What are your favourite agencies to deal with?

[TheBigYinJames]

Never met Tony. I deal with the Bram half.

Both of them are good, though I've only met Tony in the flesh. As ex-contractors themselves, they understand what makes a good and bad agent, and are trying their best to be 'good guys'. Can't recommend them highly enough.

[The Lone Gunman]

Both of them are good, though I've only met Tony in the flesh. As ex-contractors themselves, they understand what makes a good and bad agent, and are trying their best to be 'good guys'. Can't recommend them highly enough.

I can only agree with you there. Though I have only met Patrick.

[Sausage Surprise]

Max 20 were very good with me. Weekly payments on time and plenty of contact when needed. No fishing trips or tulipe like that to deal with. Even told me what their margin was (although I took that with a pinch of salt)

I'm on first name terms with a couple of the girls at LA International and they seem a good bunch. At least they seem genuine.

[gtr]

I've had good and bad experiences but the two that really stand out are - Opus Recruitment Solutions down in Bristol and Intapeople in Cardiff. Top guys.

[voodooflux]

DP Connect, ECRM People and Spring IT have all been good, the latter two having bought me lunch (I'm easily impressed). Had a bad experience with Harvey Nash, so I will personally stay clear of them in the future.

[grey_lady]

I can recommend a good one for tester/QA types in London, pm for details,
have to get that referral fee

[synoniv]

Recruitment agent companies are similar to estate agencies.
Both do their best to keep their clients happy and work for the clients best interests.
They are trained to lie, and most likely will do so to any extent because those who avail the 'services' get them free

Having said that, I do have some personal contacts with recruiters(contracts) in the industry. My area of expertise is embedded systems and PM me if you would like details.

[DodgyAgent]

Recruitment agent companies are similar to estate agencies.
Both do their best to keep their clients happy and work for the clients best interests.
They are trained to lie, and most likely will do so to any extent because those who avail the 'services' get them free

Having said that, I do have some personal contacts with recruiters(contracts) in the industry. My area of expertise is embedded systems and PM me if you would like details.

Agents dont need to be trained to lie.

[TheBigYinJames]

Agents dont need to be trained to lie.

They only need to have done 2 months at catering college. *that's what I'm talking about!* *reverse veloceraptor!*

[tim123]

LA International is the possible 3rd.

When I was looking to leave Germany in 2005, every time LA International rang me about a job the rate was laughable low (in an environment where everybody else was offering rates that are just plain low).

After a couple of calls, I politely told the CONsultant that either their margins were too high or the job simply wasn't sufficiently senior enough for me to be interested and either way I didn't want them to bother me again at that rate.

They haven't (which is rare!).

FWIW, after about 6 months of looking I eventually got an agent to represent me at the same site that LA were blagging for almost 50% more money.

tim