Agents - References: again

[Jeebo72]

Huxley?

I got one sent through in German yesterday which I speak about as much of as an Allo Allo Nazi.

Useless flipers.

Ha, I got one in Flemish ... i think. The only words I understood were VBA and Developer...

[minestrone]

One UK agency constantly send me details of contracts which are totally unsuitable and I have now replied many times to that effect. Sometimes though the occasional one slips through and I am interested and after informing them so, you never hear from them again.

Huxley?

I got one sent through in German yesterday which I speak about as much of as an Allo Allo Nazi.

Useless feckers.

[darmstadt]

I try not to deal with certain agencies, particularly UK ones due to a number of factors, i.e.

- the blatant fishing
- the lack of communication
- and so on

Anyway a couple of decent looking and very interesting projects were sent to me which I was, and still am interested in. However, once again I feel let down by certain aspects of dealing with the agents.

Case no.1

- I contact agent to say that I am very interested in the project
- agent calls me to say that he's looked at my skill set and yes, I do have everything but it doesn't state that I have performed the tasks required and could we do a small re-write
- agent then proceeds to scan my CV and find that it in fact states these tasks exactly. While reading through the CV the agent states that the scanner they use only searches keywords which means the agent has not actually read the CV until contacting me
- agent says CV is fine and gives me the client and contract details and will send a mail with this information in
- receive mail which asks me to confirm that I will be exclusively represented by them which is fine by me
- at bottom of mail is some text regarding the fact that the client requires 1-2 references and that they promise to not contact them without asking me first and that they will not attempt to use them for marketing
- reply that it is probably not possible that I can provide references due to agreements signed in last 2 contracts
- agent replies that he cannot forward on my CV to client without references
- I will now send him references of companies that I worked with in USA and Israel

Case no.2

- starts pretty similar to above and then we get to the phone call
- agent gives me the spiel about them and then their client and their requirements
- I start to discuss what I do in that particular area
- agent cuts in to tell me that he does nto know these products and is in fact only responsible for basically getting people's bottoms on benches
- therefore if I ever do get to talk to their client I will be going in blind whereas I though an agents job was to prepare the candidate beforehand

One UK agency constantly send me details of contracts which are totally unsuitable and I have now replied many times to that effect. Sometimes though the occasional one slips through and I am interested and after informing them so, you never hear from them again.