Reply to: A decent agent?

[DodgyAgent]

Fitting in

Dodgy, where do I fit in? I'm a feckless idiot with a crap rate.

Wage Slave, you have the right credentials to become an agent

[Rebecca Loos]

look around. Apply senselessly. That's what I do. Use jobserve and send your tailored CV to thousands of agents. It doesn't matter which one gets you the job as long as you are happy with the job spec, the client, the location and the rate.
Oh, and also with the way they allow you to pay yourself (that's a new one)

[WageSlave]

Dodgy, where do I fit in? I'm a feckless idiot with a crap rate.

[DodgyAgent]

Not so huge a brain

Just FYI, Dodgy Agent is lying.

The honest agents are the ones that just skim-read your CV and fax/email it on for 25K/year of your work.

The dishonest ones actually bribe the client to take whatever loser contractor will do the job for the 50K less and pocket 65K a year instead.

Looking for a good agent is like looking for a good politician, hens teeth, blue moons etc. (except that some hens may actually have teeth).

HugeBrain (good bit of irony) If you think agencies pick the cheapest and worst contractors, AND are willing/able to influence clients simply displays an astonishing arrogance and naivety on your part. Not only are you underestimating those that hire contractors but you are also presuming that the nature of your work is so down market that any twat can do your job.. You are an idiot.

Agencies prosper by having clients in their pocket.. certainly, but clients only remain in their pockets by virtue of the quality of contractors that they supply. That is not to say that all contractors need to be brilliant, it is to say that the agent needs to understand whether for example a client needs a rocket scientist or a bog standard desktop support monkey.

I dont know where you fit in, but the impression I have is that you are the type that an agent will supply at a high margin only to never do business with that same client again.

[rootsnall]

I think the 'don't trust agents' stance is good advice for any new to the game contractor. I'm not whingeing about it, it just makes sense. As you say yourself Dodgy the key to all the wrangling is holding back information ( "and how ruthlessly you exploit this information" - your words ! ) and the reason you do that is to try and secure a better deal for yourself at the expense of the contractor. If you blindly trust agents then 9 times of 10 you'd get "ruthlessly exploited" I'm afraid and thats why I don't except with the odd agent I've dealt with for years and even then I'll check the margins once I'm on the client site. You can still behave in a business like manner at the same time. I agree that a key skill for contracting is handling rejection, even more so for agents than contractors, stroppy agents always seem to disappear sooner rather than later !

[basshead]

Is that matt green as in the matt green who used to work for Syntegra? If not then hello anyway

[malvolio]

errm... No..

Dodgy is many bad things (including being an agent ) but I've never caught him out in a lie. And what he said is actually pretty well on the money from his side of the fence. It's all business, we're all here to make money. If you can't spot the bad guys (and it's really not that difficult and there's plenty of examples to work from), it's you who are in the wrong trade, not the agents.

[hugebrain]

Dodgy

Just FYI, Dodgy Agent is lying.

The honest agents are the ones that just skim-read your CV and fax/email it on for 25K/year of your work.

The dishonest ones actually bribe the client to take whatever loser contractor will do the job for the 50K less and pocket 65K a year instead.

Looking for a good agent is like looking for a good politician, hens teeth, blue moons etc. (except that some hens may actually have teeth).

[DodgyAgent]

Playing Agencies

Simply building a relationship with one agency will not get you the best contract on offer in a location that you like Invariably it will end with yourself and the agent being bored with each other. To use agencies to your best advantage you need to understand them. They are simple beasts, they go where the money is and they are lazy. Pander to these characteristics and you are on to a winnner.

First of all you must network with your colleagues (without being slimy about it- that is our job). You need to know who is hiring what, where and how much. Rather than send your CV out to every "honest John" make the agencies earn the right to put you forward. This is best achieved by getting colleagues and bosses to reccommend you and by finding out directly as much about the market as you can.

If you are recommended by another contractor, or even better a line manager, then agencies dont even need to bother to read your CV.. remember they are lazy.

If you have an opportunity to meet an agent then pick the tough ones, i.e the successful ones rather than the ones who are "nice". Make them think that you know a bit about the market, or that you have influence (not by overdoing it) whilst always holding something back from them.

I strongly suggest that you ignore the "I dont trust agencies" whingers because they are revealing more about themselves than they are about anything else. They have a chip on their shoulder and the last thing you want is to be influenced by these losers.

Information is king, and how ruthlessly you exploit this information is up to you.Like you agencies are business people. I suggest you conduct your relationships in a suitably businesslike fashion.

And one more thing.. learn to cope with rejection, most members of this site have failed to do so which is why they are here.

[rootsnall]

The only reason I don't have complete distrust of this lot is I once thought they'd pulled a fast one and it turned out they hadn't and I had to act a bit sheepish the next time I dealt with them. I suppose I do have an "ongoing business relationship" with these lot but I still go back to Rule 1 'DON'T TRUST AGENTS !'

[WageSlave]

Square One ! I think only SAP stuff.

Ah, then I take it all back

[rootsnall]

Square One ! I think only SAP stuff.

[WageSlave]

Not SQ Computer Personnel!? I'm going to sit in my chair like a big cat full of farts n' fish. Later I might slouch into Old Mrs Johnson's garden for a crap.

[rootsnall]

I have the 'SQ' ones on my preferred agent list, are you an SAP bod ?

[malvolio]

Whisper it quietly...

But google for one with 'SQ' in its name and ask for Paul... but only if you are good at what you do.