Reply to: Not on contract? How very dare you!

[Brussels Slumdog]

The bit that gets me most agitated is the "Why were you not working from July 2002 to August 2003" type questions, along with a new requirement that is even more annoying that some professional individual verifies the reason you give for this despicable crime. Seriously, what if any reason you would supply along the lines of "Not in Contract" would have any reasonable bearing on the process? mad:

I was studying French. The fact that I already spoke French before 2002 is not something that they can prove.

[Gym beast]

I don't believe all this crap I'm reading. My previous contract ended summer last year, and I took the rest of the year off before invoicing again in Jan. That's my business, LITERALLY.


I work when I want, put me feet up when I want, and it's no c$ck-sucker's business what I do when I'm not on contract.


In fact, I'm HOPING some blimp-pimp will ask...


"When did you leave XYZ?"


"That's on my cv"


"What have you been doing since then?"

"Wait a minute, got another call coming in, hold on..." (MUTE)


Goes back to watching CSI....

[Brian Potter]

They told me that it (one reason at least) was to ensure I was not covering up a role that ended up with being terminated early for (for example) misconduct. In which case I could see their point.

And what if the misconduct was just you resigning from your job? Those onboarding numbnuts rely 100% on verbal references because they are under huge pressure to complete the process in double quick time. Their staff are mostly off-shored and can just about string a sentence together hence they will probably annoy your reference with their pish poor spoken english and lack of telephone etiquette. The whole process costs around £200 so they are under immense pressure to complete in less than a day.

I often insist on an onboarding process for my plumber...hence why I have no plumber, no central heating and no hot water. But on a serious note, we contractors don't insist on on-boarding agencies nor, I assume, do any of us onboard our double glazer, plasterer, plumber, window cleaner, milkman etc?

All that need be done is a CRB or ECRB check and that's all. Why the frick these onboarding companies are involved I do not know, but I think there is a bung to some civil servant in the FSA (or FAC or FACK) who insisted on finance institutions performing this onboarding shat! Unfortunately, that shat has liquidised and is leaking into other industries.

[Wonko]

I was asked to provide proof that I was out of contract for a few months and I phoned the onboarding company to ask why as I regarded this as intrusive and unnecessary.

They told me that it (one reason at least) was to ensure I was not covering up a role that ended up with being terminated early for (for example) misconduct. In which case I could see their point.

[MicrosoftBob]

Well maybe. I seem to recall you were the ugly one in the corner providing instructions.

Ah you were the one asking where they were supposed to put their chutney spoon

[darmstadt]

Can you just summarise where you were working by year, rather than stating the month. Presumably you did something in 2002 and another thing in 2003.

My CV goes back that far too, but even with no real gaps they're just one liners and I've dropped the months for simplicity.

Thats exactly what I do. Contract A: 2010-2011, Contract B: 2011-2012, etc. even if they were only 6 months long. It tends to get a bit weird when you have 3 all at the same time but as others have said, you only get asked this type of crap by UK agents, over here they're not too fussed as they seem to understand contractors slightly better. It also only seems to be UK agents that ask for the bumpf which you guys seem to need to provide for contracts and references. I've only ever been asked once for a copy (one page scanned from my passport) and then that was by the German branch of a British agency and as for references, once again, its only the Euro branches of British agencies that ask for them and in slightly embarrassed way and get politely turned down and its never mentioned again. In fact, its only the Euro branches of British agencies that send me constant mails for contracts that are totally irrelevant to what I do. German agencies tend to call first and ascertain if I am both the right person and available and then when replying in the positive they send the job spec. through. Many of the agents, or account managers as they're called here also tend to be female and having met a few of them, well we won't go into that...but they tend to want to meet before the interview and quite often attend the interview with you (I had one where she started to discuss the agencies rates which told me exactly how much they were getting on top until I suggested that this is maybe not the place and time to discuss this information...)

[SaltyLevels]

Being a contractor who is project led, my cv goes back, IT contract related, 20 years and includes about 12 entries. When do you remove 'fill' from the earlier contracts, when you were less skilled, thus not very relevant to the jobs you're applying for now?

[Contractoid]

FTFY

Well maybe. I seem to recall you were the ugly one in the corner providing instructions.

[CheeseSlice]

The bit that gets me most agitated is the "Why were you not working from July 2002 to August 2003" type questions

Can you just summarise where you were working by year, rather than stating the month. Presumably you did something in 2002 and another thing in 2003.

My CV goes back that far too, but even with no real gaps they're just one liners and I've dropped the months for simplicity.

[MicrosoftBob]

Actually I was off to my favorite dogging holiday location, I offered to supply references and photographic evidence but curiously they declined the offer.

FTFY

[MicrosoftBob]

There are actually only two words in that sentence which really matter to me. Can you guess what they are?

None of them involve norks or naked birds, so your sentence does not compute

[nomadd]

Gap on your c.v.?

No problem.

I will personally vouch for any of you guys. *

* Please note that a non-refundable "administration fee" applies.

[doodab]

There are actually only two words in that sentence which really matter to me. Can you guess what they are?

I'm going with well and paid.

[norrahe]

ftfy

I'm in Euroland and I haven't experienced a lot of this cack.

Same here, agents expect you have have gaps it's the UK pimps who get nervous about it.

[Contractoid]

What were you doing from July 2002 to August 2003?

Answer honestly, your CUK badge depends on it.

Actually I was off to my favorite nudist colony holiday location, I offered to supply references and photographic evidence but curiously they declined the offer.