Is it feasible to find contracting roles without the use of an agent?

[rogerthedodger]

Companies use agencies for two reasons:
Simplicity of invoicing; it's easier to deal with two or three touchpoints for invoicing, hiring, firing, etc. rather than 200 contractors each on an individual basis
Simplicity of recruitment: saves on cv sifting - companies will ask for the three best cvs off each of the agencies on their PSL and then choose the candidates that they want to interview. Saves vast amounts of time going through every CV.

While that model isn't perfect, a multiple agency approach means that the client can get the best available candidate (rather than simply the one that offers best margin to the agent) and can have different agencies specialise in different areas (e.g. networking versus databases).

I think you're right in principle, but in talking with my own clients sometimes about their experiences, a lot of them complain that a lot of recruitment agencies send them numerous CVs that are quite unsuitable for the role they want to fill, and it causes a lot of annoyance and frustration. A lot of my peers in my own field talk with their own clients and get the same message. Although there are some good agencies, agencies on the whole do not have a good reputation from what I have seen.

[LondonManc]

I think you're right in principle, but in talking with my own clients sometimes about their experiences, a lot of them complain that a lot of recruitment agencies send them numerous CVs that are quite unsuitable for the role they want to fill, and it causes a lot of annoyance and frustration. A lot of my peers in my own field talk with their own clients and get the same message. Although there are some good agencies, agencies on the whole do not have a good reputation from what I have seen.

It beats sifting through 500 cvs by yourself, as well fighting off calls from agencies, chancers and all sorts of other people like consultancies who believe that they can offer a better solution. The agency route is still the best of a bad lot. The problems with the agency route are simple: imprecise requirements, inexperienced cv searches at the agency and BS merchant contractors claiming they can do something that they can't. I replaced what the hiring manager described as a "Google DBA"; he'd used me elsewhere as the data warehousing specialist so knew that while I wasn't an out-and-out DBA, I was far more up to the task than the clown who had bluffed his way through the interview.