Roc-Search - www.roc-search.com

They ask for references up front. Very rude, always trying to fish for more information to generate leads. It's a classical bait and switch, making you give up your best references just to get nothing back. Appalling.

Over the past year I've had six or more calls from this outfit. No matter how much I ask there is never a job description, company name, location or rate. However, they are all very keen to know if I'm currently working, who with, if I have any interviews lined up and who with, and what the daily rate is. Read into this what you will. I have and have subsequently ignored any calls.

Interviews for jobs can take two or three interviews. This company want you to jump through hoops for all the interviews and have presentations ready at their command, even though you may be working in a job already with long hours.Then they never communicate to the applicant what is happening. If you haven't got the job that's fine just tell them. However after all the interviews most applicants hear nothing from them again.This is just bad manners and plain rude. Why would you want to work for a company with no integrity and honesty when working within the field of recruitment, or are they all stupid? However I fear that this is the norm within this sector and I would advise steering clear of this company in particular and recruitment consultancy full stop. There are so many great careers out there where people have integrity and are not slaves to the money!!

Don't ever work for Roc-Search in Reading. Their astronomical staff turnover rate is testament to that...

They completely miss-sell the job of 'Trainee Recruitment Consultant' to unwitting graduates, desperate to find their first job out of uni in an extremely competitive job market. They promise excellent career progression, earning potential and a fantastic training programme. As well as a car allowance, private healthcare and a free gym membership.

None of these promises will ever materialise. Firstly you will be pressured into singing a contract while you sit enclosed in a room with one of the managers looming over you, barely allowing you to read and absorb what you're actually singing up to. Later realising that the only person in the business entitled to the promised car allowance, private healthcare and free gym membership is the MD of the company. Don't even think long term ... there's no pension scheme either. Which for a fresh graduate may seem irrelevant with retirement being so far off in the future. But not having something as basic as a pension scheme is a huge warning sign of a company which does not value its employees.

When you finally get stuck in (or should I say thrown in) to the job itself there is no training, you instead are just told what you are to do and expected to get on with it.

What it is that you are expected to do is cold call people on a list without even looking at their CV and 'sell' them a job that doesn't exist to find out information about where they are interviewing etc. so that you can then go and try and get work out of these leads.

But the lying and deceit does not stop here. When you do have a real job you are expected to lie about that too in order to lure unsuspecting candidates into accepting a job that is probably not particularly well suited to them. There are many other unethical pressure tactics used to coerce candidates into accepting jobs which are probably much less favourable than their other options.

You will spend day in, day out engaged in these dishonest phone conversations with people who trust that you intend to help them get back into work, or up to the next level in the career they've been working hard in for many years. And when I say day in, day out I mean 8am until 7pm Monday to Friday, yes 11 hours a day minimum. And if you've not satisfied your manager that you've hit all of your (unrealistically high) daily targets you are expected to stay late into the evening or come in at the weekend.

When you perform well it's never quite good enough. And when you under-perform there is no support plan to assist in improving your performance, you are instead made to feel ashamed and fearful of losing your job. So the highs are low and the lows are unfathomable, leaving you feeling in a constant state of despair and misery no matter how successful you may be.

The company culture, briefly summarised, is childish and rife with bullying, racism and sexism.

So don't fall victim to their miss-selling, deceit and pressure tactics. And if you do don't worry like most of their employees it won't be long before you realise your mistake and leave. And trust me the grass IS greener on the other side.

Today I received a phone call from this agency. Whilst I avoided answering the gamut of personal questions being asked I asked politely for more information about the roles this agent had in mind. On asking the agent to tell me more he became very defensive and wanted to end the call! I managed to tell him everyone had a price for permanent and contract work and if he could give me more information about the role (i.e. location, salary, jobspec) then I could make a decision about it. He refused to do this and decided to end the call there and then. Quite clearly an outfit who operate in a very unusual manner and possibly looking for business leads from your existing roles rather than having real jobs available for the candidate.