Do these guys just help with resumes and interview questions or do they help with placement too?
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As far as Randstad goes the recruiting and job searches were sub par but the interviewing coach and resume service were pretty good. YMMV with position you are seeking
Grade 6 to 10 they are relatively good. Grade 11 they are ok. Grade 12 and above completely useless.
When I was let go, we had LHH. They are about as useless as you can get.
I didn't find LHH incredibly useful, but they were not useless. One of their seminars on preparing your LinkedIn profile was very helpful. Mine was in pretty good shape, but I was able to improve it. Many people who've been at Cisco for years, and can probably be said of many companies, have very weak LinkedIn profiles due to not needing to look for a job every 2-3 years like contractors do. They don't know how to sell themselves in a resume or an interview.
Beyond interview tips, preparing your resume or LinkedIn profile, LHH isn't very helpful.
I got a lot of benefits out of LHH for interviewing, and having been a contractor before and after Cisco, I'd had more than my fair share of interviews. Knowing how to answer interview questions can really help. Some people, like me, get too wordy or long winded. The trick is to keep it short and direct. Many places recommend the STAR method. State the situation, highlight the task, describe your actions and share the results of your actions. You need to have examples of how you saved the company time or money, increased reliability or reduced bugs/errors. Bottom line, why should they hire you over some other guy/lady?
I don't want to defend LHH, but you get out of them what you put into them. I used their tools to get insight into companies before interviewing with them, although Glass Door has good into too if you can filter out the HR posted reviews or replies.
speak with them. ask about the positions they mostly fill. ask for their opinion of current job market and pay. if they have a weak response or unsure what you are asking - move on. there is huge turnover is placement personnel.
what joke - Randstad is getting free resumes to pick through for there own purposes including those of red AND blue-badges. this is all about them
When I was let go, we had LHH. They are about as useless as you can get. The BEST piece of advice or coaching they offered was "be sure to be at an interview on time". Seriously? That is the best you have to offer?
The comments by @rfu remind me of Lee Hect Harrison that Cisco used to use for outplacement services. They were a lot better than what @rfu describes of Randstad, but they were not that great. I never managed to find work via LHH, but some of their resources were pretty good. LHH helped me a lot with preparing for interviews, improving my LinkedIn profile and tightening up my resume. It's hard to keep it to just a couple of pages when you have 15+ years at multiple companies. Contractors can have one or two clients a year for short term gigs. For me, it was 1-2 years with a client, then converting to an employee of the client for 2-3 years, then another 6 month - 1 year with a client through another vendor followed by a 1-2 years with a better client and converting to an employee for another 2-3 years. Wash, rinse and repeat 3-4 times and here I am.
As to the comment by @dws/Hellagood, what vendor has good benefits? I've never had a follow-on gig at a new client after my stint at the previous client via the same vendor. I've always found a new gig via a posting with a new vendor. I can say that Randstad at least kept my benefits active until the end of the month that my client gig ended and then COBRA started. Of course, in most cases the gig ended on the last Friday of the month, so there was less than 7 days left in the month anyway unless it was a sudden termination. With my current vendor, not to be named, their policy is that your benefits terminate at 11:59PM the day your client role ends. The cheap b–tards won't even carry you to the end of the month. And while they say they'll look for another role for you, it's mainly to keep $'s rolling into their pockets, not any concern for you.
I'd take TEKsystems or Randstad over my current vendor any day.
Their benefits are awful and they do not help you at all. If you’re laid off as a contractor to Randstad (I.e. You’ve signed a contract with Randstad and then they place you at a client) they just leave you to fend for yourself. Once the client doesn’t want you, they don’t want you either.
terrible outfit
cisco must use them because of cheap rates
Do not sign up with Randstad. Their benefits are awful and they do not help you at all. If you’re laid off as a contractor to Randstad (I.e. You’ve signed a contract with Randstad and then they place you at a client) they just leave you to fend for yourself. Once the client doesn’t want you, they don’t want you either.
it is useful for a low grade personal and sales role, it is not useful for technical folks at high specific areas, here is my experience: they mumble and jumble all laid off personal from all companies in the area to have a workshop, you will meet groups of laid off people from labcorp, ibm and etc.. then this old lady has a one on one. with you, after few minutes, she stats to talk about how IBM mistreated her and laid off all her deparment and how HR was decimated by IBM. and outsource her functions.. that is the end of it..
I was then put into these virtual sessions and a lead personal is from middle of nowhere at NJ, has no idea who we are. They do this constantly every day morning and afternoon session, you will be in one of them with other laid off people from x companies across ny timezone at different states.
you sent a resume to a alias and they modify and send it back to you...
aka: all these are robotic session..
the office where we had one face to face meeting was being repaired, and hence back then we were all sent to virtual sessions..
there is a computer lab full of monitors and keyboards and you can do your resume and do the electronic learning if required.
overall, this is a robotic place and mostly is a mental dump area where you can talk if you can not talk at home about these..
anyway, you are on your own, I did find a job within 3 weeks and moved on and much happier than before, all these ransdald company did not help a bit. You are on your own. Cisco don't want anything to do with you. with the role you have, gaining some was experience is important.
useless
Lol 😂