first contract offer slightly concerned

[whoolio]

it's abroad and i'm waiting for my new passport to arrive (one week at the latest). The recruitment agency say that I have secured the role and the start date is flexible, depending on my passport situation, but htey want me asap.

Shall I keep looking for other roles anyway, until I have my passport, flight booked and hard copy of the contract?

Thanks,

[stek]

Do nowt till you get the signed contract, I'm waiting on an offer for a 12 mnther in Germany, 99.999% sure, still nothing....

[norrahe]

Northing is certain till you have a contract in your hand, many of us have been in the situation whereby there's a verbal offer, the agency is "sorting out contracts" with the client and then nothing comes of it.

Keep your options open until you have signed on the dotted line.

[northernladuk]

Ask yourself what you will do if this all goes tits up? Sit there with nothing in the pipeline lamenting the failure of this contract? We have had guys in the last 2 weeks who have turned up on site, contract signed and everything and still be turned away and binned before even starting. We also had a guy on awhile ago who took a contract abroad, booked his accomoation and all flights up front and got let down the week before as well. It happens regularly.

Keep applying for everything up to the day you sign and get in the office IMO.

[jmo21]

I always assume nothing until I'm actually sat at my new desk on client co site.

As other threads on here recently have shown, client co's can be useless, agents can be useless/liars etc.

[wantacontract]

Totally echo what everyone is saying on this post, it seems in these uncertain times that more and more employers are binning work last minute....until you get paid, be wary!!

[TOSH1]

i agree with everyone else. keep your cv posted and carry on looking

[gingerjedi]

I always assume nothing until I'm actually sat at my new desk on client co site.

Even then things can go wrong, I started a 3 monther on the Monday and got binned a week later, the client took umbrage to me asking for just 1 day off despite the fact they hadn't actually found anything for me to do for the entire week.

This was a county council and they had to pay me off, good to know your council tax isn't being wasted eh.

[PropertyCrashUK]

Even then things can go wrong, I started a 3 monther on the Monday and got binned a week later, the client took umbrage to me asking for just 1 day off despite the fact they hadn't actually found anything for me to do for the entire week.

This was a county council and they had to pay me off, good to know your council tax isn't being wasted eh.

Sorry to hear that but at least you got paid.

Sounds a right tosser to work for so sounds like you are best out of it. Some people have personality disorders that make them best avoided but such people often rise up in organisations so you tend to come across them.

This is one of the pitfalls of contracting - especially if you work away from your home across the UK or in another country.

Always best to rent a B&B or a hotel room when you start a new contract as you could take a 12 month lease out on a flat, thinking you have a nice 12 month contract in your pocket, only to have the contract binned because of the numerous reasons we all know about.

The OP should keep looking as others have commented.

[PropertyCrashUK]

Even then things can go wrong, I started a 3 monther on the Monday and got binned a week later, the client took umbrage to me asking for just 1 day off despite the fact they hadn't actually found anything for me to do for the entire week.

This was a county council and they had to pay me off, good to know your council tax isn't being wasted eh.

I was talking about this with a friend tonight and he said that now is the time to avoid public sector organisations.

If jobs have gone in them or are under threat then the last thing the staff want is contractors coming in - so the staff will be looking for ways to make it hard for contractors or to get rid of them.

This might have been what you came up against. Then again the guy might have been a completely dysfunctional human being.