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Free consultancy?
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Originally posted by Stevie Wonder Boy View PostAt the risk of moving the thread onto a different subject - There be dragons here as well, it is common practice for some clients to pose a problem that they need solving and use you the candidate for free consultancy with no intention of offering a role.
I don´t do free consultancy. And neither should any contractor. -
Originally posted by Stevie Wonder Boy View PostAt the risk of moving the thread onto a different subject - There be dragons here as well, it is common practice for some clients to pose a problem that they need solving and use you the candidate for free consultancy with no intention of offering a role.
I have a few times when interviewing asked the candidate how they'd solve some current, pressing problems. But never set up an interview for the sole purpose of getting "free consultancy". TANSTAAFLDown with racism. Long live miscegenation!Comment
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Originally posted by NotAllThere View PostA common myth I think. The cost to the client in terms of time and effort of arranging a fake interview are almost certainly not worth the effort - especially as they've no guarantee that the candidate is of sufficient calibre to solve the problem.
I have a few times when interviewing asked the candidate how they'd solve some current, pressing problems. But never set up an interview for the sole purpose of getting "free consultancy". TANSTAAFL
When an SME started asking me to sketch on a whiteboard how I would redistribute specific routes from their own AS into an OSPF IPSec encrypted GRE mish mash, this was way outside of a standard interview question.
This was during the crazy time 1999ish where an IE would cost £1.2K a day.Comment
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Well it might look like free consulting but it might equally be a deal breaker for a good contract.
When does an interview become free consulting? | mathbabe
Agree with NotAllThere, more of a myth than reality.I'm alright JackComment
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Not so much in the software dev world of contracting, but definately happens with complex infrastructure, data centre, big data, BI world.
Clients have very difficult technical problems and no in house guru that can tackle it, they will have a day long "interview" with "homework" to get a handle on best practices and a way forward.Comment
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For example you're in an interview for a contract worth 1k per day, and someone asks you to sketch a solution on the white board that will take you 5-10 minutes.
How do you know that this is free consultancy or it's a genuine challenging question because the company is prepared to pay 1K per day for your services ?
Are you really better off walking out without answering the question ?Last edited by BlasterBates; 28 December 2015, 12:44.I'm alright JackComment
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Originally posted by BlasterBates View PostFor example you're in an interview for a contract worth 1k per day, and someone asks you to sketch a solution on the white board that will take you 5-10 minutes.
How do you know that this is free consultancy or it's a genuine challenging question because the company is prepared to pay 1K per day for your services ?
Are you really better off walking out without answering the question ?
On that occasion yes I was. No one had hiring authority (days before Linked In to check) in that meeting, and the role was eventually given to Cisco Professional Services who outsourced it to me.Comment
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