Equal Experts

[nomadd]

"If you are considering Equal Experts then I would recommend just going through the selection process."

When will your Directors be available to undertake my selection process?

[m0n1k3r]

Wow. There is a lot here to cover but I hope you’ll let me throw my two pence in.

I’m a Partner with Equal Experts (permanent employee, full-time practitioner, spending most of my time on-site with clients). Before that I was an associate (contractor) with EE for 5 years. Previously I worked in a variety of roles; permanent (engaging agencies and consultancies alike), contracting directly and working for another consultancy.

Obviously I’m biased but some of what is written in this thread is incorrect information , and some opinion - about which I’d like to understand more.

First a few facts! Equal Experts is a consultancy with 200 employees and a network of 500+ associates . Both of our founders are from consultancy backgrounds.
The network approach is key to our business model. Amongst other things, it means that we can build the best suited team to meet the best possible outcome for our clients. . It also means our associates can choose interesting work at EE but equally go off and do their own thing (before coming back to more interesting work!).

Check out our website for a bit more about what we do and how we work - https://www.equalexperts.com/

The majority of our clients have always been and still are in the private sector. We currently have a sizable amount of business in the Public Sector as this is something that has grown in the last 3-4 years with the GDS/GCloud effect (and we are particularly proud of the work we do for UK plc btw). Obviously IR35 is a concern for lots of contractors working in and around the Public Sector. The Public Sector Framework Agreements we supply under and our working practices mean that we are confident the new legislation coming into effect in April does not apply to us and our associates.

Now a little bit of opinion! I think the 'toxic' term is unfair. Most of our work is coming from referrals (normally people that have worked as clients of ours previously). As far as "alienating customers", we have multiple years relationships with the majority of our customers. Our longest standing customer has been working with us for 7 years now (and counting).
Likewise we have multiple years relationships with hundreds of our associates (who keep coming back to work with us) - and over half of our hires are through personal recommendations from existing associates. (see our Glassdoor page for others opinion on working with EE).
In terms of working with other suppliers we do it all the time, and are happy to. Our aim is always for the best outcome for the client. I’m not going to pretend that it’s never hard but if you’ve had a bad experience from this perspective I’d genuinely like to know more about that.

Finally I suppose I should address the "real Agile" question. I’m not going to get into a debate on what is or is not agile but our approach is definitely to focus on the context of the client. We don’t apply “by the book” methodology and we recognise that “start where you are” is normally the best approach for adoption. If you are interested in some of my personal views on agile then I’ve been doing a conference talk on this very topic -

If you are considering Equal Experts then I would recommend just going through the selection process. You will learn a lot more about what we do and how we work and meet other people working with the organisation. It may not be for you - it’s not for everybody - but you will at least be able to make a decision based on your own first-hand judgement, rather than missing out on a great opportunity due to what someone said on a forum ;o)

It is impossible to please everybody at all times, but from what I've experienced, both as an EE associate and as a third party supplier to the same client as EE at other times, the way that EE tend to play office political games to out-maneuver other suppliers and unnecessarily make other people than their own look bad is not quite compatible with the values of Agile. Yes, there are boards and nice burn-downs and burn-ups everywhere, but in my experience they are mainly for shows and not used as a tool to actually drive delivery. I have occasionally heard similar comments from client staff, making EE come across as too focused on maintaining its position on the Sunday Times's Tech Track 100 fast growth list rather than doing what is in the best interest of its customers - unless EE truly believes that playing those political games is in the best interest of its customers. It should perhaps also be noted that most of the permanent staff are in India, not in the UK.

But yes, people should go out and meet, not just make up their minds based on forum posts such as this one. It would not be right.

[parker0phil]

When will your Directors be available to undertake my selection process?

Our CEO is involved in interviews every single week, as are Partners and Delivery Managers (one person, as much as he would like to, can't do everyone). He does also personally do almost every single Welcome Session for people who are new to the company/network.

He wouldn't want to undertake any individual's selection process in it's entirety himself - as we all believe that for each side to understand if the relationship will work - we need to have practitioners directly involved in the process.

When we say "selection" we really do mean both ways (e.g. it's as much as you understanding whether our ways of working are right for you, as whether you are at the right point of your career to help us).

[rocktronAMP]

There are two other companies that I know of that operating similar to Equal Experts.

1. Transform
2. Kainos Group

What do you think of them?

[SlipTheJab]

TBH I would rather work for a company like EE than the likes of Cr@p Gemini...

[m0n1k3r]

TBH I would rather work for a company like EE than the likes of Cr@p Gemini...

However negative I might appear to be about EE (I only expect the best of them because I know T, R, M (who has since left) and others there personally), so would I. Although it is quite sad watching the EE and CG teams blaming each other and trying to out-maneuver each other in projects where they are both suppliers just in order to try to get a bit bigger piece of the cake, even though it is not compatible with the terms of the contracts that require them to collaborate with other 3rd party suppliers.

Regardless, it is always better to work through a boutique consultancy such as EE than through a pure sales organisation such as your typical recruiter, as the people you get to speak to will actually somehow be involved in the delivery at some level, keep informed and actually know what they are talking about.

If somebody from such a consultancy state "Java Consultant" as their title, you know that you can get good advice about Java from them. If a recruitment consultant do the same, you won't. All they can do is evidencing a basic knowledge of some of the basic buzzwords, and otherwise be a decent sales person, but not the kind of 'consultant' to go to for proper, informed advice about Java.

I have seen quite a few recruitment 'consultants' calling themselves e.g. 'Java consultant' (and others) recently.

[rocktronAMP]

However negative I might appear to be about EE (I only expect the best of them because I know T, R, M (who has since left) and others there personally), so would I. Although it is quite sad watching the EE and CG teams blaming each other and trying to out-maneuver each other in projects where they are both suppliers just in order to try to get a bit bigger piece of the cake, even though it is not compatible with the terms of the contracts that require them to collaborate with other 3rd party suppliers.

Regardless, it is always better to work through a boutique consultancy such as EE than through a pure sales organisation such as your typical recruiter, as the people you get to speak to will actually somehow be involved in the delivery at some level, keep informed and actually know what they are talking about.

If somebody from such a consultancy state "Java Consultant" as their title, you know that you can get good advice about Java from them. If a recruitment consultant do the same, you won't. All they can do is evidencing a basic knowledge of some of the basic buzzwords, and otherwise be a decent sales person, but not the kind of 'consultant' to go to for proper, informed advice about Java.

I have seen quite a few recruitment 'consultants' calling themselves e.g. 'Java consultant' (and others) recently.

yes that is manifest on Linked In with those recruiter. hence I check profiles carefully before I connect with people.

I have worked with people from Equal Experts, Kainos and Transform. I send an email to certain representatives in December 2016, asking about the pending Off-Payroll Worker rules. I heard nothing back, not a dicky bird, nada, zilch, nothing. And that tells me everything I need to know. These consultancies have a so-called Associate model, but if that is not a guarantee or even smidgen that you will have a regular contract engagement. It is easy to sign up as an associate when you get a gig, but the mistake I made was rely on them. I realise now that is not the robots that I am looking for. They are just like every company, users and abusers with their ulterior motives.

[SlipTheJab]

yes that is manifest on Linked In with those recruiter. hence I check profiles carefully before I connect with people.

I have worked with people from Equal Experts, Kainos and Transform. I send an email to certain representatives in December 2016, asking about the pending Off-Payroll Worker rules. I heard nothing back, not a dicky bird, nada, zilch, nothing. And that tells me everything I need to know. These consultancies have a so-called Associate model, but if that is not a guarantee or even smidgen that you will have a regular contract engagement. It is easy to sign up as an associate when you get a gig, but the mistake I made was rely on them. I realise now that is not the robots that I am looking for. They are just like every company, users and abusers with their ulterior motives.

Rely on them for what? They engage contractors so will offer you a 3/6/9/12 month contract for a chunk of costed work, are you really expecting them to then come round and tuck you in every night until they can find you something else you may be able to do?

[rocktronAMP]

Rely on them for what? They engage contractors so will offer you a 3/6/9/12 month contract for a chunk of costed work, are you really expecting them to then come round and tuck you in every night until they can find you something else you may be able to do?

Simply answer Slip was yes. I thought this was an exciting future in January 2014 when I signed up for public sector. I think this would be basis of regular contract engagements from the consultancy, but then after the end of my gig, it was like the dream had ended. Now I am very sceptical of any nonsense like that. A contract is only good as it is signed and sadly come around to NLUK way of thinking. It's rubbish man all of it, contract is only good as the notice period. All the promises from consultancies, recruiters and including clients of "we have 18-24 project work.","we do the best digital", "we are the number one agency", is in one ear and out of the other ear. Whatever. I don't want to hear it, just give me contract, let me work a fair day, I will bill, you will pay it, and we will get it all done.

[SlipTheJab]

Simply answer Slip was yes. I thought this was an exciting future in January 2014 when I signed up for public sector. I think this would be basis of regular contract engagements from the consultancy, but then after the end of my gig, it was like the dream had ended. Now I am very sceptical of any nonsense like that. A contract is only good as it is signed and sadly come around to NLUK way of thinking. It's rubbish man all of it, contract is only good as the notice period. All the promises from consultancies, recruiters and including clients of "we have 18-24 project work.","we do the best digital", "we are the number one agency", is in one ear and out of the other ear. Whatever. I don't want to hear it, just give me contract, let me work a fair day, I will bill, you will pay it, and we will get it all done.

Yep I learnt long ago not to believe the spin and hype, normally the stuff that comes out of agents mouths. If an agent tells you the sky is blue its best to stick your head out of the window to check.