Computer People?!?!

[snaw]

Dum, de de dum, de de dum, de de dum, dum dum da daaaaa ....

What a complete and utter bunch of brokeback mountaineers, they have gone straight to the top of my "agencies to steer well clear of" list.

Finished a contract week before last, taking a few weeks out to prepare for the CCIE lab I got scheduled start of May and just started putting my CV out. Getting plenty of phone calls, at decent rates ... then there are Computer People ...

So far I've had about 6 different phone calls from their agents all over the country offering me jobs in God knows what kind of forsaken hell holes, depite being very clear to them that I'm looking in London only. One lady even told me that I couldn't be choosy this time of year when I said I wasn't interested in working in Leeds - this despite me getting more interest than a good looking hooker overlooking a prime window in Amsterdam atm.

The one guy from London who has contacted me rattled off four different Banks he was going to arrange interviews for me with, so me being nice said fine you can represent me and duly turned down another agent later who had a confirmed interview with one of them since I don't like crossing my wires - this was last Thursday and I still haven't heard back from him since first contact.

Kn0bs of the first order.

/rant over

Oh, did I mention they also insist on IR35 contracts only it appears ...

[hyperD]

Oh, did I mention they also insist on IR35 contracts only it appears ...

Good grief, when I last used agencies, one of the sweetners was IR35 friendly contracts - what are they saying now snaw?

[snaw]

Can't remember exact phrase used but basically they told me that two of the jobs would fall within IR35 at the client insistence (No substition clause etc) - sounded kind of fishy to me so I told em no interest.

Never had another agency insist on that with me before.

[BlasterBates]

you know the market is better than it was but it isn't fantastic, doesn't surprise me if you don't hear anything back. I looked a bit back, initially great kind of response but everything gets delayed and you do get the impression that clients are looking but they're not particularly urgent, you know "if we can't find someone we'll muddle through" attitude, rather than "sh*t we really need someone or will fall flat on our faces".

[Gold Dalek]

Can't remember exact phrase used but basically they told me that two of the jobs would fall within IR35 at the client insistence (No substition clause etc) - sounded kind of fishy to me so I told em no interest.

Never had another agency insist on that with me before.

I've noticed that agencies in general are coming up with pretty onerous conditions...Spring want to do credit & criminal record checks on you as an individual... told 'em to f off as the contract is with my company.
It wasn't so long ago that I sat down with an agencies secretary and effectively & retrospectively re-drew the contract to ensure it was outside IR35

[hyperD]

fall within IR35 at the client insistence (No substition clause etc) - sounded kind of fishy to me so I told em no interest.

It's not the remit of the client to dictate whether the contract falls in IR35 or not - sounds like agent bollocks - so your instincts were right.

[Fleetwood]

I sat down with an agencies secretary

agency's

[Gold Dalek]

agency's

feck is it pick on Gold Dalek day or something???

picky but correct....

[malvolio]

CP approaches? Ignore and file in the round bin. Even if they get you a decent role the contract will be total rubbish and they'll screw you over margin, expenses and IR35. As for Leeds, who wants to be associated with the NHS fiasco anyway...?

[Gold Dalek]

She might have been the secretary to more than one agency, so agencies' might also be correct.

ZG in "Grocer's' apostrophe" mode.

I thought about using that defence, but decided to concede