A recruiter asks: 'What day rate are you looking for?'

[MyUserName]

Show me the roles on any job site at £1000+/day - they don't exist or if they do it's by some other more direct means.

I knew one PM on 1200 a day in 2007, but he was strato-phenomonal in that he delivered dead hard stuff on time on budget, every time.

I have seen quant roles in banks going at 1200 a day and 1300 a day. However they required PhDs to apply as well as experience of banks, C++ etc. It was also a year or two ago.

[flipFlop]

Interested to hear how you respond to the following question 'What day rate are you looking for?'

I respond with my hourly rate, paid weekly. I am not "looking" for a daily rate.

[NotAllThere]

I tell them my standard daily rate, based on an 8 hour day, and that it may go up or down depending on location and the nature of the work. If they then ask me a stupid question like "what's your absolute minimum", I tell them my standard daily rate, based on an 8 hour day, and that it may go up or down depending on location and the nature of the work.

[No2politics]

I give them a range so wide it is meaningless.

[Edinburgh BA]

I'd ask what they were offering. Nothing worse than being on the phone with someone for ten minutes for a £225 a day job. I usually just say market rate for my locality. They should know that, and they'll usually go on to say "well, they're offering £380 a day", which is pretty common for Lloyds, for example. If you need to travel though, then that might be more, but outwith London, you can pretty much forget fat day rates. It's a hirer's market just now, so you need to bear that in mind too.

[DirtyDog]

Interested to hear how you respond to the following question 'What day rate are you looking for?' frequently posed by recruiters.

"As much as I can get - what's the budget for the role?"

"It depends, I'd need to know exactly what the role entails, location, who the client is and so forth. What's the budget for the role?"

"What kind of margin are you taking - what's the budget for the role?"

Note that there is a key phrase in each of those responses, which gets them to suggest a rate that you can then negotiate around

[SussexSeagull]

My current engagement is Open Contract based which avoids a lot of this tomfoolery.

[kingcook]

My current engagement is Open Contract based which avoids a lot of this tomfoolery.

What does that mean? And i mean the phrase "Open Contract", not tomfoolery

[SussexSeagull]

What does that mean? And i mean the phrase "Open Contract", not tomfoolery

As per normal agent bring candidate (i.e. me) to client. They are on a percentage of my daily rate so there is no point them trying to beat me down. We both then invoice the client separately.

[MaryPoppins]

Show me the roles on any job site at £1000+/day - they don't exist or if they do it's by some other more direct means.

Of course they exist. But these types of senior roles are generally recruited for in a different way than the standard 'shove it on JobServe' manner.