Agent question

[Sol4ever]

Hi everyone,

Got a call from a pimp for a contract i appied for. My current contract is up at the end of the month. He was very interested in knowing if I had many more contract\interviews lined up. I said that I had a couple. Should I have said that this was the only one? why was he so curious?

cheers

[Dante]

He was curious as his next question was sure to be "Who are those interviews for? We want to make sure we don't send your CV to the same place..."

I've been on the bench for 3 days - i've had probably 20 calls - of which three sounded like they were for actual contracts - the rest were fishing in one way or another.

[Peter Loew]

Hi everyone,

Got a call from a pimp for a contract i appied for. My current contract is up at the end of the month. He was very interested in knowing if I had many more contract\interviews lined up. I said that I had a couple. Should I have said that this was the only one? why was he so curious?

cheers

In my experience, agents you ask you this to gauge out how other agents / clients perceive you in the marketplace. I always say that I have a couple more things on the go because it gives the agent the impression that you are a good, sought after candidate; in short that other agents / clients are interested in you. And people always want want other people are chasing after...

Just don't give them any leads or refs when they ask you who else you're interviewing for.

[pmeswani]

In my experience, agents you ask you this to gauge out how other agents / clients perceive you in the marketplace. I always say that I have a couple more things on the go because it gives the agent the impression that you are a good, sought after candidate; in short that other agents / clients are interested in you. And people always want want other people are chasing after...

Just don't give them any leads or refs when they ask you who else you're interviewing for.

1st Bold. That's an urban myth as far as I am aware. They are phishing to see if you will tell them the companies you are interviewing with. If the agent can't see how your clients perceive you based on the work you have done... then how would having interviews be any different?

2nd Bold. It only tells the agency that you are interviewing, nothing else. They are trying to find out if you are on the market and available. It doesn't tell them that you are good.

[Peter Loew]

1st Bold. That's an urban myth as far as I am aware. They are phishing to see if you will tell them the companies you are interviewing with. If the agent can't see how your clients perceive you based on the work you have done... then how would having interviews be any different?

2nd Bold. It only tells the agency that you are interviewing, nothing else. They are trying to find out if you are on the market and available. It doesn't tell them that you are good.

Interesting, I hear different opinions on this but in practice when I say I am interviewing their ears usually pricck up and I get a second phone call back from them wanting to set up an interview or talk further. And I mean good as in sellable.

So what do you say when agents ask you this?

[tim123]

In my experience, agents you ask you this to gauge out how other agents / clients perceive you in the marketplace.

And the moon is made of cheese.

tim

[pmeswani]

Interesting, I hear different opinions on this but in practice when I say I am interviewing their ears usually pricck up and I get a second phone call back from them wanting to set up an interview or talk further. And I mean good as in sellable.

So what do you say when agents ask you this?

Initially I use to tell them of any interviews I use to have.. they then use to ask who the clients were. After that, I never use to hear back from them. Since coming here, I learnt about agencies fishing for contacts, so I just tell them that I don't have any interviews or any leads unless I have an element of trust with the agency (i.e. I have worked through them in the past). I may tell them that I am working on a few opportunities, but would leave it at that. It is none of their business what I am working on.... Regardless of what they promise to do. If they have anything that matched my skills, it wouldn't matter to them what I am or am not working on. If they want to know how good I am... get me an interview.... get me the contract... and then ask for some references... or even better, look at my linked in references.

[pmeswani]

And the moon is made of cheese.

tim

And the cow jumped over the moon, therefore making it into cheese.

[ratewhore]

In my experience, agents you ask you this to gauge out how other agents / clients perceive you in the marketplace.

Most pimps can't even string that sentence together, let alone understand it's meaning!!

[Cheshire Cat]

I usually reply that I have a couple of other interviews lined up, but that "I'm sure you'll appreciate, the other agencies have asked me to be discreet about their clients, as I'm sure you would not want me to discuss your role with another agency".
There's nowhere to go from that. If they try the hard sell "I can't put you forward unless you tell me what you've had for breakfast, and email me the numbers of everyone you've ever worked with", I thank them for their time and tell them I wish them well, but that I can't acquiesce to their demands.