Originally posted by peegee
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I stumbled across this forum doing some research for my work which is, shock horror, contract recruitment. That alone might get me banned?!
Thought I'd share my view on this (probably age old) question though. The agency is probably, but not definitely, taking you for a ride. I have worked with recruiters who will agree a rate with candidate and client, then knock the candidate down a few quid telling them that the client won't pay what they're asking. Even more cheekily some of them will, at the same time, tell the client that the candidate wants more and get them to up their rate. Result, the agency increases their slice both ways. Personally I would never do this, firstly because it's blatant deception and not a nice thing to do; secondly because it's not a foundation for long term business (if the client and candidate become friendly and start talking about these things then neither of them are going to be happy).
That said, there are certainly circumstances where the agency could be telling the truth. I had a situation where a contractor was joining a project to work alongside people of similar skills and experience, all on the same daily rate, but she wanted £50pd more. The client, with whom I had a pre-agreed, transparent i.e. crap margin, understandably refused and I had to explain this to the contractor. She initially made the assumption that I was taking her for a ride. Eventually she accepted what I was telling her; whether because she decided I was for real or because she just needed the work, I don't know.
My advice would be to go on your gut instinct. If the guy sounds full of it then he probably is. But I've had a successful career in recruitment by working on long-term relationships, gaining people's trust and doing business properly rather than going for the fast buck, and there are plenty of like-minded recruiters out there.
A final word - all sorts of people work for any one agency. Brilliant, incompetent, trustworthy, deceitful; there is no point tarring everyone at one agency with the same brush. The guy or gal who places you on a contract is the one earning commission as a result, so judge him or her as an individual.
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