How much do recruitment agents take?

[Fred Bloggs]

My experience of "going direct" is dismal. I'd have starved years ago. I find it extremely difficult/almost impossible to crystallise inquiries into jobs. I actually get a fair few inquiries via my website but almost zero paid work most prospective punters seem to want and expect "free advice" off the internet.

[LordF]

Mine charge 25% on top of my daily rate.
The most I have experienced was an agent that charged 45% on top of my daily rate.

[NickFitz]

I'm currently working direct with NewClientCorp, and was also direct with previous ClientCorp. However, this is simply because I was approached (in the pub after a conference) and asked to come and work with ClientCorp, and the same chap who'd approached me then moved to NewClientCorp at the same time as ClientCorp had found they couldn't renew my contract (a global hiring/renewal freeze, on orders from California).

The big problem I faced was getting ClientCorp's Accounts Payable department to actually process invoices in a timely manner - if I had been working through an agency, then I assume they would have managed to get all that sorted out (thereby justifying their commission), whereas I had to deal with all that crap myself.

On the bright side, I went through all the necessary hoops on their time, so they were paying me to deal with the delays in payment caused by their own accounts people

[shelby68]

My first contract was through a split agency deal i.e. one set of pimps selling me to another set, when I found out how much the client was paying for me I worked out they were taking over 40% between them, managed to get this down to under 30% at renewal time, but i still felt like I was getting the sh!t end of the stick.

[tim123]

My experience of "going direct" is dismal. .

I concur. The vast majority of my work comes from the local offices of one of 20 or so major multinational companies.

The chances of getting a direct contract with one of them is slim to none.

At my current client, not only is the chance of my getting a direct contract zero, the chance of an agency getting in is only slightly better. Almost all of the managers insist on recruiting through the local software houses who then farm the jobs out to contract agencies because they can't resource them internally.

Fortunately, I am working though one who have set up a reasonable 'deal' with my agency, but I was offered the same job through different software houses at almost 20% less.

ISTM that, if I want to work, I have no choice but to use agencies. I don't think that expecting them to be more transparent about the contractual terms is unreasonable.

tim

[r0bly0ns]

The big problem I faced was getting ClientCorp's Accounts Payable department to actually process invoices in a timely manner - if I had been working through an agency, then I assume they would have managed to get all that sorted out (thereby justifying their commission), whereas I had to deal with all that crap myself.

My experiences of direct contracts are much the same, however I have grown used to it just being part of running a business.

[mailric]

of course it makes a difference

Of course it makes a difference what % the agency get.

If they are charging the client a huge fee for your services the client expects to get their monies worth.

So if your working for £300pd and the Agent is charging client £600pd, yet the guy sitting next to you is also being paid £300 but the Agent £400, the client's expectation on you is far greater than the fella next to you... meaning you get more shlt, and of course your out of the door first if their budgets start to get tight.

Regardless of any factoring and job searching service the Agency provide, some of the %s are far too high for the value they actually add.

[NotAllThere]

Why do resurrect a post from 4th March 2008, 14:52 ?

[expat]

The usual newbie mistake - they aren't taking 25% of your rate, you are getting 80% of theirs...

And yes it is still a bit high, but who cares - it's what you get that matters, and since you have agreed to it, presumably you were happy with it.

Malvolio is right: they are not your agent, and not really the client's agent either. Thay are the client's subcontractor, and you are their subcontractor.

It follows from this that the agent is your client, or rather main contractor, so that a different agent who may happen to have the same end client, is really a different client for you. You need therefore feel no obligation to sub-subcontract to a given end client with any particular agent, for example the one who happened to call you first

[expat]

Of course it makes a difference what % the agency get.

If they are charging the client a huge fee for your services the client expects to get their monies worth.

So if your working for £300pd and the Agent is charging client £600pd, yet the guy sitting next to you is also being paid £300 but the Agent £400, the client's expectation on you is far greater than the fella next to you...

If you accepted the rate, live with it, regardless of the agent's cut.

Same argument for the client: if they accepted you at that rate (and you were honest about what you were offering) then they accepted it. They should live with it too.