Agencies to avoid....

[Dominic Connor]

I got a call from a pimp there today. Withheld number, the usual "so we have a role for you, are you available, what were your past rates, what would you be looking for in terms of rates now?" BS.

Actually most corporate switchboards are set up to withhold numbers, it is not a sign of being dodgy, although it can be a sign that their internal IT is a bit lazy.

That's because the default config for switchboards is to give out the main number, so if you get a missed call and try to return a call you get a switchboard for a company with hundreds or thousands of staff who can't help if you say "I got a call from this number".

[Dominic Connor]

Sometimes

Spoke to one pimp the other day about a gig down south, but first there was an online test to perform and the interview is with the pimp and not the client.
qh

I can see your point here, but then again it depends upon the recruiter...
It's interesting that the tone of this post, it is worth remembering that some sort of filtering in theory is what an agent is supposed to be being paid for.

As I've written on the The Register and elsewhere, many clients won't pay for the service they want, but pay too much for the service they actually get.


Some clients use stuff like BrainBench as a quick and cheap first filter, requiring that all contractors and staff get above a certain score, the agent merely connects up.

Every contractor I've placed has been interviewed by me, not all of them have enjoyed it, especially the switch from smarmy City headhunter to hardcore coder when I sniff bulltulip.

We don't do as many contractors as the carpet bombers because of this and frankly only got into contracting because a client started a conversation with "Dominic, as we're your largest client...", the MD knew one of my guilty secrets, that I know far too much about Excel and he was sick to the back teeth of interviewing what he described as "Chimps", for a set of roles that paid far more than the going rate, for competent Excel developers.

We all know that there are almost none of these, sure plenty of people know Excel, but usually not well and most serious Excel hacks actually do something else as their headline skills, but nearly all Excel specialists are little more than evangelicals.

So let us look at the world of pain I entered.
After filtering out the CVs of those who had no hope, I proceeded to interview them both orally and by handing them a laptop with Excel and asking them to make it do stuff.

Every single last one of them failed the test.

DDE was thought by several of them to be a "new feature" in Excel, when I asked them to do stuff like link two workbooks together. (for non-Excel people, it dates from 1987)

Three had to have NOT and AND explained to them, biitwise operators mostly mystified them, dependency trees ditto. Techniques for getting data from databases, Bloomberg and Reuters was at best patchy and often wholly absent.

If you've ever had to sort out a defective spreadsheet, you will share the despair I felt at the widespread ignorance about how Excel features can enforce a useful degree of data integrity.

For instance, some things can never be negative, so conditional formatting can highlight in a bright colour cells that have gone wrong. Anyone here impressed by my use of powerful black magic ?

No ?

So imagine what I thought of people with "5 years of Excel development in major banks" who saw this as a cool technique, let alone those that thought I was being anal for caring about this crap.

Precisely one had a clue why the signed 16 bitness of Integers in VBA might be an issue when dealing with sheets in classical Excel that went up to >32767

And it went on...

[nomadd]

It can be only a matter of hours before Real Time get me a gig with the info. I gave them after retrieving their E-mail from the spam folder.

Can you please get back to me with the following information to enable us to go away and work with your CV and profile:

1. What would your ideal role be in terms of technical skillset?

Lego Mindstorms.

2. Current salary and package?

Infinity and beyond.

3. Availability to start work?

Yesterday.

4. Which companies has your CV been sent to so far in your job search?

All of them.

5. Which companies have you interviewed with so far in your job search?

All of them minus one.

[flipFlop]

Your Search is Over With "Real Time"

It can be only a matter of hours before Real Time get me a gig with the info. I gave them after retrieving their E-mail from the spam folder.

I am contacting you from Real Time Recruitment Solutions, a specialist recruitment consultancy dedicated to providing permanent and contract staff to IT and Engineering companies developing C/C+ Real Time and Embedded Systems throughout the UK.

We are very busy working with a number of clients across the South of England at the moment and would like the opportunity to go away and speak to any potential clients about your CV to see if you might be suitable for one of their open positions.

Can you please get back to me with the following information to enable us to go away and work with your CV and profile:

1. What would your ideal role be in terms of technical skillset?

2. Current salary and package?

3. Avalibility to start work?

4. Which companies has your CV been sent to so far in your job search?

5. Which companies have you inter ivewed with so far in your job search?

I must stress it is important to let me know the names of the companies as I do not want to duplicate your CV or jeopardise any applications you may have on going in the process.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Kind Regards,

George Eaton
Divisional Manager
Real Time Recruitment Solutions

[NDawg]

Has anyone worked with PremierIT. Ive had a few calls from their agents. They call me up,
tell me about this Investment Banking role in detail (not disclosing the client)

They then say they will email me about it further along with a job description.
However what I get is a request from the agent asking for 2 references.
I then reply back and ask 'Do you have a job description for the role that you described to me?'

They never reply back!

I got a call from a pimp there today. Withheld number, the usual "so we have a role for you, are you available, what were your past rates, what would you be looking for in terms of rates now?" BS.

Told him to send me a spec and I'd call him back to discuss further.

So far nothing.

[quackhandle]

Doh! Well spotted, shocking error since I was watching the Lego SW short film Padawan Menace this morning with my wee lad.

As a Correllian Smuggler/Scoundrel once said.

qh

[MyUserName]

Being pushed for a role that the pimp (one of S3 grp) is blatantly trying to push to a "prospective" client, not on PSL. So vague about rate/length etc.

As a young farm boy from Tattoine once said "No reward is worth this."

qh

Wasn't it Han Solo who said that?

[quackhandle]

Being pushed for a role that the pimp (one of S3 grp) is blatantly trying to push to a "prospective" client, not on PSL. So vague about rate/length etc.

As a young farm boy from Tattoine once said "No reward is worth this."

qh

[kevpuk]

Good experience with Clearwater PS; weekly payments, online timesheet authorisation etc. and no bad experiences to date

[Darren_Test]

Good experience & weekly payments from SCOM. Probably the best agency I dealt with so far.

Worst experience with Spring & Penta Consulting. Both deserves to be in "Avoid List"