Bath students and graduates.
However, lots of vacancies, particularly if you’re not looking for a graduate scheme in a large company, are advertised elsewhere. To find the most relevant source for your career interests, discipline, location, we suggest you thoroughly explore our Find a graduate job pages. In particular, the occupational information section of our catalogue where you will find links to: professional bodies, directories and web-sites most relevant to a sector or industry, e.g. Health and Psychology, Natural Resources, Transport and Logistics.
Recruitment intermediaries can be useful for:
- specific areas of employment, where specialist agencies may have a long established expertise and regular clients, e.g. pharmaceutical sales and clinical trials or translation and interpreting
- more experienced candidates looking for senior roles. In those cases the terms ‘recruitment agent’, ‘executive search’ and ‘head-hunter’ may be used interchangeably
- temporary work. In particular, if a company has lots of vacancies in one region needing a steady flow of employees, they may put all their recruitment through recruitment intermediaries. An employer may use one or several intermediaries and if you approach an employer directly/speculatively it’s always worth asking if they use recruitment intermediaries and if so, which ones
- immediate vacancies, that is; opportunities to start straight away. If you are a graduate rather than a student applying in your final or postgraduate year then you should probably consider registering with recruitment intermediaries, as part of your job seeking strategy
- giving you a feel for the market within a particular area of work, or geographical area. From talking to agencies and from the jobs they encourage you to consider, you can learn which skills and experiences are most sought by employers and about typical salaries.
Weighing up the pros and cons
If you want to get into a mainstream graduate job, and particularly if you are still a student or recently graduated, then making direct applications is the best initial strategy, because:
- if the employer is on MyFuture, visiting campus, or even if they don’t target Bath but have their vacancies easily visible on-line, then registering with a recruitment intermediary and just sitting back to wait is likely to result in you missing many opportunities
- targeting your application for each employer will be easier. Usually recruitment intermediaries don’t tell you the name of their client, i.e. your potential employer. When recruitment intermediaries ask us to advertise for them we insist on knowing the employer and we advertise to you under the name of the employer, but that’s not typical.
On the other hand, assuming it doesn’t stop you also being proactive in seeking work and you’re careful about sharing your personal details (and those of others e.g. your referees), then you have nothing to lose registering with recruitment intermediaries. Provided you remember a few key safeguards, detailed below.
Vital points to remember
- You don’t have to limit yourself to one recruitment agency/consultant. Check any small print you might be asked to sign to ensure you’re not agreeing to this.
- Agencies must not charge you fees for finding or trying to find you work (Employment Agencies Act 1973). Have nothing to do with an agency that tries to make you pay them to do this. They may charge for additional services, but consider if this is necessary. For example, paying for help with your CV isn’t necessary as we’ll help you for free!
- You don’t have to go to interviews or accept jobs you are offered but aren’t interested in. If you are puzzled by the jobs you are being persuaded to consider then remember that agencies are paid by the employer when they successfully place a candidate. While quality in terms of how well you’re treated varies, it’s always the case that your interests can’t be their first priority – as it is the employer who pays them. This will be particularly evident if you are trying to gain new experiences and the agent/ consultant is trying to place you in a role you feel is too easy. Understandably they will generally want to find the employer someone who is most likely to be a safe bet.
- Members of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) have agreed to a certain code of good practice, is the agency you’re dealing with a member?
- If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Each year we see some examples of students considering jobs they have incomplete or inaccurate information about, or being offered a job with unusually high salary, or without an interview or even telephone conversation. If you are unsure about the selection process, job offer or contract you’re being asked to sign, come in to see us.
- You need to work at this too. Treat the intermediary as you should any employer; be clear about what you’re looking for and are prepared to consider, keep in touch, make a good impression as they are the first stage for you to pass in gaining employment with their client company. Sometimes more than the first stage, as some intermediaries interview too.
Finding information
- We keep files on specialist intermediaries. In the files you will also find an index to help you choose which intermediaries are appropriate.
- The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC).
- Specific vacancies for named clients are advertised in MyFuture.
- There are also commercial sites with directories of recruitment intermediaries, e.g. Agency Central.