BarCap? Any info / feedback.

[yasockie]

I didn't last there very long by my own choosing - I left just before 5 to avoid the public transport hell - had a few strange looks but no one's said anything.
In the end I left as I didn't have anything useful to and found a much better contract (in terms of quality of life/fulfillment, making a change in the world etc, not money -wise)
The permies work very hard pretending to work, attending meetings etc -I didn't attend many of those meetings so had no idea if any of them were useful - the few ones I did were a complete waste of time - 20+ stakeholders talking about mostly unrelated stuff, everyone beating their own drum, doing an internal sales pitch... not that different to any other big corp I've worked for tbh

[psychocandy]

Got a big thing about long hours. In the past, I have walked out of an interview where client has said we expect a minimum of 10 hours work a day. yeh crack on then.

Also, £500 a day where you there for 10 hours is £50 an hour. Exactly same as sensible gig at £400/day.

Also, if you take a gig which involves a fair amount of travel, you pretty much want to be working a standard day most of the time or the whole thing is going to fall to pieces. Hour or so each way plus 10 hours work can make for 14-15 hour days which IMHO are undoable on a regular basis. Perhaps thats why some clients are keen on local candidates - so they can screw you and you won't moan about missing your train!

And I hate places that look at you if you leave before 5. You might have been there since 7-30 but some bellend will still kick off if you leave before 5 (when hes strolled in at 9-30). Always the same - those who come in late and stay late look good.

[BoredBloke]

Got a big thing about long hours. In the past, I have walked out of an interview where client has said we expect a minimum of 10 hours work a day. yeh crack on then.

Also, £500 a day where you there for 10 hours is £50 an hour. Exactly same as sensible gig at £400/day.

Also, if you take a gig which involves a fair amount of travel, you pretty much want to be working a standard day most of the time or the whole thing is going to fall to pieces. Hour or so each way plus 10 hours work can make for 14-15 hour days which IMHO are undoable on a regular basis. Perhaps thats why some clients are keen on local candidates - so they can screw you and you won't moan about missing your train!

And I hate places that look at you if you leave before 5. You might have been there since 7-30 but some bellend will still kick off if you leave before 5 (when hes strolled in at 9-30). Always the same - those who come in late and stay late look good.

I did 2 back to back stints there for completely different groups. Neither had a problem with my time keeping. I told them that due to travel commitments I might be a little late on Monday mornings and would need to leave early on Friday (4). The rest of the week I just did 8/9 to 5/6 So long as the work was done they didn't care.

The end of my contract wasn't great when I was escorted off site because they decided to cull a load of contractors. In 20 odd years of contracting I've not had that before - no chance to say my goodbyes and handover the stuff I was in the middle of etc. Just given a box with my belongings in and told to bugger off! They paid my notice out, unfortunately that was only 2 weeks. They also have a fondness for rate cuts. Also in mid nov we were all told that we had to take something like 20 working days out of our contracts before the year end. So 4 weeks to be taken off in the last 6 or 7 and these didn't include new years day! Obviously that didn't effect me as I was removed from site before it kicked in.

[Dallas]

[QUOTE=ronanm;1874558]Co (I was in OPS). QUOTE]

On the 'Disco Floor'? I think it was the 10th floor, North Collonade, I'd have loved to have been up there?

Every Friday they used to turn up dressed for clubbing and our Finance guys used to come up and perve in a finance-geeky-trpuser-rubby way

[GillsMan]

I worked in 10SC for Barclays and it was grand. I worked from home between 2-4 days a week. I went in only once in my final two months. I produced work a lot quicker than they could and everyone loved me for it. Even got a small extension at the end.

Right from the off I was treated as a proper contractor. Permits were fine, it was the other contractors I had issues with. They were in 5 days a week and don't think they were too impressed with me waltzing in and out as I please.

My experience was that as I made clear from the outset that I am operating a proper business, I was treated accordingly.

[psychocandy]

It seems they've got a bit of bad rep for various things. Anyone ever worked in Cardiff?

One thing did strike me as weird. Agency were forcing the point that any contract would have zero notice from their end, but no notice allowed from me for 9 month contract.

Good for IR35 but bit worrying that they feel the need to do this. Or is this one of the risks with them? And I see they like cutting rates...

Rate for this is pretty good. Or am I letting myself in for massive rate cut after a little while and/or binned with no notice at random?

[eek]

It seems they've got a bit of bad rep for various things. Anyone ever worked in Cardiff?

One thing did strike me as weird. Agency were forcing the point that any contract would have zero notice from their end, but no notice allowed from me for 9 month contract.

Good for IR35 but bit worrying that they feel the need to do this. Or is this one of the risks with them? And I see they like cutting rates...

Rate for this is pretty good. Or am I letting myself in for massive rate cut after a little while and/or binned with no notice at random?

The no notice on the contractor's side was due to their rates being poor and people using them as a stop gap after the first set of rate cuts.

Personally I would never work there due to their reputation

[psychocandy]

The no notice at the contractor end was due to their rates being poor and people using them as a stop gap after the first set of rate cuts.

Personally I would never work there due to their reputation

Ah. So is this a nationwide policy for them at the mo?

Thing is the rate is far from poor. But then again, it wont be if they play the rate cut trick after one month and knock 25% off.

Yeh they have a bad rep it seems.

[eek]

Ah. So is this a nationwide policy for them at the mo?

Thing is the rate is far from poor. But then again, it wont be if they play the rate cut trick after one month and knock 25% off.

Yeh they have a bad rep it seems.

You have to remember that they may not try and cut rates. But they have been known to do it, they have been seen to do it more than once, and they seem to do it as soon as the market takes the slightest turn for the worse.

[psychocandy]

You have to remember that they may not try and cut rates. But they have been known to do it, they have been seen to do it more than once, and they seem to do it as soon as the market takes the slightest turn for the worse.

LOL. But need to bear this in mind.

Hopefully, market is on the upturn!

Thats a bit off though if thats how they play it. i.e. wait for market downturn so theres less of an opportunity to leave and then kick the contractor. Sounds like someone at BC has thought of this as an ideal way to cut costs....