Employment Agencies

[Alice Rain]

Hi Everyone

I’m a little concerned as I’ve been responding to adverts for jobs on Gumtree posted by ‘private’. I only respond to ‘private’ as I’m not interested in agencies. Every single response that I’ve received has now come from an ‘agency’ and every single one of them is using a fax number starting with ‘086’ and many of them, the numbers thereafter ‘226’.

I was annoyed as it has wasted my time and data and I do not have the financial means to fax my cv, supporting documents, id and photos to these fax numbers that also cost more than a normal fax. Also you cannot respond to the email either so I must use up data to google the agency in order to email them.

Then a friend also pointed out that they could possibly be scams in order to gain our id numbers etc of which were all included in my cv plus photos which was attached to each one I responded to.

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

At least I know HR Solutions are a real company!

Thanks Alice

[HR Solutions]

Alice - they should never ask you for you I'd no. They will only ask for your id once you go and see them and fill in the relevant forms. Why don't you send your cv to me and let's see what we can do for you ?

Why don't you give me a ring tomorrow - I'm in CT at the mo.

[adrianh]

What sort of work are you looking for?

[HR Solutions]

Alice - just thought I would also mention - when fax numbers begin with 086 - it does not mean that you will pay extra data from your side - it is a fax to e mail/computer number - we also have one, so when you fax your cv etc it pops onto one of our computers - we then have the choice to print it or not, thereby saving paper.

We also have a national 086 no, whereby if you are in CT and phone that number you will automatically go thro to our CT branch. If you are phoning from Jhb you will go thro to our Jhb branch. (Telkom are getting quite clever )

[Alice Rain]

Hi adrianh

Thank you for your interest. I am a qualified PA and really enjoy typing which is fast and accurate, also have proof-reading experience and by nature am creative. My passion however is with animals. Also the age thing which shouldn't pose a problem if people look at the photographs. Terribly pro-active in all respects so I do a lot of hard labour around my place! I'm also keen to leave the Cape as I feel change is good.

[Alice Rain]

Hi HR Solutions

Thank you for your input, it's just that when I faxed a whole lot of documents to one of those numbers from Postnet, they said to me that someone gets money and it would cost more and then of course I wasn't sure about the scam thing. But should I remove my id number from my CV then?

[HR Solutions]

Alice - no I wouldn't remove your id no from a cv because an agency will need the number. I would just make sure exactly who I send the cv to.

[adrianh]

Hi adrianh

Thank you for your interest. I am a qualified PA and really enjoy typing which is fast and accurate, also have proof-reading experience and by nature am creative. My passion however is with animals. Also the age thing which shouldn't pose a problem if people look at the photographs. Terribly pro-active in all respects so I do a lot of hard labour around my place! I'm also keen to leave the Cape as I feel change is good.

Great, the most important thing in life is creativity. Age, "the age old problem", As the song goes; "Too old to rock & roll and too young to die"

A change, from the Cape....no man, that is terrible, it is like driving a Porsche and wanting to trade it in on a old 2nd hand Beetle. It's like Richard Branson said: "Money doesn't buy happiness but at least you get to be unhappy in exotic places"

[Houses4Rent]

As far as I know fax to email numbers cost the sender quite a bit. Its free for the holder of the number, but the service provider has to make an income which is done by the fees the sender has to pay. Not so? I have such a a number and some people sending us faxes complained about the fees. This is even if they use their own fax and not another service provider like PostNet.

As far as I know one can always answer to adverts on Gumtree by email. I only learnt Friday that people also can attach files. See on right hand of screen.
We placed a job offer and had the odd request for our email from someone responding via email. I thought attachments might be the problem (like it often is with webforms), but then I found the button to attach files too.

[Alice Rain]

Ha ha Adrianh, I do still rock and roll and I am not ready to die because I've still got a lot to do! Besides which I have always been 'somewhat delayed'! but blessed [until the last few years] to always look 10 years younger than I really am! A change is always good and presently I am near the sea which is too darn cold to swim in! Give me Durban's ocean! Previously I lived on the slopes of Table Mountain and prefer mountains to the sea. There's nothing like getting home after work, ripping off your shoes, putting on tackies and getting up the mountain and then sitting up there watching all the cars bumper to bumper trying to get home! Oh how I miss that! I think I could actually do the Karoo too, all that open space!
But I do have an interview this afternoon so we'll see!

[adrianh]

Cool, good luck. Go and put on the best psychopath act that you have and tell them exactly what they want to hear. You know that you can do the work so all you need to do is sell it to them....Stuff it, it's all about marketing... We buy $h1t every day because we are marketed into doing so, so don't feel bad about marketing yourself...it's the way of the world!

Durban is to humid for me, I feel as if I am walking in molasses when I go there. Cape Town is the most beautiful city in the country and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

[Houses4Rent]

Cape Town is pretty unbeatable.