New Contractor Portal - Sourcing new contracts - What do you want?

[lukemg]

Either I am lucky, or I have low expectations, but my experience of agents has been mostly positive. I have had a few try to steamroller me but I don't take it personally, it's business.
You have to get inside their heads to play the game better.
I reply to an advert that is a good match for me (ok, I might aim a step up the ladder the odd time). When/if the agent gets in touch, my first job is to be on his list of people to put forward to the client.
So, the checklist kicks in, I am friendly, keen on the job, positive about the client, happy to provide a few examples of how I fit the profile. The agent gets a good feeling about me and puts me forward - or not. They are putting a list together that says to the client 'I can find you just the right people at the right price and availability' - My job is to get on that list, end of story.
It's easy to pick the fishers out and side-step them, again, I don't take it to heart.
If I get an interview it is all about me, get in and do the deal. If I miss out, yes I am disappointed (because I like to win) but I let it go and look for the next one.
I have been through a bad stage of no call backs, obsolete/commodity skills, worry about money and tightening of belts to match income but I don't see that as being anyone else's fault but mine. In addition, I didn't expect anyone else to get me out of the hole !
Keep up with the market and save for a rainy day while the cash is coming in. You have to have something you can sell and the market is harsh these days if you aren't a 99% match, then someone else will be and they will get through.

[wendigo100]

A selection of recent answers have been ... "You are too experienced" ...

Slight diversion. I interviewed a bloke recently and, for some reason that had nothing to do with me, his agent told him he was turned down because he was "too experienced".

He kicked off an ageism complaint.

[ratewhore]

I can beat that. Currently working on a govt programme. A coloured guy was interviewed, offered the gig, refused to undertake clearance checks, didn't turn up on start date, didn't turn up on next due start date, gig offered to someone else.

Now suing for racial and sexual discrimination. Go figure...

[malvolio]

I have been through a bad stage of no call backs, obsolete/commodity skills, worry about money and tightening of belts to match income but I don't see that as being anyone else's fault but mine. In addition, I didn't expect anyone else to get me out of the hole !
Keep up with the market and save for a rainy day while the cash is coming in. You have to have something you can sell and the market is harsh these days if you aren't a 99% match, then someone else will be and they will get through.

If you mean me, you're wrong. My skills are non-technical, up to date, of high quality and in demand right now for almost anything that isn't development work. It's not lack of work that's the problem, and I'm not really looking very hard since I've got a four-week holiday coming up early next year. I'm quite relaxed about not working and can pay the motgage for another five months if I have to.

That does not exonerate the agencies in general for being good body-shifters but bloody awful salesmen. It's not lack of work for me that's the issue, it's the lack of recognition that clients are not seeing potentially good candidates for poor reasons.

Put it this way - in my last gig I tried to get someone on to my team that I knew could do the job and had the specific expertise I needed. Can't do it directly, obviously, he had to apply for the post. I got fourteen CVs within a week, most unsuitable, none belonging to my (potential) candidate. He doesn't know why either.

I've seen that happen before, several times. If the system can't match an ideal candidate with a role partly created for him, then it's the system that's broke, not the candidates.

[errorista]

Too experienced = Knows the market rate.

Experienced = No big margin available as with noobs with an MCSE.

No need for references if the contractor has 15+ years in the industry with a list of high profile clients and multiple renewals to show. (Find me an agent who understands this simple concept)

Agent = Someone who does not understand the client requirement and therefore can only guess what person will fill that requirement. They do however understand their own margins and place people accordingly (taking a large margin which is not value adding for the client). What does the client know anyway?

I have years of experience and can safely say that agents have made contracting a very unreliable occupation for contractors and are a very unfulfilling resource for clients.

You may notice that more and more roles are being advertised with 'no agencies please' added to the specification. There is a reason for this. Agencies are failing to deliver and are becoming disliked by employers. Ive spoken to CEO's who hate agencies at least as much as contractors do.

There is a wind of change blowing through the market. Many large outfits are creating their own websites and harvesting CV's for themselves. Hell, if agencies can do it then so can they. Why pay a HR dept and then outsource HR?

2c

PS DP Connect = iProfile. Therefore if you use Jobjock filtering then you probably never heard of them.