Clients Not showing up for telephone interviews....Is that a thing now?

[northernladuk]

Sorry, forgot to get back to you, you know how it is, rushed off my feet with more important things.

How unprofessional of you. Disgraceful behaviour. Why a client would put up with such a poor attitude I don't know.

[billybiro]

It's not about fairness. One person has something, the other person wants it. It's not a level playing field.

Except that sometimes, it is.

Just as the client has a choice of contractors to choose from, so too does the contractor often have a choice of clients.

As Hobosapien stated, with a sufficient warchest and a good range of marketable skills, a contractor doesn't automatically have to suffer such nonsense and can wait for a gig with a more professional and respectful client to come along.

You're right in that it's not about fairness. It's about leverage. If you have that sizable warchest and can afford to wait, then the "fairness" is stacked in your favour. Of course, conversely, if you have only a dwindling warchest and are desperate for a gig, then the "fairness" is very much in the client's favour. Just understand that, given the contractor's situation, the pendulum of "fairness" / leverage can indeed swing in both directions.

[northernladuk]

Except that sometimes, it is.

Just as the client has a choice of contractors to choose from, so too does the contractor often have a choice of clients.

As Hobosapien stated, with a sufficient warchest and a good range of marketable skills, a contractor doesn't automatically have to suffer such nonsense and can wait for a gig with a more professional and respectful client to come along.
.

Possibly but bearing in mind every gig has 3 or 4 choices of contractor it's very uncommon for a contractor to even have 2 choices of client. Technically we have choice of client or bench. But yes you are right. We can chose whether or not to go forward with any given client.

This nonsense is one missed phone call that was followed up by an apology. Something HS seems to have completely missed or is totally blowing out of proportion.

[vetran]

How is the actions of one busy person a reflection on an entire client?

if they believe they can behave that way when someone is under such stress then they aren't the boss for most people. If they believe that is acceptable in their workplace then the workplace is a bad one.

Good workplaces set good standards.

Some more allowance for interviewing contractors.

[northernladuk]

Blimey. When did the wold get taken over by fawning bedwetting lickspittles.

[Lance]

Blimey. When did the wold get taken over by fawning bedwetting lickspittles.

2001

[Glencky]

I'm really interested to know if the people being so snotty about the missed interview on this thread, have ever hired contractors themselves?

I agree entirely that the behaviour is very much suboptimal and unprofessional, and certainly not the desired way to act when you're recruiting anyone, contractor or permie (or indeed dealing with anyone either inside or outside the company where you're working). But on the other hand, sh1t happens. I can't claim experience of anywhere outside financial services but in that environment, the very time when people are at their most stretched is *when they're recruiting* and particularly *when they're recruiting contractors*. It's like that pretty much by definition. You're recruiting contractors because you need a flexible workforce quickly. That by definition means that you're at greater risk of having your day 'blown away' by some hideous and unignorable crisis.

As far as I'm concerned, this is one of the reasons why a contract market exists. It's the business opportunity for me. It's not that I don't find it frustrating to be on the receiving end of behaviour like this (I do, sometimes to the point of wanting to scream). It's not that I 'excuse' it. But I do *understand* how it happens and I've even unfortunately done stuff like this myself sometimes.

Nobody's perfect. There are some incredibly self-important people on this thread spouting the kind of inflexible sh1te I wouldn't expect from a Big 4 consultant with some clout, let alone a one person band type operation. If I was the hiring manager, I'd consider it a self-selection exercise...

Clearly there is always going to be a line where you walk away because you're not happy with behaviour, and where that line is will vary depending on the level of relative power in the equation. But some of the attitudes here really stink.

[uk contractor]

To give another opinion its not always the contractors perception. I recently had a series of Video Interviews with senior managers in other time zones:

1st Interview: Manager kept me waiting for over 2.5 hours with no apologies or excuses whatsoever then gave me only 10 mins.
2nd Interview: Same manager called me back for a 2 hour interview & was quite rude.
3rd Interview: Different person kept me waiting 25 mins with no excuses or apology.
4th Interview: Another different manager kept me waiting for 15 mins with no excuses or apology.

After this I decided their culture was not my culture so withdrew from the interview process. Most of the people I had these interviews with were not punctual. 1 of the 4 was friendly the other 3 were hostile & unsettling. Whether this was their intention or not or they were just like that who knows but face to face many contractors would walk out or end the interview.

[northernladuk]

You had 4 interviews for a gig???

[uk contractor]

You had 4 interviews for a gig???

12 month Contract to then go Perm for big bucks!