Contracting As A Consultancy PM Associate

[Taita]

I have seen quite a few leads over the past couple of weeks whereby Consultancy firms are offering to take on PM contractors on an Associate basis, who are then placed at end client organisations.

Has anyone undertaken an Associate contract PM role in this way and any experiences good or bad ?

For me, as the contractor, I am only concerned with the Consultancy's contract (with my Co) passing the review. How they represent me to their client is less relevant than my contract T&C and my actual working practices.

[vwdan]

This is almost exactly how I work at the minute - I love it. They leave me to my own devices for the most part and I just send them an invoice and a timesheet and do the rest direct with the end customer. For me, it got me onto a great project that I would never have landed without them so even if it ends after this it will have been worth it.

The people paying my lot always know I'm a contractor, but they themselves are often Systems Integrators who then want me to pretend to work for them, which gets confusing and is a total waste of space given LinkedIn etc.

[TykeMerc]

From what I've seen a fair few of these "Associate" roles are fixed term, in fact I had a call from one of them this morning offering a FTC.

Since FTC is basically permy without the benefits and none of the real plusses of being a contractor I'm never interested.

As mentioned it's just a body shop operation in the long run where they're filling in gaps in skills or numbers, nothing odd or special.

[TheFaQQer]

Won't that be just viewed as Managed Services by HMRC?

No.

As OS says, it's not any different than a standard contract with a consultancy. Apart from having to pretend that you work for them rather than working for yourself - so be more aware of potential IR35 issues around direction and control.

I know people that do it for some consultancies and do quite well from it. They also have a tendency to bring in the same people because they "know and trust them to do the job right". I remember one PM who used to have a monthly meeting with an agent which we used to refer to as "brown envelope Friday" because he'd be getting his kick-back for bringing in his usual batch of incompetents.

[Batcher]

I have seen quite a few leads over the past couple of weeks whereby Consultancy firms are offering to take on PM contractors on an Associate basis, who are then placed at end client organisations.

Has anyone undertaken an Associate contract PM role in this way and any experiences good or bad ?

Won't that be just viewed as Managed Services by HMRC?

[oracleslave]

No different to being a standard contractor to a consultancy in my experience. Consultancies are selling an illusion to the customer whereby they want to give off the impression of having access to specialist skills in the market and of having a network of these at their disposal when the reality is they have more than likely sold something to a customer that they just don't have the skills or capacity to deliver within existing permie teams. It's a thinly disguised attempt at trying not to come across to the end client as a body shop.


The only negative experience I can think of based on my experience is that like many consultancy gigs - you will potentially be encouraged to look/think/act/conform to all the norms that the consultancies permies do to try and be passed off as part of the team. Given you'll be in a PM role - the consultancy will be desperate to ensure you are a team player as you could make costly political / financial screw ups that could cost them a client. They will possibly therefore be at pains to ascertain from you that you are a team player and do their best to ensure that you act in their best interests at all times. The good side is, if you do become a trusted associate there is the potential for perpetual gigs whenever they win work and who knows, maybe you will be able to bring in some mates to cement the "associate" relationship.

[kaiser78]

I have seen quite a few leads over the past couple of weeks whereby Consultancy firms are offering to take on PM contractors on an Associate basis, who are then placed at end client organisations.

Has anyone undertaken an Associate contract PM role in this way and any experiences good or bad ?