There are hundreds of recruitment agencies in Moscow, but few of them work professionally and only a small proportion of Muscovites find jobs through them. Dmitry Chikhachov, Head of HR at Ericsson International, says that a bad agency doesn't carry out a real search or selection process, and that it only finds candidates from its database and selects them according to a primitive method of matching basic criteria. He predicts that the days of such agencies are numbered.

So what makes for a good recruitment agency? According to Chikhachov, the two main things he's looking for are speed and quality of service. He likes to work with agencies that understand what kind of person it would take to really solve his problem, and not just sell him information.

A professional recruitment agency is one that knows the market, its clients' specifics and its corporate culture well, according to Yelena Novikova, vice president at Ancor, the recruitment agency that came out on top in a recent rating of agencies working in the IT and telecommunications sector.

Novikova says that a good agency is one that is customer and service orientated and that a consultant should be able to listen to their his or her client and accept what they are saying. But interpersonal skills and an academic background in psychology are not enough, she adds - a recruitment consultant should also have a good understanding of business in order to understand the client's needs.

In conclusion, a good agency recommends respects a client's time and only recommends candidates who are really worth meeting for an interview. But in order for an agency to be able to attract the best candidates, it should build up a reputation for respect for their needs too.