Rates of contracts with different agents.

[mcquiggd]

Intersting thread in another forum here... Dodgy Agency Practices

Should be included in the First Timers section I think.

[BlasterBates]

..so how's the market in dot Net mcguigged, I thought you'd been offered a job in Luxembourg

[mcquiggd]

Turned it down... Ive been offered a monday start in exotic Motherwell... the Luxembourg role was permie... dont want to be away from a lady friend that long, so hung in there for a contract I can commute to. Brussels was one option for a while but after 'positive feedback', I heard nothing official for 10 days, so I gave up on that. I have 4 more interviews this week, so I have to give a decision to the NHS pretty quick - I let the agent know I had comitted to other interviews and he seems ok with it.

[Not So Wise]

This is an example of the many things that agents do for which they do not get paid.

Considering how much of contractors time agents waste on non existing jobs i would say one contractor wasteing agents time like this is like a drop of water, in all the oceans and seas of the world combined.

end client has withdrawn the contract

With at least one of the contracts seems you have possible reason for rate difference. Client put position on market decided they were offering to much, withdrew it and then put it out again at less OR
Manager put it out, realised he could offer less, went to a different agent and cut a deal with them to get a percentage in his pocket as kickbacks from them while charing the company full wack

Then again could be just agents being your normal typical greedy sods

[Not So Wise]

Is this reference thing that common?

It's common with the "bigger boys", along with a dozen other underhanded practices (well other contractors tell me it is still common with them, not submitted my cv to any of them in years)

Used to be more common with small to mid sized agencys around 2000 but most have stoped now as contractors no longer "play ball" that much as they have been burned so much

[mcquiggd]

It tends to be only people new to contracting that fall for it. After 14+ years in the industry im suprised they even try with me. I normally just laugh a little and say 'I can't divulge who ive had interviews with recently, and id offer you the same courtesy when speaking to other agencies', and 'I will only supply contact details for references when I have a attended an interview / spoken to the client'...

If they dont put you forward its a scam, and the job never existed. No client is going to ASK an agent to do that for every candidate. Effing ridiculous.

If you want to test an agency, just set up a doman for a couple of quid and give them an email address at that domain... youll soon see the spam flooding in. Some managers ive worked with had hotmail accounts they used to filter agency spam.

[Joe Black]

Brussels was one option for a while but after 'positive feedback', I heard nothing official for 10 days, so I gave up on that.

Things sometimes move a little slower here mcquiggd, so you might have still had a result...then you could have joined all us merry englishmen, first round on AJP of course....

[mcquiggd]

Cheers for that JB - I have no experience of the Brussels job market so I applied my 'UK' mindset to it - after 10 days you just write it off... the same agent had put me forward for a local-ish contract, for which ive received a written offer in the meantime. Im still interested in Brussels, Amsterdam etc but im torn between several considerations.... tomorrow I have a technical test for London, on wednesday a face to face in Edinburgh, a face to face in Leeds (but working from home 3-4 day a week... allegedly)... and others locally as well on thursday / friday. Plus a 12 monther in London.

Im actually thinking about toning down my CV, as everyone wants me to be a team leader, or dev manager... ive done that before and its not my scene.... technical architect is what id like to be.


P.S The phrase was 'your application is on hold'... although the scheduled telephone interview was for 30 minutes but lasted 90... spent a lot of time discussing the technical side and i made alternative suggestions.....
free cosultancy I guess

[boredsenseless]

Im actually thinking about toning down my CV, as everyone wants me to be a team leader, or dev manager... ive done that before and its not my scene.... technical architect is what id like to be.

Strange comment, in all the areas of IT I've ever worked in TA is much more senior than Team Leader or Dev Mgr, and to get a TA gig you'd need to prove you can do the others standing on your head.

[mcquiggd]

Not a strange comment... in the company I worked for, the Technical Architect reported to me, the Dev Manager.... I reported to the IT Director who was on the Board... I had 7 people reporting to me (small company) plus a 'tester' and secretary, who kept meeting minutes in colour then printed them in black and white, so nobody knew what the hell was going on.... she was 'entertaining' the IT Director so nobody could criticise her.