Blue Arrow is a good place to head to if you find yourself a little strapped for cash and with time…read moreon your hands. It's an employment agency, specialising in the catering industry. They will pretty much hire anyone, on a casual staff basis. If you've worked in catering before, you might even end up being offered a job as a supervisor. This has it's advantages and disadvantages, you end up with a job as a supervisor...in charge of people who have never even seen a bar before, let along worked on one. But as it's a casual basis, you can turn down shifts if you're busy so that's really good. The best place you'll end up being sent is Old Trafford on a match day, getting paid to watch the game! Fun times!

If you have the misfortune to have to drag your lazy good for nothing ass to a jobcentre to sign…read moreon, make sure its Longsight. As far as jobcentres go, this is a pretty good one. The staff are friendly rather than judgemental, plus they really do make a genuine effort to help you find work. I only signed on for a month or so but I never hated going to the job centre as much as friends of mine did, and i think the Longsight branch had something to do with this. Its a fairly large centre with plenty of sofas to sit on while you wait and a cluster of job-search machines in the centre of the room which readily spit out job opportunities on little receipts. The staff are kind and helpful and the two security guards seem more friendly than burly, but perhaps I never caught them on a bad day. If you live in the vicinity and are thinking about signing on, request Longsight job centre and you'll be back on your feet before you know it.

I feel like I've visited most of Manchester's job agencies in my time living here. I'm…read moreself-employed, so I've been searching for some regular bar work to fit around this as my income isn't always the most reliable. All the agencies I've visited have never come through for me with any actual work, many have even refused to register me. The market is crowded and there isn't a whole lot of work going with the recession. I went to Berkeley Scott before Christmas, and they were really helpful and it was great that they came through with some regular work for me. When you go in, ask for Becky or Sam, they're friendly and if you know what you're doing with bar or waiting work and they have some available, then they should be able to sort you out without much fuss. Berkeley Scott have a great system of texting staff with any extra or last minute shifts that are going, so it's often possible to get some extra work to supplement you're regular shifts.

i happy for brekeley scott, the whery helping for me in find a job ,happy work for them,read more

First of all I popped my CV into this Manpower branch and had a quick chat with a friendly man who…read moreasked me what kind of work I was looking for. I was then sent over to Manpower Professional where the lovely Paddy (who has unfortunately left now) had another chat with me. A few weeks later and they had found me a relatively well-paid job where I could use my skills (including my German, which I had found it hard to find a use for elsewhere). This was originally a 6 month contract, which I was happy about, which was then extended for another 6 months. Although it was annoying to fax off a timesheet every week for an entire year, I was happy to have a job that I enjoyed. The agency itself was friendly but not annoyingly so, and I never had a problem with my pay or holiday. All in all, a professional service from Manpower Professional. Not bad as far as agencies go, but I still can't bring myself to give them 5 stars, as they still take a large proportion of your hard-earned cash!

I wish I'd started applying for jobs before I graduated. But I didn't. So I was left carting my CV…read morearound town to the various agencies, which mostly turned me away due to my lack of experience. Apparently you can't even do data entry or filing without experience of exactly that, even if you do have a degree. I was desperate. I heard about Office Team through a friend, who had been made permanent at her job with the NHS which Office Team had found her. So I sent off my CV, they called me in to do some Excel and typing tests and the next week I had an admin job at City College. It was boring, badly paid and only for a couple of months, but it gave me time to find something more permanent. And Sally would bring us M&S donuts every week, which at least made it seem like they cared about us a little bit. Since then I have applied for a couple of jobs through their website. One of which they said I was a perfect candidate for, and they were just waiting for desk space. Of course they never got back to me. Another time they called me about a job that I had the right skills for, but when I called them back half an hour later they had given the job to someone else. When I had a permanent-ish job they seemed to call me all the time and I got annoyed, but when I was looking for a job they never called me. Grrr. Basically, OT is a good agency to go to if you're willing to work for £6.50 an hour doing admin for a couple of weeks to a couple of months. Just be warned, like most agencies they speak in annoyingly high voices and don't really care about you once they're getting your money. Check your payslips and holiday pay carefully.

These guys are really great and helpful. It is a small team who are part of Robert Half…read moreInternational. The girls are all so friendly and they get to work straight away. Office Team deal only with temporary work, but this could mean a temporary contract which could last for 6 months or more! If you are out of work and stuck get in touch with these guys!

OK, yes, I am riding high because I just got a job via TTR, but I have to say that Sarah Johnson…read moreand Lee Carroll (out of the Manchester branch) worked very hard on my behalf. They were both great about keeping in touch with me and putting my name forward for several positions. Sarah was my main recruiter and she was always upbeat, helpful, and taking initiative to get my name out there. There are several travel recruitment agencies out there and I've spoken to all of them. Only TTR really hustled on my behalf and had my back.

I was becoming used to being rejected by agencies just after I graduated. Some would say I didn't…read morehave enough experience, some would politely tell me that they would keep my CV on file, some would tell me that there weren't many jobs out there at the moment... however, the only one which laughed in my face was Rullion. I waited in a disorderly queue in their horrible stuffy office on Moseley Street for about 10 minutes before a typical recruitment woman with bleached blonde hair and a high-pitched voice took my CV from me. OK, so I didn't have any office experience, but I did have a first class degree and a lot of other work experience including teaching English, working at a ski resort in Canada and on a campsite in Germany. This is what the dumb blonde found hilarious. "So, erm, you've just worked on camps then?!" she laughed before pointing me in the direction of the door. Looking on their website there are numerous badly paid jobs that I could do with my eyes shut, but I'm glad I went to Manpower who actually found me a well-paid job matched to my skills - kind of what an agency should do.

After working with Rullion on a 6 month placement, I have found their staff to be unreliable,…read moreunsupportive, Rude and not very knowledgeable. For the website to call the companys recruiters professionals I believe to be a joke. This company has shown, on more than one occasion that they only think about the money and not that of the people that are representing Rullion. Can you believe I was told by one member of staff that I was not allowed to use my annual leave to cover a day of sick. This was quickly over written. I also received telephone calls (at my works number) from other Rullion team members, offering me an interview for other roles. Safe to say my manager was not happy about this. Also I have been waiting for quite some time for paperwork to be sent to me to confirm my temporary contract had ended. I sent several emails and telephone calls, all of which remained ignored. I have and will continue to advise people not to work with Rullion, once they have you in a place your nothing but a number to them. Its a shame I had to give them any stars!

Fantastic agency who go the extra mile to fill vacancies. Really good service from Hannah.read more

From the owner: KPI Recruiting is one of Warrington's leading recruitment agencies for Engineering and…read moreManufacturing vacancies. KPI have been finding jobs and providing staff solutions for multiple industry sectors of over 15 years. KPI is in a unique position to help SMEs, national and blue-chip clients. Our approach and size enable us to adapt to stay ahead of the game. KPI is in a unique position in the market due to our innovation and access to unique pools of talent. We are small enough to be agile and can adapt quickly to changing market conditions when national agencies cannot. We are also large enough to set up offices in new areas when we win new accounts and our network now stretches from Glasgow to London. We fill vacancies in: • Administration • Automotive • Banking & Financial Services • Call Centre • • Education • Engineering • Executive Search • Facilities Management • Fashion • Finance • FMCG • Food Production • Health Safety & Environment • Housing • Human Resources • Insurance & Legal • IT • Logistics • Managed Print • Management • Manufacturing • Marketing • Public Sector • Operations • Quality • Rail & Infrastructure • Recycling • Sales • Supply Chain • Technology • Warehouse

Are you a snivelling sponger? Are you scrimping off the state or living on beans and Special Brew?…read moreNeed a job? Call Morgan Hunt. One of the better recruitment agencies on the market, Morgan Hunt offer a professional, tailored job search and recruitment service. They work across the UK with a base in Manchester as well as some other prime locations which makes them a great place to start if you are a graduate looking to spread your wings. Working on both sides of the coin, they help the unemployed masses find work whilst offering headhunting services for companies and businesses. I've had some great temp work through them and regularly check their site for new vacancies and training opportunities. As they are a large company the service is a little cold and impersonal, but the flipside of this is that they have a lot of fingers in a lot of pies so there are plenty of juicy jobs for you to choose from.

Oh dear, oh dear.......... details of my agency experience…read morecan be found on my blog: http://grahamchalk.blogspot.com/2011_05_01_archive.html Morgan Hunt keep sending me job emails where if you click on "apply now" you get "error 404" It's been like this for aaaages. I told them about it. aaaaaaaaages ago....It's still like this....lol Oh and I signed up in a branch (Newcastle) that according to their website...doesn't actually exist. Hogwarts here I come!

My last two job placements have been with Alexander Hancock. I didn't expect much when I stepped…read moreinto their small office in Altrincham and did a couple of tests on an old keyboard. Upon meeting Liz, she was really enthusiastic and didn't mind me turning down roles that I felt I was not suited to. I thought that this was her sales pitch but no, every time I speak to her she is full of enthusiasm, she believes in me and talks to me as if she's my aunty, not just someone on her books. Being a small recruitment office, they care about you and constantly ring you up with opportunities. I would definitely recommend this firm to my friends, family and anyone I hear who is looking for work.

I was a jobseeker who was treated with no regard for my personal circumstances…read more I notified AH I was going on holiday for a week. Despite me notifying AH of this, I was bombarded with calls and emails about my prospective job hunt. A job interview was arranged without consulting me first (I even asked for it to be arranged after my return with minimum of 48 hours notice so I had sufficient time to prepare for the interview). I was late coming home due to my flight being cancelled and due to uncertainty of my return, I asked to cancel/postpone the interview but my request was rejected. That kind of behaviour is contemptuous and no decent agency/employer would treat their staff like this. I still have the emails to support what I have said in this review which cannot be disputed and I am happy to share with anyone who is interested. I remember having a reply back saying they were "shocked and upset" by what I had said. They were only shocked and upset because someone called them out on their unprofessionalism. Do yourself a favour and don't work with agencies. There are plenty of job opportunities in Manchester and it's relatively easy to get one without the "help" of an agency. I managed to find a new job without an agency within weeks.