Reply to: Exposing recruitment agency tactics / tricks, part 1

[evilagent]

It does matter to me because I do not like to be deceived. I don't like an agent pretending to be on my side but is in fact pushing down my salary expectation for selfish reasons. Who was the agent to be pushing down what salary I'd want after telling me it was £45-50k? A casual chat with agent should not constitute accepting or rejecting a formal offer from end client.

Deception seems to be a two-way street.

You have conveniently overlooked your deception to the client, as you had to "get your story straight", and needed to be coached to say only positive things, and to have a "story" to explain why you were looking to switch from contracting to permie.

Nobody likes to be deceived.

As for the unoriginal interview and tests, companies like to present themselves as forward thinking, and having some nonsense metric for interviews allows them to tick that superficial box.

Interview responses have to be generic and non-committal, sadly.
These days, what with the potential for claims for unfairness or prejudice, companies need a vague and meaningless way to reject candidates. You've been rejected, they want nothing more to do with you. They are not going to leave themselves open to be sued by a dead horse.

As has already been said, permie roles attract a percentage of salary as commissions, so would want to get you the most.
If another candidate has accepted a lower salary, that person will always be a useful fallback candidate.
Ultimately, the clientco may prefer the lower salaried candidate.
Blaming the recruiter won't change this.

Using Occams Razor, that is, arriving at a conclusion using the least assumptions, such as deception, ulterior motives, cheating, etc;
maybe you simply were not the best candidate.

[NotAllThere]

It does matter to me because I do not like to be deceived. I don't like an agent pretending to be on my side but is in fact pushing down my salary expectation for selfish reasons. Who was the agent to be pushing down what salary I'd want after telling me it was £45-50k? A casual chat with agent should not constitute accepting or rejecting a formal offer from end client.

Duh! So push it up again. If you're not happy with the salary, don't take it. Tell them what you will take. I really don't see what the problem is. So you've been deceived a bit. Oh dear. How sad. Never mind. Grow up.

I was persuaded by an agent to go for a permie interview in 2000 (after the crash in contractor rates) for a role at "40K, maybe 45K". I'd already worked out I'd need 50K to be getting more than I could get, even then, as a contractor, but I went along as it would at least be a day out from the search. Shen the employer asked me how much I wanted, I said "50K". The HR lassy went a bit pale, but the manager didn't blink.

The manager resigned the following day, and recommended me as his replacement. The job I'd ostensibly been interviewed for was filled by someone else - at 40K. The final package offered to me was worth about 80K, so I accepted it.

[petergriffin]

Really you should be posting on www.permieuk.com

Shocking that that domain hasn't been taken yet!

[Andy Hallett]

For permanent appointments an agent usually gets paid an agreed percentage of your starting salary. It is in their interests to get you as much as possible.

It sounds like they have provided you an excellent service with their only mistake being to select you as a candidate.

Really you should be posting on www.permieuk.com

[DirtyDog]

It is a balance of value for money. I can charge more than some and still get contracts because I can show why I'm worth it.

I agree. My current client has on offshore shared service centre, an offshore (different country) technical team, and a very small onshore team, of which I am part.

I charge more than the offshore techies get paid, and more than the offshore SSC get paid because there is a clear proof of what they get when they pay me my rate.

The idea that you can't negotiate a decent rate is laughable.

[malvolio]

You mean your job consists of paying less to people thus making everyone poorer to earn your relative pittance of a salary?

You have no idea what I do (and I doubt you'd understand it anyway) or what I earn and you're out of your depth trying to argue an invalid point with people who know their business in some detail. Probably best you go find a new axe to grind.

[MyUserName]

They won't when some desperate guy is already lined up who'll work for less.

Depends how much you impress them. They could get a refugee from Somalia doing the job for nothing and living on the streets if cost is all they cared about.

It is a balance of value for money. I can charge more than some and still get contracts because I can show why I'm worth it.

If you are going to get upset about agents potentially lying to you then I am at a loss.

I call bulltulip on this thread.

[cojak]

But I do have other things to do now and so will have to stomp on the pup.

[northernladuk]

No, I'm amused. It's a bit like a chihuahua snapping at your ankles.

I had him more like a Weimaraner running headlong in to things without a clue what it was doing.

[cojak]

Do we assume this is Cojak's sockie as it hasn't either been banned or moved to general, or even better both.

No, I'm amused. It's a bit like a chihuahua snapping at your ankles.

[northernladuk]

They won't when some desperate guy is already lined up who'll work for less.

Do we assume this is Cojak's sockie as it hasn't either been banned or moved to general, or even better both.

[cojak]

well if you ask for peanuts they will give you some

You are a whipper snapper, aren't you?

[masonryan]

The exact same thing happened to me - I got the day rate I wanted.

well if you ask for peanuts they will give you some

[cojak]

They won't when some desperate guy is already lined up who'll work for less.

The exact same thing happened to me - I got the day rate I wanted.

[masonryan]

No, it involves saying I want more money and they agree to it. If you're just cannon fodder then they probably will walk away. If you're not, they won't.

They won't when some desperate guy is already lined up who'll work for less.