Ladies/Gents,
I opened this account just to try and give my point of view as I am a recent graduate and have dealt with a number of these graduate recruitment companies, it was a steeper learning curve than I thought it would be.
Companies like BMS will do these assessment days once/twice a week and 20-40 graduates turn up.
Of those 20-40 about 50% 'pass' the day. If you think about it, they do this twice a week all year round, so obviously not everyone that even passes the day can get a job through this process. They are just building their database.
If you pass the day it means that a graduate recruiter gets assigned to you and they'll call you with job opportunities.
What I have found is that a lot of the large recruitment companies don't care about your needs (BMS is not so bad) they just want to make their 20% commission.
The best approach that I have found is a mixture of; your own applications/big recruitment companies/small local recruitment companies.
Don't take what these big recruitment companies say too seriously, they will make themselves out to be hotshots but they're just trying to impress. They do however have contacts with companies and can get you a foot in the door, so it is worth a shot, what do you have to lose?
I attended the BMS graduate assessment day and passed. I got 1 interesting opportunity from it, and I haven't heard from them since. I also passed the Pareto Law assessment day and have heard nothing from them.
What I appreciated from BMS is that they kick out the people that they don't want to take on half way though the day. Which in a way is good as you don't waste your whole day. Whereas Pareto Law will keep you till the very end and once you've spent 9 hours in their assessment day, they'll tell you that unfortunately you haven't succeeded.
Good luck guys, it's a dog eat dog world out there!
Cheers