Associates vs Recruiters

[Oppsie]

Ive come across a handle full of organisation refering to themselves as Associates rather than a recruitment agency - anyone invovled with such people and how do they differ from a normal recuitment agency?

[cojak]

Associates are contractors who work for consultancies, contractors without that title work for recruitment agencies.

I've worked for one agency that pretended to be a consultancy, but was just a body shop, and I'm working for another consultancy that actually IS a consultancy and uses associates.

The difference is that the owner of the the consultancy I'm working for is working on assignment for a client as a Programme Manager, and they carefully recruit Associates as they expect to use them as and when they are needed, there is a relationship of respect between the two and the consultancy will support its Associates if there are difficulties with the client.

The body shop owner just waltzed around and gave me a box of business cards despite my explictly telling him that I didn't want them. They also rolled over and hung their 'associates' out to dry when the client got difficult.

[MrMarkyMark]

Associates are contractors who work for consultancies, contractors without that title work for recruitment agencies.

I've worked for one agency that pretended to be a consultancy, but was just a body shop, and I'm working for another consultancy that actually IS a consultancy and uses associates.

The difference is that the owner of the the consultancy I'm working for is working on assignment for a client as a Programme Manager, and they carefully recruit Associates as they expect to use them as and when they are needed, there is a relationship of respect between the two and the consultancy will support its Associates if there are difficulties with the client.

The body shop just gave me a box of business cards despite my explictly telling him that I didn't want them. They also rolled over and hung their 'associates' out to dry when the client got difficult.

Exactly the sort of arrangement Mrs MarkyMark is going into. Very stringent selection process and they admitted they are looking for a certain type of person. I was very impressed with their process and how they went about it.
Rates good too, with exp. on top, happy days.

Can be very lucrative over time, I had one myself which provided a good amount of work over the years, then SAP bought the company

[cojak]

Just to add, Associates are always contractors first, if they're already in another contract when the consultancy contacts them then it's just the way the dice rolls and no hard feelings.

But the contractors will always let the consultancy know when they are about to become available as it's an easy way to walk into the next contract.

[Oppsie]

Agh right - makes sense. Seems to be the new business modell thats going around i.e. bring in trusted resources that can actually deliver something - win win on both sides i guess...