Reply to: Agencies and the market

[expat]

The skills that this country has are I am afraid a little bit too expensive despite the downturn in the economy. Now if UK contractors were to learn German then they can go into the German speakers only section of the market, which will pay really well.

Dass weiss ich schon, Dodgy. I always do my phone interviews with German clients in German, at my request. That way they know that I mean it when I say that I can speak it.

[DodgyAgent]

Not for you maybe. I'm more concerned that this country can't make use of the rather good skills that it has. .

The skills that this country has are I am afraid a little bit too expensive despite the downturn in the economy. Now if UK contractors were to learn German then they can go into the German speakers only section of the market, which will pay really well.

[expat]

Its not so much the British airports as Eastern European/Turkish airports.

Not for you maybe. I'm more concerned that this country can't make use of the rather good skills that it has. That's an economy on the way down.

[DodgyAgent]

Already here. Go to any British airport on Monday morning and you'll see queues of Britain's highly-skilled IT workforce going off to work - in real economies.

You won't see the equivalent in the departure halls of the airports in the countries that they are flying to.

Its not so much the British airports as Eastern European/Turkish airports. I have just placed a Korean and an Iranian into Germany at 30% margins...

Mind you I am lending them some money for flights

[expat]

I can't wait for the modern version of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet....

Already here. Go to any British airport on Monday morning and you'll see queues of Britain's highly-skilled IT workforce going off to work - in real economies.

You won't see the equivalent in the departure halls of the airports in the countries that they are flying to.

[basshead]

I expire at the end of this month as well.

My condolences

[TheBigYinJames]

We have about 200 contractors and I am concentrating heavily on Germany at the moment as there is a real shortage of people out there.

I can't wait for the modern version of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, where three Geordie IT consultants head out to Dusseldorf to work on an IT project, and get up to all sorts of laddish capers, such as avoiding capital gains, ordering room service from an empty room of the Hilton, and trying to claim prossies as tax deductable.

Static rates would do me fine, as long as the volume is still there.

[DodgyAgent]

are rates coming down genuinely is the question then ?

They are not so much coming down as becoming static. Contractors are reluctant to push for increases and more of them are extending their contracts. There is less quibbling about rates. We have about 200 contractors and I am concentrating heavily on Germany at the moment as there is a real shortage of people out there.

[Jaws]

Haven't applied to many roles yet but from the responses I got, no-one used the credit crunch excuse as a means of getting my rate down (although inevitably they all tried to get me to lower it). Didn't even hear "the market is saturated with .net developers".

[TheBigYinJames]

are IT rates genuinely coming down ?

I hope not, I'm out on the steet in 3 weeks time.

[hgllgh]

ok ... ok ... i retracted the statement I made to the honourable gentleman some time ago


are IT rates genuinely coming down ?

[TheBigYinJames]

sigh .... i will search river deep and mountain high to go direct for my next contract ... if clients want to cut costs why don't they just cut the dodgyagents of this world out of the equation?

Because agencies provide so much value-add

- they check candidate previous work references thoroughly, and don't just say "yeh he's ok"

- they do criminal records and immigration searches on them, and don't just say "yeh he's ok"

- they use their network of industry contacts to headhunt the best candidates, and they don't just trawl jobserve/jobsite boards for keyword matches

- they are specialists in their field, and don't just end up asking the candidates "yes I know it says on your CV you write HTML, but do you have any web experience?" (or my personal favourite: "Oh you have 4 years C# experience, but I need to know if you have any exposure to dotNet?")

- they look after the candidates, and take care of relaying your interview feedback to them, and don't just forget they even exist once a candidate's been chosen

It's obvious why companies use them.

[hgllgh]

Absolutely we would'nt exploit the situation like that. Infact I am voluntarily dropping my , sorry margins in order to help my contractors to be as competitive as possible

It is great because they are all (bending over) at extension time

are rates coming down genuinely is the question then ?

[DimPrawn]

hurry up, things are pretty good at the moment, compared to what they will be in 6 months time.

WHS. If you are nearing the end of a contract, I'd secure the next one pretty sharpish.

[BlasterBates]

hurry up, things are pretty good at the moment, compared to what they will be in 6 months time.