Cutting out the agent

[aussielong]

An agent phoned me up about a gig after seeing my linkedin profile. I expressed some interest but did not send him my CV yet. Coincidentally I have realised a friend is working on the project. I have made contact with my friend and he reckons he can get my CV in front of the hiring manager. So i could go direct and potentially up my rate by the agents margin, which could be up to 20%.

I usually go direct without an agent in the middle because its a reasonably small market I work in. In this instance the agent has put me onto the role before I heard about it on the grapevine.

What does the panel think of this?

[alreadypacked]

An agent phoned me up about a gig after seeing my linkedin profile. I expressed some interest but did not send him my CV yet. Coincidentally I have realised a friend is working on the project. I have made contact with my friend and he reckons he can get my CV in front of the hiring manager. So i could go direct and potentially up my rate by the agents margin, which could be up to 20%.

I usually go direct without an agent in the middle because its a reasonably small market I work in. In this instance the agent has put me onto the role before I heard about it on the grapevine.

What does the panel think of this?

You may get hired, but depending on the size of the company they may not let you invoice them and ask you to go through an agency anyway. Too early to say.

[aussielong]

You may get hired, but depending on the size of the company they may not let you invoice them and ask you to go through an agency anyway. Too early to say.

That certainly would happen but I would just run my payroll through the agency for a small fee - they would not get a big cut of my day rate.

Do you think this is fair enough, or is it snide? (My gut feeling is that it is a bad idea and most likely I won't do this).

[alreadypacked]

That certainly would happen but I would just run my payroll through the agency for a small fee - they would not get a big cut of my day rate.

Do you think this is fair enough, or is it snide? (My gut feeling is that it is a bad idea and most likely I won't do this).

If they tell you to go through an agent, it will be their agent. They will already have a contract in place with them, rate will already be set. Don't think you will have much say. It only works if they have more than one agent and you know one of the agents really well.

Glad to hear you have stopped the binge drinking.

[aussielong]

If they tell you to go through an agent, it will be their agent. They will already have a contract in place with them, rate will already be set. Don't think you will have much say. It only works if they have more than one agent and you know one of the agents really well.

Glad to hear you have stopped the binge drinking.

Maybe it works differently down under. I'm currently going direct- the client pushed me to their agent but they just handle my pay. They don't get a cut of my day rate because they were not involved in hiring me - I approached the client directly via linkedin.

Yeah, I stopped bingeing on the juice a while back. What started out as a good laugh many years ago had ended up a problem for me. So I just packed it in and moved on.

[d000hg]

If they tell you to go through an agent, it will be their agent. They will already have a contract in place with them, rate will already be set.

I think it varies more than that.

Anyway on the original question, you can't know you would get the same rate the agent would.

[DodgyAgent]

An agent phoned me up about a gig after seeing my linkedin profile. I expressed some interest but did not send him my CV yet. Coincidentally I have realised a friend is working on the project. I have made contact with my friend and he reckons he can get my CV in front of the hiring manager. So i could go direct and potentially up my rate by the agents margin, which could be up to 20%.

I usually go direct without an agent in the middle because its a reasonably small market I work in. In this instance the agent has put me onto the role before I heard about it on the grapevine.

What does the panel think of this?

And you wonder why agents are criticised for not telling contractors who the client is. Also remember that if you have not sent your CV to the agent he will be trying to find other candidates for the role. Business is business but this shows that contractors are every bit as ruthless and cynical as agents. So presumably we wont be hearing quite so much criticism of agency ethics in future.

[suityou01]

And you wonder why agents are criticised for not telling contractors who the client is. Also remember that if you have not sent your CV to the agent he will be trying to find other candidates for the role. Business is business but this shows that contractors are every bit as ruthless and cynical as agents. So presumably we wont be hearing quite so much criticism of agency ethics in future.

No this shows that one poster is a bit of a tube.

HTH

[Cliphead]

And you wonder why agents are criticised for not telling contractors who the client is. Also remember that if you have not sent your CV to the agent he will be trying to find other candidates for the role. Business is business but this shows that contractors are every bit as ruthless and cynical as agents. So presumably we wont be hearing quite so much criticism of agency ethics in future.

Contractors wouldn't have to resort to being ruthless and cynical if it wasn't for badly behaved agents. Over the years agencies have lost out on a lot of business from me that I'd have been happy to pass on but for their atittude.

Many times I've negotiated directly with the client when an extension was due or by contacting them directly about a role or even the client contacting me for a return gig having been there in the past. Never once had to go through an agency to get paid the client being happy for me to invoice them directly.

Back in the day agencies looked after their contractors but those days have long gone, as you say business is business.

[suityou01]

An example of such slime bucket behaviour :

Recently I interviewed for a gig, and got it. ClientCo or the agency were dicking me about. No worries as I had another interview line up. I mentioned this and suddenly the slimebucket pulled the finger out.

Then he asked me for the company details of the interview I had pulled out of. I told him to **** off and find his own leads.

Agencies even stiff over their own.