Help! Interview Clash

[TheDude]

This sounds horrible to say, but you need to play the game a bit, as in every one of these interactions, it's being played against you anyway.

To every agent, you're immediately available, have nothing else on the table, and aren't taking further enquiries.

In reality - you might have a notice to serve, you might have 2 contracts on the table and a 3rd interview tomorrow.... you want to hedge your bets hard and then let people down when you have to.

Which sounds horrible. We don't want to be like that, right?

But here's the thing... they're doing it with you. You know those interviews that go amazingly well and you end up waiting 1-2 weeks to hear back? That's the client's first choice declining the gig for something else. You'll never be told that, but that's what just happened.

Basically, don't worry about wasting the time of people who are very likely already waking yours to some degree, and certainly ewouldn't fail to do so if the need arose. there's a great saying here - keep looking until you're at the client's desk (Remotely speaking, unless you're NLUK)

Precisely this.

You have nothing to gain by sharing anything about your situation.

[PerfectStorm]

Precisely this.

You have nothing to gain by sharing anything about your situation.

Yup.

On a few occasions I've had recruiters say "I just want to check that you're still up for it, and declining interviews elsewhere, and that you've taken your CV offline" - all while not producing a contract. Can't have it both ways.

On a few occasions I've had multiple projects in hand and chosen from those.

But tell them what they want to hear. They can't do anything to you about it and will have told you a load of whoppers by this point anyway. (Including: how much client will pay, when it's actually going to start, how many people they're interviewing (it's always "between you and one other!"), etc. etc. )

Remember that the agent's customer isn't you, it's the prospective client. And the agents job is to find people able and willing to do the work who aren't going to go elsewhere if the client decides they want them. They want to give the illusion of controlling that last bit, but the truth is you hold the power there. Not in a contract? Not in a contract.