IT Project Manager Market

[kaiser78]

Seen quite a few IT PM roles come up over the past couple of weeks.
Just wonder how many are genuine or agencies trying to boost their CV stacks ?

[WindyAnna]

I have had two offers this week but that's SAP PMing which may be a bit different ...

[Another Dodgy Agent]

Seen quite a few IT PM roles come up over the past couple of weeks.
Just wonder how many are genuine or agencies trying to boost their CV stacks ?

Dear chap, please drag yourself from the 80's to the twenty first century! Agencies now have so many candidates that quite frankly we want rid of them. Yes, I would promote a get rid of a candidate day, I really would.

We now have over 500,000 IT candidates on our DB, none of them are duplicates because we run an overnight dedupe program.

I searched for a Latent Zero BA the other day on the system and got over a 100 candidates on the search! Its ridiculous.

If you search for a 2nd line desktop support person, financial services background, ITIL certified and MCSE qualifed you end up with 800 candidates on the search.

The worst of it is, going through both searches, each candidate was ideal for the role.

I have come to the conclusion that we should scrap our JobServe, CityJobs, Monster subscriptions and just work on our database because quite frankly we cannot cope with any more candidates.

[chris79]

Dear chap, please drag yourself from the 80's to the twenty first century! Agencies now have so many candidates that quite frankly we want rid of them. Yes, I would promote a get rid of a candidate day, I really would.

We now have over 500,000 IT candidates on our DB, none of them are duplicates because we run an overnight dedupe program.

I searched for a Latent Zero BA the other day on the system and got over a 100 candidates on the search! Its ridiculous.

If you search for a 2nd line desktop support person, financial services background, ITIL certified and MCSE qualifed you end up with 800 candidates on the search.

The worst of it is, going through both searches, each candidate was ideal for the role.

I have come to the conclusion that we should scrap our JobServe, CityJobs, Monster subscriptions and just work on our database because quite frankly we cannot cope with any more candidates.

That's really great, but do all candidates charge the same rate? Do you ring people up to find who is prepared to work for peanuts so you can make your big cut out of it all as the agent?.. I think having more would be better if I was running your business. This is 2008 remember, wait until the supply/demand ratio changes a bit over the next 36 months (hopefully).

[Another Dodgy Agent]

That's really great, but do all candidates charge the same rate? Do you ring people up to find who is prepared to work for peanuts so you can make your big cut out of it all as the agent?.. I think having more would be better if I was running your business. This is 2008 remember, wait until the supply/demand ratio changes a bit over the next 36 months (hopefully).

LOL, sorry, love your avatar pic, so freaky. Anyway back to the point above, regarding do all the candidates charge the same rate, yes actually the little naughty sausages do, because if you quote a rate of 500GBP per day then suddenly everyone you speak to wants 500GBP per day.

I did a "dummy" test recently, genuine role, but told my team to tell candidates that the rate was 250GBP per day (market rate was 375GBP per day), although most candidates when confronted with the rate of 250GBP per day baulked at it, all accepted. When I then approached the shortlisted candidates and said the role was paying 375GBP per day they suddenly all felt they should be on 375GBP. Such an honest bunch!

Dream on about big cuts, agents (good ones) don't make these big cuts urban myth some of you folk subscribe to. The client normally stipulates an overall margin i.e. 15% and that margin is what is stuck to.

[downsouth]

I did a "dummy" test recently, genuine role, but told my team to tell candidates that the rate was 250GBP per day (market rate was 375GBP per day), although most candidates when confronted with the rate of 250GBP per day baulked at it, all accepted. When I then approached the shortlisted candidates and said the role was paying 375GBP per day they suddenly all felt they should be on 375GBP. Such an honest bunch!

And how many times have you actually done the opposite and the rate is 375pd but only offered 250pd!!!

[pmeswani]

LOL, sorry, love your avatar pic, so freaky. Anyway back to the point above, regarding do all the candidates charge the same rate, yes actually the little naughty sausages do, because if you quote a rate of 500GBP per day then suddenly everyone you speak to wants 500GBP per day.

I did a "dummy" test recently, genuine role, but told my team to tell candidates that the rate was 250GBP per day (market rate was 375GBP per day), although most candidates when confronted with the rate of 250GBP per day baulked at it, all accepted. When I then approached the shortlisted candidates and said the role was paying 375GBP per day they suddenly all felt they should be on 375GBP. Such an honest bunch!

Dream on about big cuts, agents (good ones) don't make these big cuts urban myth some of you folk subscribe to. The client normally stipulates an overall margin i.e. 15% and that margin is what is stuck to.

The question is... What did you tell the client the contractors are happy with? I bet you told them that they would accept in the region of £375. Honesty works both way, you know.

[Peter Loew]

Quite a few SC PM roles out there, I always seemed to get called up about these just before they hit the boards.

[Liability]

LOL, sorry, love your avatar pic, so freaky. Anyway back to the point above, regarding do all the candidates charge the same rate, yes actually the little naughty sausages do, because if you quote a rate of 500GBP per day then suddenly everyone you speak to wants 500GBP per day.

I did a "dummy" test recently, genuine role, but told my team to tell candidates that the rate was 250GBP per day (market rate was 375GBP per day), although most candidates when confronted with the rate of 250GBP per day baulked at it, all accepted. When I then approached the shortlisted candidates and said the role was paying 375GBP per day they suddenly all felt they should be on 375GBP. Such an honest bunch!

Dream on about big cuts, agents (good ones) don't make these big cuts urban myth some of you folk subscribe to. The client normally stipulates an overall margin i.e. 15% and that margin is what is stuck to.

I love these kinda threads - and if the same situ was played with you from a client paying from 5% to 20% you wouldnt do the same. LOL

[Liability]

Dear chap, please drag yourself from the 80's to the twenty first century! Agencies now have so many candidates that quite frankly we want rid of them. Yes, I would promote a get rid of a candidate day, I really would.

We now have over 500,000 IT candidates on our DB, none of them are duplicates because we run an overnight dedupe program.

I searched for a Latent Zero BA the other day on the system and got over a 100 candidates on the search! Its ridiculous.

If you search for a 2nd line desktop support person, financial services background, ITIL certified and MCSE qualifed you end up with 800 candidates on the search.

The worst of it is, going through both searches, each candidate was ideal for the role.

I have come to the conclusion that we should scrap our JobServe, CityJobs, Monster subscriptions and just work on our database because quite frankly we cannot cope with any more candidates.

this is good as if there are too many candidates than jobs - within the circle very soon the agencies will collapse which can only be a good thing.

What I find intriguing is that more and more companies are phoning candidates direct - something Ive noticed more in the past 2 months - I have had direct calls from BP, C&W and Shell - who usually use Agencies - so maybe they also dont want to use agencies?

Can only be good anyway.