Recruitment Agencies Experience

[NewtoHK11]

This idea for this thread has actually come about from a thread that I was just reading and it struck a chord with me. What is your advice when dealing with recruitment agencies here in HK? Here are mine:
1. Never ever ever ever ever trust an agent to operate with your interest in mind. They work for the client, not you.
2. Never tell the agent what is current salary is. If they are any good they will know.
3. Never provide names of people that you currently work with.
4. Never believe that all roles are genuine.
5. Never complete a sentence for a recruiter when it comes to revealing information about your current or past employer..ie "oh so you worked in that department at bank A, your manager must have been.." at this point the recruiter wants you to complete the sentence for them, thereby revealing a new contact for him..DONT.
6. If a recruiter provides you with names of people that you know why they say they are looking for roles elsewhere, run, dont walk, run away because they are not discrete and will be doing the same to you.

[acchan]

This has been my experience too.

When I told him I am not comfortable disclosing my current salary, nor do I see the need to, he claimed I'm too westernized and that this is how things run in HK.

Also all the jobs being offered by recruitment agencies were just clickbaits. They just want your CV and then shove jobs that are completely different from the ones you've applied or were interested your way. What was the whole bloody point of writing customized cover letters then?!

[SonicYouth1]

This has been my experience too.

When I told him I am not comfortable disclosing my current salary, nor do I see the need to, he claimed I'm too westernized and that this is how things run in HK.

Also all the jobs being offered by recruitment agencies were just clickbaits. They just want your CV and then shove jobs that are completely different from the ones you've applied or were interested your way. What was the whole bloody point of writing customized cover letters then?!

But if your expected salary is, for example, 50k and the role they have is only from 30-40k you can see that there could be a lot of time wasting if you go to the interview, 2nd interview and then all parties find out its not a salary match, if you don't disclose your expected salary.

[alexdown]

But if your expected salary is, for example, 50k and the role they have is only from 30-40k you can see that there could be a lot of time wasting if you go to the interview, 2nd interview and then all parties find out its not a salary match, if you don't disclose your expected salary.

expected != current

[okahui]

depends on the quality/ability of the recruiter really... and do take note on your own profile's competitiveness against your ask as well.

a good rec is able to both convince a candidate to share information most of the time, simply by being able to present a role that is actually matching and in a well informed manner too.

all im saying is dont be too fixated on your job search commandments, you might be missing out on a rec that is actually good lol!

[V_Man8]

Does anyone know any reputable and reliable recruitment agencies in HK that would be useful to sign up to? Looking to relocate in HK along with my partner but have no idea where to start. Thanks!