Agencies to avoid....

[PTP]

Just 1 agent has been dealing with me over these 2 contracts.

There's a 2nd agent there who has mentioned other jobs to me before and has also done the frustrating thing of not updating you if your application has failed and not responded to e-mails / requests for a call back ---- but I can just about tolerate that as standard from agencies

[northernladuk]

<stuff>!

Do you a problem with one agent or the whole company? People have to be a bit more specific if they are going to go agent bashing.

[PTP]

Has anyone experienced Real Staffing?

My first impressions of them aren't great:

I've always found them to be one of these that puts you forward but doesn't tell you when you've failed. But more has happened this week that now makes me think worse of them

Monday they rang about an opportunity and said it was in my hometown. They asked how much am I on, I told them and they said this role is more junior and might only go upto £300. They described the role and I admit I thought it sounded like easy money. So I told them to put me forward and they agreen to e-mail me the spec and I'll see if it sounds easy enough for that money with the bonus of it being close to home.

a) They didn't send me the spec
b) Today they rang me with other news (see next point) and so I questioned this first contract and they now say it is 90 miles away in Hertfordshire
c) Today they rang twice when I couldn't take the call and they didn't bother leaving a message & witheld their number. When I rang to chase about the £300 contract they said they twice called earlier because they have some news. And that news is.................they've got me an interview for a contract I didn't even know I had applied for! I asked what daily rate is the client thinking of and they said the £300 I allegedly said on Monday I would consider That's £200 less than I was getting for doing the same task 3 months ago at another client. Real Staffing have been taking the P I think, assuming I'd accept such a low rate for all contracts when they know full well what I've been getting for similar work recently. As it stands, I've told them I'll do the phone interview but they must send me a spec for this as well so that I can see how junior it is for that money

The one I've got an interview for is in fact close to home. So that coupled with the "1 in a hand vs 2 in a bush" may mean I still do the interview and accept the low £300 if offered. The next test is whether they do send me a spec before the interview. I bet you they won't!

[Wanderer]

Oh my god....I've just tried to +Rep this post, and it came up with "thanks for deducting reputation from this user".....

Ahh, so that explains why you've negative repped me too then.

[bobspud]

Oh my god....I've just tried to +Rep this post, and it came up with "thanks for deducting reputation from this user".....

Sorry if its negged you Bobspud - I obviously meant it to be a positive!!

Don't worry I did that to some poor newbie the other month Some one added one back for you

[The Agents View]

I have spoke will TAV professionally and I quite like him.

He's closer to an old school agent than most of the guys I speak to these days. Cultural fit is a good point that most of us miss.

The one thing that most agents seem to have forgotten in the brief skills festival that they are having at the moment, is that for the last 30 years they have had to beg for contractors attention, and finding 3 good CV's was a hard ask.

Agents! doling out a crap attitude now is going to kill you when the markets turn and all that money is there to be made for easy times...

My personal agency of hatred is Project People.

Oh my god....I've just tried to +Rep this post, and it came up with "thanks for deducting reputation from this user".....

Sorry if its negged you Bobspud - I obviously meant it to be a positive!!

[bobspud]

I have spoke will TAV professionally and I quite like him.

He's closer to an old school agent than most of the guys I speak to these days. Cultural fit is a good point that most of us miss.

The one thing that most agents seem to have forgotten in the brief skills festival that they are having at the moment, is that for the last 30 years they have had to beg for contractors attention, and finding 3 good CV's was a hard ask.

Agents! doling out a crap attitude now is going to kill you when the markets turn and all that money is there to be made for easy times...

My personal agency of hatred is Project People.

[Gentile]

Hate the Players, not the Game.

It tends not to be agencies that I avoid dealing with, but individuals. There are very few agencies out there that are truly bad to the core. However, there are one or two individuals kicking around that are a total waste of time to deal with, and I avoid them no matter who happens to be employing them at the time in question.

Strangely enough, I've noticed that the effectiveness of an agent isn't at all related to whether I personally like them or not. Truth be told, some of the pushier people that you wouldn't necessarily want to go for a drink with seem to make the best agents: they need to walk that fine line between being just pushy enough to handle the sales aspect of their role, without being so obnoxious that they end up peeing end clients off. Just as we techies need to walk a fine line between the technical competence and persistence that makes us effective at what we do, and the outright arrogance of thinking we're always right or imagining that the way we've always done things is the only way they can/should be done (I'm sure we've all known at least one colleague that was never wrong in their entire lives, and they're always a pain to deal with).

[quackhandle]

Another one for computer people the bunch of idiots.

I think they realised they were going to lose a fair wack of their cut on the daily rate they had previously agreed so gave me a true/false test and said I'd failed! Err yeah okay then.

qh

[AussieDigger]

T-Impact is another I'd avoid. Don't listen to the candidate at all - its all a numbers game apparently......not even registered with REC or APSCO I think....