Why Using a Recruitment Agency is the Best Way to Find a Job

In our recent Douglas Scott Salary Survey, we wanted to find out from respondents many things about their salary, benefits, commute time, and satisfaction. But one question that received some exciting responses was how people found their job roles. As a recruitment agency, we want to see where people are looking to find their next career move, and this data shows that people are still choosing recruitment agencies as their primary option for finding a new job role.

First, let's look at the numbers: in our survey, 28% of people surveyed said they used a recruitment agency to find their most recent job. This was the highest average of all the options available by some considerable margin, and we can see that people trust experienced consultants' services to find them job roles. To split the figures by gender, the number of women using a recruitment agency jumps to 32%, while, for men, the figure drops slightly to 22%. In both demographics, this is still the top option for people, with the closest options being direct approaches to and from the company. (Which both equated to about 13% each.) These numbers are down a little from last year, but this might be because there were fewer responses to this question than in previous years. To look at some other trends in the data for a moment, we can see that print advertising is now the least likely way for people to find their job role (only 1.9% of people used this method to find work), while LinkedIn and Social Media are becoming more popular methods of finding new jobs, at a high of 2.1%. Meanwhile, we continue to see a declining trend in word of mouth being used to find roles, while internal promotion has dropped slightly after seeing a huge bounce back in 2022. However, the central point from all this information is that using a recruitment agency is still the top way to find a new job in the legal sector.

So, why is using a recruitment agency the best way to find your next job role? Well, it’s pretty simple – using a recruitment agency guarantees using the best experience to find the position most suitable for you. Your consultant will have expert knowledge of the sector, understand what you are looking for in a role, and what your experience will be best suited to. A good recruiter should be able to offer you expert advice for CVs and cover letters, interview coaching, help with finding roles and understanding the market, and constructive feedback after interviews if you are unsuccessful. If you are on the other side of the process (i.e., you are looking to fill a vacancy at a company), then using a recruitment agency brings a faster time between advertising and hiring, as the recruiter will pre-vet candidates before they are even sent to you. They can even help provide temporary candidates if you have roles that need filling for a short period, as they will have a pool of suitable candidates all ready to go, and they will. There are many benefits to using a recruitment agency on both sides of the journey, which is clearly being born out in what we see in our salary survey.

Using a recruitment agency still seems the most popular and surefire way to find a new job. There are now many more options available for finding a job, so being the most popular shows that people still value the experience of someone who understands the market and how it operates. While other methods are available, using a recruitment agency seems to be the most popular method. We can help with that here at Douglas Scott – so feel free to reach out to us either on our website or by contacting one of our consultants on LinkedIn to discuss our roles and what may be suitable for you.