Honour my contract with New Client or Go Ahead with another Interview for More Money?

[ziggystardust]

Three days ago I was offered a contract with a client (whom I have worked for 7 years ago) via an agency. Credit/vetting checks have been started, including a Disclosure Scotland and I have been given a preliminary start date of the 31st October. The agency has produced a contract which is ready to review/sign. So, the turnaround has been pretty fast.

In the meantime, I was also contacted three days ago, directly by a well known bank about another contract. Taking the view of alot of people on here that a gig is not a certain until your contract is signed and you're on site, I expressed my interest and, low and behold, was contacted yesterday with an offer of an interview today. Both contracts are a similar distance away, however contract 2 is not my usual type of gig, with a large part of what will be considered administrative but is offering £100 per day more than the first contract. Contract 2 would also be a direct relationship with the client. Having always worked through an agency in all of my previous contracts, I have no experience of a direct relationship, so not sure of the risk involved in terms of timely payments etc. with this particular client, or working directly for banks in general.

So my dilemma is, cancel my interview and honour the contract that I am currently going through final processing with and possibly damage any future relationship with this agency and client, or just go ahead with the interview and if offered accept? It would be good to get people's thoughts on this, similar experiences and risks involved.

[Guesstimator]

No harm in going for an interview to get a better feel for the role/people....unless you balls it up and burn your bridges with that potential client.

You might not like the role, but at least you've taken the opportunity to evaluate it.
Alternatively you might like the role...that's when you've a decision to make...

[FrontEnder]

There's no reason to cancel the interview. You haven't even signed the contract with the first one.

There's no dilemma at this point as you've only had one offer. Go to the interview and see if you get an offer. You might not get it. In which case no issue. It might even go the other way - contract 1 falls through and you get an offer for contract 2...

Get the contract reviewed, that usually takes a few days. The agent might pressure you to sign, but in reality the start date is far off enough to string out the signing for a few days.

[SlipTheJab]

Go for it. I had a mate who was all set to start on a Monday, contract signed all good to go. The Friday before it got pulled, it's business no room for sentiment.

[mattfx]

OP I am in a similar dilemma, although mine is renewal of a contract as opposed to a new role.

Personally, until a contract is signed I would continue down your chosen avenue of going to interview. There's no real harm in it and even if the other client / agent were to find out, you can just say "Look, you hadn't finished all of the paperwork and I am still out of contract" - that's just business. If you had two customers both wanting work done you wouldn't wait around for one on a promise, if the other wanted you to start work tomorrow, would you?

Reference going direct I have no experience of this however, I do have a couple of clients that I look after on an ad hoc basis with basic support / infrastructure requirements - this is obviously direct. Invoicing can be a pain, chasing up the accountants dept. is tiresome and requires remembering; other than that I think it may actually be a bit easier because there isn't an agent in the middle. I think there's an IPSE IR35 friendly contract template, if you're a member and I've interpreted the advice of others on here correctly.

Either way, great position to be in really. Good luck!

[northernladuk]

Current situation : You have nothing. You haven't signed or committed to anything yet so you are a free agent.

Get the contract you have reviewed. That can take up to 5 days so you have some breathing room.

Go to interview, see if you get an offer and THEN you have a decision to make.

Decide which gig you like the best and then inform the relevant parties. It could be pretty tight time wise and if you ditch the first offer you are going to have a pissed off agent but that is all.

The contractual position and what to do next is easy. The decision as to which gig to go for we can't help. That's up to you.

Don't worry too much about going direct. There are standard templates to use out there and a chance to negotiate. Slight risk about longer payment dates and them paying on time but if it's a big enough client you should be fine.

EDIT : BB makes a point. Did you accept verbally?

[WTFH]

Going for interviews is always good practice.
If you don’t get the role, ask for feedback, show real interest and maybe they’ll contact you in the future.
If you get offered the role, then you can start to think about what to do.

[BlasterBates]

If you have verbally accepted the offer then this will have been communicated to the PM and actually you are now legally bound to carry out that contract. Of course no one will sue you if you pull out but you will never be hired by the PM again because you broke his trust by agreeing and then reneging. Agents don't matter but PMs do.

As a contractor you will have to hop from bank to bank, so my view is play it straight, i.e. if you agree a contract then follow it through. A contracting life can potentially last many years but a contract only 6 months. It isn't as if the new contract will pay you more money indefinitely.

If you have accepted the contract then I would advise turning the new interview down. Turning down an interview or pulling out of contract before it is agreed won't upset anyone, reneging on an already agreed contract will though. Some contractors do pursue this kind of strategy but you may find you upset one too many PM's.

[northernladuk]

If you have verbally accepted the offer.

That's a good point. He didn't state it but looking at the checks that have started etc you could assume he's accepted it verbally.

If he's accepted it subject to contract review he's still got outs.

[BlasterBates]

That's a good point. He didn't state it but looking at the checks that have started etc you could assume he's accepted it verbally.

If he's accepted it subject to contract review he's still got outs.

....and they're now spending money.

That will go down like a lead balloon when he pulls out.