How do you fit in interviews?

[GillsMan]

My first contract is nearing it's end and I've started looking for new jobs. A job's been advertised which I'm a really good match for and the agency seems interested. They're asking for me to come to their office during the day time and meet them before my CV is sent out. I've never been asked this before, but from reading on here I gather it's not that unusual. I obviously work during the day, so I'm going to ask if I can have a telephone interview instead.

What happens when/if the client wants an interview though? My current client doesn't have a work from home policy and if I take a day or even half a day off, that's a lot of money I'm pissing down the drain.

So what do you guys do when you're in a contract and it comes to interview time. Any tips?

[Spacecadet]

If you want back to back contracts then you'll have to invest the odd day to interviews.
You can try and arrange a phone interview but from my experience most clients are pretty insistant on face to face

[Old Greg]

You are indeed losing money by taking the time out. I guess you need to put it down as a cost of running a business.

[lukemg]

Don't bother going to see the agency unless it is round the corner and they are buying lunch. This is a pointless, usually thinly disguised fishing exercise.
Exception is very senior roles which do usually expect advanced vetting from the agency.
I usually try to arrange a 5pm interview and duck out an hour early that day, depends on location of course.

[Not So Wise]

As said above, agency interviews are pointless, they have zero influence on who the client will actually interview, never mind actually hire (beyond just not submitting your cv to client, which, if you are a good match for client would be foolish of agency as might lose a placement to another agency)

So you must ask yourself, why would agency waste time pointlessly "interviewing contractors" when they could be chaseing new leads?
Answer, they are not interviewing contractors, they are hoping to get sales leads from them

Client interviews on the other hand are something you will just have to take the hit for, just try to arrange them at start/end of the day and be prepared to hint to client that you have some minor personal/medical issue so that when you tell them you have to knock off early/turn up late next day for X they don't question it

[Spacecadet]

hint to client that you have some minor personal/medical issue so that when you tell them you have to knock off early/turn up late next day for X they don't question it

I've never bothered with that. When the contract is coming to its natural end and there is no renewal I let the client know that I'm actively looking for work and so will be unavailable at short notice due to interviews with prospective clients.
As long as you sell it properly i.e. things are getting quiet so the less billable time you're in the office the better
then they don't/can't really complain.

[swamp]

I would never take time off for an agency interview. I probably wouldn't even go if I was on the bench.

[GillsMan]

Interesting views all.

Right, so the agent is coming to meet me near my place of work so I don't need to take time off as I can fit it into my lunch break.

He asked me to bring examples of the sort of work I've produced in the past (e-learning modules, reference guides I've written, things like that) so I must admit, it does seem like this is a pre-vetting exercise. He did mention that his client insists they've met all candidates, but I'm sure they all say that. But this doesn't seem like a fishing exercise to me if he's asking me to provide examples of things I've done which is relevant to the role. Am I right or naiive? (Could well be the latter).

Yup, I think you're right about the client interview, I'll have to take the hit. Shame, I was hoping you'd all say something about most clients being happy to interview after office hours or something.

[nomadd]

Don't bother going to see the agency unless it is round the corner and they are buying lunch. This is a pointless, usually thinly disguised fishing exercise.

+1

[kaiser78]

As per other posts bit of a waste of time if you are justing meeting the agency. If you are keen to though, what about arranging early / first thing in the morning or late in the afternoon, disguised as a doctors appt to your clientco ?