State of the Market

[Peoplesoft bloke]

There seem to be about 100 agents per gig at the moment. I've only been benched 2 weeks but it seems like an eternity because I've had to spend so much time talking to pimps who haven't actually got any work but love the sound of their own voice

[hungry_hog]

Always funny people wanting to know everything about my previous clients, including what technologies I used, what rate, who my referees are and who managed me, but not being able to give the name of their client

Had this the other week, the moody cow was pushing for references in 5 milliseconds - would it be wrong to give them a "scam" email address? See how they like being spammed!
I have a sick uncle in West Africa who has 6 million in an account waiting for you...

[MyUserName]

But I have worked through the agency previously and it's not been an issue. At the time client over looked it as it wasn't an issue for them.

The 4th character on my surname on my passport is spelt with and 'a' where as I spell it with an 'o' on everything else.

That's nothing - I keep mixing up the order of my names! They are one way around on my driving licence and the other on my passport and birth certificate!

[MyUserName]

The craziest compliance I’ve witnessed is a chap of 55 (with 30 years exp) marched off site for failing to provide his high school results (despite him having a degree and a MBA) high school results were Latin and geography [emoji4]

A bank I used to work at gave a girl her marching orders because she claimed to have an A level in English but only had a GCSE. It was not even relevant to anything, it just happened to still be on her cv so they checked it as they check absolutely everything you say.

She was devastated, the team was upset etc. but the bank had a zero tolerance on dishonesty and this counted as lying on her cv.

[globalBA]

That's nothing - I keep mixing up the order of my names! They are one way around on my driving licence and the other on my passport and birth certificate!

Part of me would understand if it was a bank but it's not. Its done now...when every a contract tells you the start date is 2 weeks away I always take it with a pinch of salt.

Taken steps now to change the one character on my passport so no one can throw that in my face again.

[BABABlackSheep]

Some of these rang true.

I put my feelers out this week with a couple of well paid roles with the same agency, different roles.

The first one, after I submitted my cv, I was told that 500, yes 500 people(really !!! thats BS) had applied but the client had his budget dropped suddenly and the role was now £200 a day less. Agent was now having to phone all the people!!
That agent told me to stay where I was and take a renewal..lol

Other guy(same place) told me the client has lots of time still to think about IR35 status so won't till next year, even though its a 6 month monthly paid contract which would take me into march. Also when they found out I had flexibility currently on where I did my work(an outside IR35 positive as shows lack of control), I was told that its 5 days on site every week, no exceptions as "the client won't know(insert the word trust) you, especially at the start". I said no thanks.

[heyya99]

An agent rang me recently, I actually felt sorry for him; he said that a colleague that left my client recently had highly recommended me. He was adamant he could say who this person was for many reasons. When I said I'd be much more willing to discuss 'my situation' if he was honest about what he needed from me. He said 'I know it sounds like I'm making this up but I'm not'. When I wouldn't give him any information about me until he told me who the referee was, he hung up. I wasn't being rude, I was actually trying to appeal to his humanity, you never know, one day I might need his help but I'm too long in the tooth to be playing their games. It made me sad for those on the bench having to deal with these types and bills coming rapidly in.

[Hobosapien]

An agent rang me recently, I actually felt sorry for him

Don't fall for their softening up tactics, they hang up on you without a shred of remorse for your feelings when they know they aren't going to be able to manipulate you into giving them the info they want.

Hopefully if there is a proper downturn in contractor demand then there will be a clear out of all the chancers trying to blag their way through the day and we'll be left with the more professional ones. Yes that goes for contractors as well as agents.

[CoolCat]

A bank I used to work at gave a girl her marching orders because she claimed to have an A level in English but only had a GCSE. It was not even relevant to anything, it just happened to still be on her cv so they checked it as they check absolutely everything you say.

She was devastated, the team was upset etc. but the bank had a zero tolerance on dishonesty and this counted as lying on her cv.

a director of Nissan UK was sacked, after several years in the role, when they found out he didnt have the degree he claimed on his CV.

[CoolCat]

Don't fall for their softening up tactics, they hang up on you without a shred of remorse for your feelings when they know they aren't going to be able to manipulate you into giving them the info they want.

Hopefully if there is a proper downturn in contractor demand then there will be a clear out of all the chancers trying to blag their way through the day and we'll be left with the more professional ones. Yes that goes for contractors as well as agents.

went for a 2nd interview the other day, got on quite well with the interviewer, at the end we had a chat. turns out the "feedback" from the previous interview the agent had given me was pure fiction, as not only had nobody from that company given any feedback at all (other than an invite to the 2nd interview by email) nobody from that company had ever spoken to that agent at all.

really agents are hilarious.