I just need to get two references ...

[churkus]

Did they tell you who the client was?

well im sure he could have made one up, but he said it was NHS, in my area. NHS keeps it nice and ambiguous!.

[up4it]

Don't fall for this old trick!

Aston Carter tried this stunt recently with a fictitious contract at a large defence company in Cambridge.
This defence company only hire contractors through one particular agency and it is not Aston Carter!
He even had an elaborate job spec for it but then he got confused and slipped up and sent me the same job spec but with a different programming language! What a clown!
It just shows the lengths they will go to to get their leads!

Next time I will just give them a fake name for the referee and let them waste some of their time instead of mine!

[istvan]

If they ask for a reference upfront, I give them one in California the other somewhere in Moscow. I even know them and they were never contacted. If a client asks, that is a different story.

Don't fall for this old trick!

Aston Carter tried this stunt recently with a fictitious contract at a large defence company in Cambridge.
This defence company only hire contractors through one particular agency and it is not Aston Carter!
He even had an elaborate job spec for it but then he got confused and slipped up and sent me the same job spec but with a different programming language! What a clown!
It just shows the lengths they will go to to get their leads!

Next time I will just give them a fake name for the referee and let them waste some of their time instead of mine!

[craig1]

If they ask for a reference upfront, I give them one in California the other somewhere in Moscow. I even know them and they were never contacted. If a client asks, that is a different story.

That's spooky... I was just going to post in this thread today about that subject but been a bit lazy. I've started hunting again and I give reference requesters the name of a very senior colleague/friend of mine based in Canada who can give a genuine work based reference for me. I make it clear to the recruiter that he has no hiring powers at all in the UK. To date, not one of the four agencies I've told this to has contacted him.

[Rabotnik]

Just had an absolute time-waster call me. He was South-Asian, so understanding him was difficult, but the first thing I asked him was if the role was for a contract or permanent and he said he had both at this client, so I asked who it was and he told me.

I checked their site and it was OK - so far so good. Then he asks me why I only want a contract role and he says the role he has is permanent and pays a good salary

Even though I made it crystal clear at the very start of the call, he went through asking me my rate, and if I was OK working in London! Like I am going to suddenly change my mind about contracting while I'm on the phone to him?!

Utter

[rob s]

I don't know if this has been identified elsewhere on CUK, but there's a big trend with outsourcing companies to build skill profiles of contractors and expensive permies who they can then use as evidence that their fully managed service is a lot cheaper...

[Rabotnik]

I don't know if this has been identified elsewhere on CUK, but there's a big trend with outsourcing companies to build skill profiles of contractors and expensive permies who they can then use as evidence that their fully managed service is a lot cheaper...

This is exactly what I thought. On Monday I had a call from another recruiter who was vague about the role and insisted the detail was in the spec, so I asked her who the company was and she told me and I quickly googled them and it was a legit financial company.

She didn't ask me any details about my current or past roles, which is usually a sign they are trying to fill it when I'm gone, so it seemed like a real role. But the way she was so keen on saying she would email me the spec made me very suspicious, and I kept waiting for "I just need 2 referrals.".

It's now Wednesday and I still haven't received a spec, so I think it was some sort of profile building so they can set rates or make a business case like you say.

[rob s]

Conversely, I've been called by an agent who spent the first 3 minutes grilling me on current situation (still half asleep) before I finally said "hey wait a minute....you called me about a role you had....?" and it did turn out to be an actual role with an actual real client who did a real interview.

[muser]

I got a call earlier today from an agent guy who seemed more interested in the rate I was getting for my last role. When I didnt offer the info, he assumed 'x' based on the sector. Then he told me about some other role which offers less. I said I'd be ok to be considered for the role. He said he'll send the spec. I'm still waiting but not holding my breath!

[rob s]

I got a call earlier today from an agent guy who seemed more interested in the rate I was getting for my last role. When I didnt offer the info, he assumed 'x' based on the sector. Then he told me about some other role which offers less. I said I'd be ok to be considered for the role. He said he'll send the spec. I'm still waiting but not holding my breath!

Posted on this in another thread, there are lots of offshore tier 2 consultancies researching current rates so they can come in and bid for entire managed service contracts based on "if you went with contractors, it would cost this, but if you go with us it'll cost you far less as we'll employ a £20k graduate to do the same job before moving the role offshore*"


*my interpretation