Reply to: Contract Spy

[Lance]

we go and look at each original 'job' and ascertain if we know any humans there. We write to them.

Do you check the dates though?

[Andyat6prog]

We do use contract spy but only via their twitter feed.

Confirming not to touch with a bargepole. I made the error of subscribing, to access a particular job i wanted to apply for. Turns out the one link was linking to a job ad that was already closed (when it appeared on contractspy as new).
when i decided to cancel my membership same day, the response was that i wouldn't get a refund because i wasn't a consumer protected by UK consumer rights, but assumed to be a company by default. I don't even know whether that's legal, given i (and many others) are NOT companies but natural persons, and therefore, consumers.

we go and look at each original 'job' and ascertain if we know any humans there. We write to them.

[laurenceb]

subscription cost and quality of service

Wouldn't touch them with a bargepole.

There is a site called contractonlyjobs which doesn't deal with direct gigs but that's a pile of rubbish as well. There is a button to filter contract jobs in the search... Wtf??

Anything scraped can't be worth it. If you are looking you should be on the same places they scrape from so should be able to spot them.

It would be worth finding out who the company is and check out their filing history.

Confirming not to touch with a bargepole. I made the error of subscribing, to access a particular job i wanted to apply for. Turns out the one link was linking to a job ad that was already closed (when it appeared on contractspy as new).
when i decided to cancel my membership same day, the response was that i wouldn't get a refund because i wasn't a consumer protected by UK consumer rights, but assumed to be a company by default. I don't even know whether that's legal, given i (and many others) are NOT companies but natural persons, and therefore, consumers.

[ContractorHardman]

Awards are very corrupt...

"You might be shortlisted for the award... would you like to buy a table for 10 at our event for £3000?"

[BR14]

Nothing about best thread or my forum advisor of the year award. They've been consumed by corporate greed and thrown us to the dogs.

SNAFU then?

oh, well

[northernladuk]

Nothing about best thread or my forum advisor of the year award. They've been consumed by corporate greed and thrown us to the dogs.

[BR14]

What award have they won? They are shortlisted for the CUK awards in Nov but don't have a scoobies.

CUK awards?

helloooooooooooooo

[hairymouse]

What award have they won? They are shortlisted for the CUK awards in Nov but don't have a scoobies.

You are probably correct. I'll take your word for it and edit my post.

[northernladuk]

What award have they won? They are shortlisted for the CUK awards in Nov but don't have a scoobies.

[hairymouse]

So then presumably they get CV's in, separate the wheat from the chaff, then approach the company and try to sell the candidate in for a finders fee on successful interview?

What a coincidence, I just signed up the other day AFTER reading that they were shortlisted for an award and BEFORE reading this thread. As far as I can tell, they don't do what the poster above said, I think it's just links to contracting ads they have scraped. Some of the links go straight to the client company recruitment page, others go to a link on a jobsite. So far, it seems that the only contracts they link to on a jobsite are ones that have been posted directly by the client co. Contractspy isn't collecting CVs as far as I can tell. They seem to just make money of subscriptions.

So far, I'm on the fence about whether or not to cancel the subscription after one month. It has certainly provided me with some contract possibilities that I wouldn't have otherwise found because they were on some random client recruitment page. And if one of those came through and we could cut the pimp out of the picture then we all win. On the other hand, the links are for all over the country and all kinds of contracts, so it does take some scrolling through stuff that's not useful to me.

It's only day 3 so I'll see how it goes in the next few weeks.

[hgllgh]

I signed up to their 'daily digest' and they do seem to have quite a lot of contract job posts, but are from all over the UK, and looks like scraped job posts:-

https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/job-list...72&srs=EI_JOBS

Software Developer at Liquidnet, London, GBPContract Rate | Contract Spy

So then presumably they get CV's in, separate the wheat from the chaff, then approach the company and try to sell the candidate in for a finders fee on successful interview?

[hgllgh]

They are up for an award at the contractor awards next month under best contractor innovation. Bearing in mind scraping is not new and they've been going since 2016 they don't have a snowballs chance.

I guess if they were even mildly successful in the past three years they would be a known quantity on here so I think I will save time looking into them.

There are project bidding sites like Talmix that look a bit more promising. They have a number of projects currently but not loads. Quite a lot of them offsite/remote which is good for wfh. I made a speculative bid for one, but in general not convinced Talmix is worth any time or effort as a contractor either.

[jmo21]

£250 a year!!!

[northernladuk]

They are up for an award at the contractor awards next month under best contractor innovation. Bearing in mind scraping is not new and they've been going since 2016 they don't have a snowballs chance.

[northernladuk]

Wouldn't touch them with a bargepole.

There is a site called contractonlyjobs which doesn't deal with direct gigs but that's a pile of rubbish as well. There is a button to filter contract jobs in the search... Wtf??

Anything scraped can't be worth it. If you are looking you should be on the same places they scrape from so should be able to spot them.

It would be worth finding out who the company is and check out their filing history.