Hamilton Barnes Reviews 112

One of the worst recruiters ive come across! and thats putting it mildly, so unprofessional, hardly a clue, false promises, talk big and when chasing up, no one available or no idea. It honestly seems each one of their agents have just been brought off the streets that morning.

It has been over a week since our introductory call so it's safe to assume that the former bartender isn't getting back to me at this point.
The host already had disabled the video during the call, which in itself is quite strange. I suppose when your company is too busy "actively champion[ing] diversity, equity, and inclusion" to do anything else it's better to allow candidates to interview by proxy to boost those statistically impossible diversity metrics, eh? Their own site has a testimonial to the COO "arranging visas" -- do with that information what you will.
The target role is for a company based in San Francisco and similarly "celebrat[ing] diversity". On the company site the role has no posting date, which is already suspicious, nor did they even confirm my application via an automated email. On LinkedIn they have the exact same role posted a month ago, while the company has a "Software Engineer In The Making" allegedly already employed. Something reeks here.

EDIT
+1 star for proper English
-1 star again for gaslighting me and insulting my intelligence and trying to take this review down

Working with Ben Roche at Hamilton Barnes has been such a blessing and wonderful experience. At every point, Ben was helpful, responsive and always cares about the relationship between the employer and the candidate they are working with. Great teamwork and always there to answer questions.

First time worked with a recruiter so helpful, friendly and professional. Owen did a wonderful job with his responsiveness, updates and tips on every part of the process.

I had a really great experience thanks to Sebastian Mendes. He was with me since the beggining preapring for the first interview until the last one. Also, once I was working in the company which I was hired he was keeping track if everything was going well. When I had any doubt he was there helping me with everything I needed.
Thank you! :D

I had a great experience working with Anthony Ryan at Hamilton & Barnes. He was incredibly professional and pleasant to work with throughout the entire process. Anthony was detail-oriented, ensuring every aspect of my application and preparation was perfect. He was also very responsive, always replying to my questions and emails quickly. Thanks to his dedicated and professional approach, he successfully helped me land a new job. I highly recommend him!

Recently approached on linkedin. Replied the next day, asked questions: after this we had 1 phone discussed and after this was i was ghosted and my emails and linkedin DMS are not been replied to in 3 months. I am okay if i was no the good fit but seriously never again Hamilton Barnes. I Really recommend to read the 1 and 2 stars comments on trust advisor.

I’m very grateful to Hamilton & Barnes, Holly Staff, and especially to Sam Hammersley for their support during a major step in my career. Sam was attentive, always present, actively looking for the best opportunities, offering great advice, extremely professional, and maintained a personal and approachable communication style.

I truly felt he was a partner in the process—genuinely interested in how I was doing and how each stage was going for me. He made me feel very comfortable, and I can’t thank him enough for his support.

10/10 – I would absolutely work with them again and highly recommend their services.

I worked with Ben Roche and he was an absolute gem! From the start Ben was able to lay out the role in detail and gathered my information and background with so much ease. Throughout the interview process with the company, he kept me up to date on any progress or questions that my interviewers had about me or I about them.

He also continued to gauge my interest for the role I was interviewing for and followed up before and after every interview (there were 3) to get a feel for how it went, how I answered, and whether I had any questions or reservations. I ended up having a special circumstance that came up towards the later end of the interview process and he was extremely adept at handling my requests as well as conveying information accurately to and from both parties. Not once has he left me wondering where I stand in the process and he was extremely transparent in the progression of the company's decision.

If you do your part and your experience aligns well with a role, he will fight for your candidacy and stand by you every step of the way. In the time that I've been working, I haven't met a more experienced and committed recruiter as Ben.

10/10 would recommend and would definitely work with him again!

Working with Lewis was a joy. Nothing but supportive, following up after each step, helping me prep for every future step.

An absolute Gentleman. Thank you for your help Lewis.

My connection and communication with Edward was great. I found a good job and he did everything to get me where i wanted to be. Keep up the good work and i see you next time :)

From day one Will has been trying his best to keep me informed even though there were delays in the process. Once everything was done, the entire team along with Toby helped out to close out pending formalities. Thanks to the entire unit for this!

In my 20 years of professional career, I've never met a recruiter as exceptional as Sam Goldberg from Hamilton Barnes. What truly sets him apart is not only his dedication to finding what companies are looking for, but his genuine interest in understanding the candidate's needs as well. He asked many insightful questions to clarify my expectations, skills, and goals — making the whole process personalized and focused on finding the most suitable role. His communication, professionalism, and attention to detail made the entire experience seamless and positive.

Thank you, Sam, for your outstanding support!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Hamilton Barnes has shown nothing but unprofessionalism and blatant disregard for candidates' time. I’ve been contacted by multiple recruiters from this agency — always with promises of "urgent roles" or "perfect matches" for my skills. Yet, every single time I responded with interest, they disappeared without a trace. No follow-up, no feedback, no basic courtesy.

It’s become painfully obvious that Hamilton Barnes treats candidates like nothing more than data to feed into their CRM, rather than professionals with valuable experience. The complete lack of respect for candidates' time and effort is staggering.

I have now started flagging all communication from Hamilton Barnes as spam, and after speaking with several industry colleagues, it’s clear this is a widespread issue. Many others have experienced the same ghosting, false promises, and sheer incompetence.

If you value your time, your career, and basic professional respect — avoid Hamilton Barnes at all costs. There are plenty of recruitment agencies who understand the importance of clear communication and follow-through. Hamilton Barnes is not one of them.

Update March 2025

Dear Victoria,

Thank you for your response on Trustpilot. While I appreciate your attempt to address my concerns, I must strongly disagree with your claim that you have no record of my responses or engagement. To clarify and to ensure transparency, I have compiled a detailed list of your consultants who have contacted me directly, along with the dates and times I replied to them expressing my interest in the roles they shared.

For data privacy reasons and to protect personal information, I have anonymised the consultant names by partially masking surnames with asterisks. This reflects my commitment to responsible data handling, something your organisation might also benefit from considering more carefully.

Here’s the full record of my responses expressing interest, all of which were ignored with no follow-up:

Mat*** A*** - 25 April 2023, 14:43
Tho*** C***n - 26 April 2023, 19:49
Al*** B***d - 18 May 2023, 14:22
Aa*** S********n-Martin - 24 May 2023, 11:18
El*** K****t - 6 June 2023, 16:01
Gabr*** G*****l - 12 June 2023, 19:08
El*** K****t (Follow-up message sent due to no reply) - 13 June 2023, 14:04
J*** P***e - 26 June 2023, 17:55
Re*** D***y - 5 July 2023, 14:26
Tho*** C***n - 16 December 2023, 03:03
E*** D****n - 20 February 2024, 13:39
Z*** M***t - 20 February 2024, 15:22
Mat*** A*** - 23 February 2024, 14:36
And*** D****r - 23 February 2024, 16:01
A*** N***h - 21 May 2024, 14:19
L*** B*****t - 28 June 2024, 14:27
L*** B*****t - 15 August 2024, 12:22
A*** K***g - 4 March 2025, 11:42
The suggestion that no responses were received is demonstrably false. I have invested considerable time engaging with your consultants in good faith, only to be consistently ignored.

This is not an isolated issue, as several of my professional contacts have reported identical experiences with Hamilton Barnes — persistent outreach, followed by complete silence once they express interest. This indicates a systemic issue with your candidate engagement process, not an individual misunderstanding.

I find your suggestion that this is not a "widespread issue" both dismissive and disingenuous. I have no interest in further engagement with your organisation and, as stated previously, I have marked your emails as spam.

Respectfully,
Emrah

Follow-up: March 2025

Dear Victoria,

Thank you for your response and for conducting an internal investigation regarding this matter.

I understand that you may not have found my responses in your system, but I would like to clarify that I have consistently responded using my primary email address. If you search using my name formatted as [first name].[last name]@gmail.com, you should be able to find my emails. I appreciate your efforts in verifying this.

While I acknowledge the possibility of technical issues, I find it concerning that multiple recruiters from Hamilton Barnes have reached out, received my responses, and yet failed to follow up.

That said, I appreciate that you have removed my details from your system. I trust that this will prevent any further unsolicited contact.

If you do manage to locate my previous emails, I would be interested to hear any insights on why there was a lack of follow-up.

Best regards,
Emrah

I was contacted by the company through my LinkedIn profile, and the entire team has been incredibly helpful in finding me a job.

I want to extend my special thanks to Jack Connor and Jack Mead. They managed to secure a job for me, and Jack Mead, in particular, has been in touch with me every step of the way, both before and after I got the job. His informative and patient approach instilled confidence in me. Thank you, Jack.

I highly recommend this company to anyone looking for a job.

Shout out to James and Jamie, they will be there to ensure you're are well informed throughout the whole process.

A pleasure working with Will and the rest of Hamilton Barnes team. Will de Gidlow called to provide an update on every step of the process. Was very honest and professional all through.
I am pleased.

Worked with Kaine and he was the most helpful recruiter I’ve worked with. Always responsive when I would reach out and have me constant updates. Could not speak more highly of his service and the help he gave me. Would highly recommend.

Jamie is a good representative of the company. Provided appropriate details and allowed time to understand various aspects of the process.

I had honest, open and transparent conversations with HB. What I particularly liked was the goal to secure the right candidate, not flood me with CV's. I would definitely recommend to other companies.