Recruiter-Rater

I also have personal experience with Techie Gold, and Remington International. Big waste of time. I interviewed prolly 8 times for those people over 3 years. Kinda low-end type positions, never any feedback. If the client doesn't bite, or doesn't know what s/he wants, Remington can't be bothered to call back their applicants to tell them about it. I used to try and have a relationship with the crew down there. I learned that if they can't place you immediately, they don't want to talk to you. This is where the suckage lies.

I used to be a recruiter there 12 years ago. Lasted 5 months. The goal is to have a client interview their "top 5" candidates --once they get agreement and getthe client to sign a 30% fee agreement they scramble to get the 5 people to "send out"

They bring you in to see what you look like basically and to get what they call "candidate control"

I used to call prospective clients and 95% of the time they would hang up based on a poor experience with the company

Be careful...if they have your resume they will claim they referred you to collect a fee--this could screw up your chances with a good employer.

I won't go into all the details but these guys are a joke. I spoke with three people on the initial call within a five minute period; none of whom indicated they were going to transfer me. I really felt like someone was playing a joke on me as I often complain about my experiences with recruiters but these guys are the worst. Extremely unprofessional and they have no idea about the industry they claim to work in. I don't know how they are in business.

What a riot. I just received a call from these guys. My wife answered, but by the time I got to the phone, all I heard was a click after I said "hello." I looked them up (they told her who was calling) and this was the first thing I found on them. Geez!

I used to work at Atlantis and judging by the posts, nothing has changed. I have never seen a lower level of professionalism before or since, and everyone that knows of them tends to agree. It's a classic boiler room setup, they just churn and burn. They only hire recent grads that want to work in the big city and wear a tie. The money is crap unless you drink the KoolAid and move up the chain.

They must be placing people to still be afloat, but I'd strongly advise against using them. There are dozens of agencies that could help you out, without the hard sell. I'm not posting this for any sort of revenge, it's been years since I worked there and I've moved well beyond the experience. It just brought back the memories when I came across this page.

I have used Atlantis Partners twice and they were nothing but professional. They get me interviews with great companies and have always given me feedback quickly. I would refer them to anyone with an IT background.

This is the worst recruiting firm I have ever dealt with! The Sopranos have better business ethics than this organization.

I made the mistake of calling Atlantis Partners six months back when my company needed a new developer. As is usually the case, we filled the position without having to use their services.

A week ago Mr. X (name withheld) from Atlantis wanted to see if we were still looking for candidates. I told them that their timing was impeccable and we were just about to start a search for developer in a new position.

On Friday, Mr. Y (name withheld) from Remington calls to see if he can help us with our search. I told him that we could only afford to pay $2k for a search and wanted to be clear on that point before proceeding, for most recruiting firms will only take $10-12k. He agrees to this, but, over the course of the conversation, I insist, three more times, that I need to have this in writing so as not to waste anyone's time. Finally, after half an hour describing the position, he responds to my fifth request for a rate, that it'll be at least $10k to fill this position. I chastise him for not listening. He then suggests that I take $10k off the employee's first year salary to pay for the recruiter. I told him that this notion felt ugly to me, for it meant paying someone less than they deserved to cover a recruiter's fee. I told Mr. Y that I didn't think we could do business. Before hanging up, he offered to call me back on Thursday in case I changed my mind and we could take it over. I should have, but didn't, object, but I also didn't encourage the call.

On Monday, Mr. Z (name withheld) from Atlantis calls with a candidate. Not hearing the company name, I tersely explained that we had been over this and I wasn't willing to pay five figures for their help. He said he was from Atlantis and asked what company had I had this conversation with. I remembered that Mr. Y called from Remington, not Atlantis (not knowing at the time that they were the same company), and apologized. In my haste to apologize, I didn't consider that I had only told one recruiting company about the position (which we hadn't yet put up on any job board) and that if Mr. Z was calling, he must've had some connection to Mr. Y. In any case, I asked Mr. Z if he could work with us for $2k, he said he couldn't, and I thanked him for being straight forward and told him that if our position on recruitment fees changed, we'd call him back.

This is where it gets interesting. Mr. Z asks me if I'd like to work for a place that *could* pay a recruiter's fee. Perplexed by this question, I asked him to repeat himself. This recruiter had the guts to think "well, if this company won't give me $10k, I might be able to get $10k by poaching a placing an employee." Mr. Z. is asking this of a hiring manager on a company phone in a company office. I told him that this conversation was extremely inappropriate and not to call again. My company could afford these recruiting fees if we thought that it was worth $10k.

20 minutes later, Mr. Z calls my boss's number, trying to go over my head, although he's just tried to pilfer my boss's employee (me). My boss, having heard this tale, hands the phone over to me immediately, and I ball out Mr. Z again for being slimy.

Today, Mr. Y calls to see if he can help me with my candidate search. I explain to him that I know Remington and Atlantis Partners are connected and that I will never speak to anyone from their company again.

Those guys have not changed. Remington International and Atlantis Partners are same crooks.
Have you noticed that everyone working for them is new in town? You will be hard pressed to find anyone there who has been longer than couple of months in Boston. Also, everyone looks like failed sales people. They all use same lines and same techniques.

And oh boy do they pressure you for information like your past salaries, your contacts, and etc.
All they do is that info to prospect for business for themselves. You tell them where you interviewed, you want to bet they will try to go after that employer to pitch their candidate.

I fell for their scam once, though I never gave them info about companies I interviewed with and kept a lot of other info from them.

Too bad what they do is not illegal, since I would love to make that phone call to the MA attorney general and put in a nice fat complaint!

Stride and Associates utilizes discriminatory practices in their hiring process. Before I even get into the thick of the unethical nature of this business, I would like to state that within the Remington, Atlantis and C Bridges offices of Boston, there is only one black employee, an administrator, who is not required to go out with the company for social gatherings. The rest of the employees are all in their early twenties and approximately eighty percent of the female population is blond. Moreover, the women are verbally encouraged to wear makeup and high heels. This is in direct violation of the "Equal Employment Opportunity Policy" which states that employees are not to be selected based on "race, color...sex, sexual orientation, age...[etc]"
As with the hiring process, the business practices of the company are equally immoral. For one, the employees lie to administrators about what their calls are regarding, most of the time stating outright that they are "not selling anything," not to mention that the frequency with which these administrators are called is practically assaultive. Also, candidates who post their resumes on job boards are called with the intent of prying information about their job search, such as where and who they have interviewed with, and then this information (including the candidate's name) are recorded and the managers are almost always immediately called by multiple employees on the same day. This practice in itself inhibits the ability of the candidates to get the jobs they are interviewing for, when the manager finds out that they are working with recruitors and that the candidate had given the name of the hiring manager to the recruitors.
Companies on the "Do Not Call" list are almost always called and Stride refuses to abide by the internal recruiting policies of other institutions avoiding HR.
New employees are put on the phones immediately, using information from previous deals as source and those who answer the calls as guinea pigs during the training process. Potential clients are not treated as human beings, they are treated with disregard to their welfare and time.
I could go on further, but I will end it with this: employees drink in the office and alcohol is used as incentive for success in the business. Every Thursday, employees are required to go to the bar and drink together, which is not only bad for those drinking but for the productivity of the company itself. There is so much here that a lawsuit is certainly a possibility. This company should not be allowed to function like this if at all. Stride makes the job search process more arduous and complicates the lives of hiring managers everywhere. Action should be taken to change the unethical and discriminatory practices of Stride and Associates.