ANyone contracted with Tech Mahindra and/or Talk Talk

[OwlHoot]

Had a call from a small Indian agency (well a British name but both people I spoke to there were Indians) saying they'd like to put me forward for a contract with Tech Mahindra in their Manchester office.

A quick check disclosed that Tech Mahindra don't have a Manchester office, and the agency then explained that they, through Tech Mahindra it appears, are providing contractors for Talk Talk.

All sounds slightly suss, or unusual at any rate, and the day rate is not brilliant, and with that elaborate "chain of command" the invoice payments would probably be fraught with delays. So I doubt if I'd accept a contract with them. But I'm curious if anyone else reading this has had dealings with Tech Mahindra and/or Talk Talk and can comment.

[fullyautomatix]

There cannot be a happy ending to this story. Usually these positions are filled by a ICT visa chap who then leaves after a year to be replaced by another and so on. If they are looking for a local British consultant, there will be some dodgy reason behind it.

[Mordac]

Had a call from a small Indian agency (well a British name but both people I spoke to there were Indians) saying they'd like to put me forward for a contract with Tech Mahindra in their Manchester office.

A quick check disclosed that Tech Mahindra don't have a Manchester office, and the agency then explained that they, through Tech Mahindra it appears, are providing contractors for Talk Talk.

All sounds slightly suss, or unusual at any rate, and the day rate is not brilliant, and with that elaborate "chain of command" the invoice payments would probably be fraught with delays. So I doubt if I'd accept a contract with them. But I'm curious if anyone else reading this has had dealings with Tech Mahindra and/or Talk Talk and can comment.

That explains the massive data breach they suffered a couple of years ago.
TalkTalk fined £400,000 for theft of customer details - BBC News

[OwlHoot]

There cannot be a happy ending to this story. Usually these positions are filled by a ICT visa chap who then leaves after a year to be replaced by another and so on. If they are looking for a local British consultant, there will be some dodgy reason behind it.

That was very much my supposition/suspicion. But I wondered what the dodgy reason could be.

I assumed it might be to do some token interviews with indigenous Brits, conclude that unaccountably none are suitable, which then gives them a supposedly valid excuse to ship in more ICT visa guys for the work.

[fullyautomatix]

That was very much my supposition/suspicion. But I wondered what the dodgy reason could be.

I assumed it might be to do some token interviews with indigenous Brits, conclude that unaccountably none are suitable, which then gives them a supposedly valid excuse to ship in more ICT visa guys for the work.

These days they are also indulging in another scam. They harvest out the CV's from a genuine consultant and then modify their ICT visa chaps CV to match it word by word to make it look genuine. You will submit your CV and not hear anything anymore. I have even found my linkedin profile copied word by word.

[stek]

Can’t contract on an ICT visa, how many times....

[Mordac]

Can’t contract on an ICT visa, how many times....

They'll be permies for Tech Mahindra, and contractors as far as Talk Talk are concerned.

[stek]

They'll be permies for Tech Mahindra, and contractors as far as Talk Talk are concerned.

My argument still stands, they aren’t contractors like us nor can they ever be.

They will be employees of a consultancy, different animals.

[OwlHoot]

My argument still stands, they aren’t contractors like us nor can they ever be.

They will be employees of a consultancy, different animals.

Hmm, so if I was desperate enough to accept a contract offer with Tech Mahindra (which I'm not, thank God, as my current contract still has months to run, with every chance of renewal) I'd be at the very least fair and square inside IR35.

It's a shame in a way though, as the work on this project looks quite interesting and would revitalize one or two rusty skills on my CV.

[Lance]

I recently worked with TCS (Tata). Their network architect from the TCS Centre Of Excellence was very good.
He had previously worked for Tech Mahindra in the UK. He said TCS were far better (not much of a recommendation really).

Tech Mahindra are partnered with BT so it does seem odd that they'd be looking for a native as BT would normally be used to provide locals.

Swerve it (I think you already reached that conclusion).