If your CV is a very close match for the type of position advertised and a good fit with the type of profile our client is seeking then you can expect to hear from us very soon. If you dont receive a personalized response within a couple of days that usually means that we've had to focus on other applications ahead of yours. This should not be taken to mean that there is anything wrong with your application. Often when clients approach an agency to work on a vacancy they come with a very specific description of what it is, and who it is, they want. Often these descriptions can be very proscriptive, even excessively so. While we can, and often do, attempt to advise clients to consider a wider range of possibilities we are, in the end, their servant and can only suggest CVs and Chefs who closely match their requirements. Even if you have no success with your application it's still worthwhile that you applied because we fill a lot of positions from our database and in applying to us you've let us know of at least one type of job you're interested in. So the next time we're approached to fill a similar position we're in a position to match you with the job.

We always seek to get feedback from our clients as soon as possible. In theory we hope they'll be back in touch with us on the day your interview has taken place. In practice this doesn't always happen. When it doesn't happen we, usually, wait till the next day before following up with them ourselves. If we don't get to speak to the relevant person the next day we keep at it till we do. If after five working days the client, or the client's representatives, have not been back in touch with us, or remain otherwise elusive, we will write to them to let them know that they are in imminent risk of losing you as a candidate. The obvious exception to this default is when clients have advised us in advance of special circumstances, in such instances you can expect this information to be passed on to you by us in advance too. We take this proactive approach because we respect the chefs who work through us at least as much as we value the business our clients bring to us. Compromising on this would, we believe, put our reputation with the culinary community at risk. We are happy to lose the patronage of clients who are not prepared to offer our chefs timely feedback. This has happened before, and it will happen again, but when we put chefs into an interview process we expect that they will receive the courtesy and respect our clients would extend to a customer. If that isn't possible then perhaps these clients aren't very good employers and our candidates would be better off not dealing with them.

Contingency Recruitment describes the majority of recruitment transactions, especially for lower to mid level positions. A contingency recruiter, or recruitment agency, gets paid only upon the successful placement of a candidate in a job. This is in contrast to "Retained Recruitment." Any fee attaching to the, contingency, recruitment assignment belongs to the client and never to the candidate so the recruiter is working only for the client. Fees are calculated as a percentage of the candidate's first year renumeration. It is not uncommon for clients to work with more than one agency on an assignment, thus shifting all the risk to the recruitment agencies. The downside to this strategy is that agencies will always assign more man hours and resources to those clients for whom they're working exclusively.

In contrast to "Contingency Recruitment" in retained recruitment the recruiter, or agency, gets paid for both the process of recruitment and successfully delivering the desired result. Usually the deal is structured in three thirds, 1/3 of the fee up front, another 1/3 upon delivery of an agreed number of suitable qualified candidates CVs and the final third after the successful candidate has started work. Usually retained recruitment is reserved for more senior positions and higher salaries. The fee structure is designed in this way to enable the recruiters to deploy more manpower and resources to the search process than in contingency recruitment, where all the risk is borne by the recruiter.