Do Clients ever hold interviews for roles which don't exist?

[pmeswani]

How ignorant!

Rather than throwing signs around, why not take the opportunity to clarify what you meant, or at least explain what you mean by "Can't Afford". Just remember, "Can't Afford" could be taken for monetary (), or it could be taken for other meanings such as you having a new arrival in your family, or your wife being permanently ill.

Be careful about what you say, otherwise people will start to think that you are nothing but a .

[eek]

I went for an interview about a month ago, maybe longer.

I didn't get the role but they offered me a permanent job, which i turned down.

Anyway, i still see the same advert by the same agent on job serve and CW well over a month later.

Is it feasible that they are just using the advert as an opportunist recruiting method and there's no specific role to fill?

No what it means is that they want a permie but can't find one. Hence they are hoping that a desperate contractor will take them up on the offer.

Don't forget some people and companies don't understand the point of contractors.

[Robinho]

Interesting, so in a way, that qualifies as a role which doesn't exist.

[jmo21]

At my last contract, there were approx 15 contractors in total for varying lengths of time on the same project (I was there 16 months).

They had been trying to hire permies before we started, and while we there (they hired 3 I think).

The whole time, they were constantly advertising and trying to persuade contractors to go permie.

This included one really awkward communicator chat with one of the big bosses which popped up for me one day.

Big boss: Hi Jmo21
me: Hi
BB: we are advertising again, would you like to apply, it'd be a formality just have to include HR.
me: Thanks for your offer but I am going to stick with contracting just now.
BB: ok

He asked another of the guys in the pub when we were all drunk, what would it take you to go permie. He answered £70k - the average in our area for what we do is probably £40k.

[teclo]

I went for an interview a couple of years ago, turned out that the company were just looking for some freebie consultancy. In my desire to sound like the perfect person for them I discussed how I would do something in detail and all that, thinking I'd dazzle them.

Not so, turns out they "didn't have the funds" and later discovered them using some of the ideas I had suggested.

Now when I go for an interview and am asked how I would do something. I give them rough high level view and say "but without knowing all the details I can't really say at the moment" Not falling for that one again.