I'm now definitely looking for a new job. Anyone know any good quality IT agencies, contract or perm?

Cheers,
Steve.

 

In my experiance they have all been a bit wanting..
but, hays IT were OK for a while. I'd try to stick away from my current agency (comp fut)because they are still pissing about with my contract renewal. Last time it took them 2 weeks past my renewal data to get it right. Sheez. It's not bad enought that they suck your money like blood

 

Yeah some of them are t055ers, Real IT for example surely are by far the worst agency in the known universe. They changed my rate part way through without telling me, and they continue to spam me with irrelevant jobs despite many a heated email regarding a contract I refused to sign. Steer well clear. I'll give Hays IT a call.

Cheers,
Steve.

 

I am with Elan (www.Elan.co.uk) very good, always let me know a month in advance with regards to renewals, payment is prompt and my agent is a really nice lass.

 

I'm with Eaglecliff - they've been fine to me.....

 

I've never had any bother from Nesco.
but avoid MSB - they are the anti-christs.

 

Same **** different name, I've found they are all pretty much the same. Good money for not much really (no offence, just personal experience)! Currently with Harvey Nash who are average (tried it on once about money!), Worst for me was Hays IT, lots of problems with payment, claims they never recieved invoices, payed the wrong amount etc, seemed common to other people in these parts (SW) too.

I was recently working for Allegis group/Aerotek, who I know had a decent margin on a our contracts (25%, 6 people), but at least they spent some of it on taking us out for food and drinks regularly!

Some agents will work on single figure margins too, personally I'd prefer to work direct, but not often possible.

The answer is unless you know you have a very specialist and desible skill which a limited number of co's will be prepared to pay a lot of money for (in which case one agent should find you a job easily, but you may even be able to find one yourself) then register with loads of agencies and when they all ring you up with the same job compare the rates offered (some surprises there I've found!).

Happy Job Hunting

Jon

 

IT Channel Bournemouth cannot be beaten. Prompt payment, contract renewal very efficient, bloody nice bunch of people. Highly recommended ! 01202 317307
They seem to pay higher rates than most others too !!

Good luck !

 

Computer People are the countries largest and most sucessful agency. They have been established for 29 years and would be able to find you either Contract or Permanent work. If you would like me to recommend a consultant to speak with drop me an email and I will organise it. Needless to say I work at Computer People but I am leaving on friday after 3.5years for a new challenge.

I wouldn't work for another IT agency and have been offered roles at neally all of them over the years. Unfortunately there are bad consultants at Computer People but there are also some very good ones. I am a firm believer that it is all about relationships and my advice to all of you would be: find a decent consultant and stay with them if at all possible. Somebody who is good at their job should always be able to find you your next role. I have contractors that have worked for me at different companies for neally three years. I am always on the look out for all my contractors (42 of them) next opportunities.

If you have any further comments, queries or questions please don't hesitate to contact me before friday pm.

Good luck and happy job hunting.

Phil

PS Unfortunately the sharks in this industry give decent organisations a bad name.

 

Let me start by saying I think 99% of recruitment consultants are scum, leeches and parasites.

However I always laugh when contractors say "what does the agency do for its money".

What it does is this:
1. Finds you the projects - this involves advertising, cold calling, client visits etc
2. Negotiates the rates for you
3. Discounts your invoice and therefore accepts any credit risk


If a contractor were to run a real business then the contractor should spend money and time on cultivating contracts. The contractor should incur the cost of capital of waiting to have their invoices paid which can take anywhere between 30 and 180 days.
The contractor should suffer the bad debts when end users go pop (e.g. BOO.com)
All of the above costs time and money.

The contractor should suffer the loss when the client claims unsatisfactory work or pay the legal fees when trying to reclaim a debt.

Again having said all that I still think the industry is full of slime ***** but I think you get them on both sides of the line - about 80/20 consultants to contractors in my opinion.

Cheers
Taff

 

In my experience:

Parity
Gatton Volt
Computer People

Depends on your skillset - I work in a specialised area and 99.9% of the agencies can't even spell it correctly. It truly helps if the agency understands your skills and can represent you intelligently to potential clients.

 

Gareth

Its not your specialised area that they can't spell - they just can't spell....

oh and you can't expect them to understand your area - the majority of IT rec cons can't even turn on their own PC's let alone hold a sensible conversation about C++. Most of them think C++ was the highest grade you could achieve in GCSE's and was certainly a grade that they would never achieve




[This message has been edited by Taff (edited 04 October 2001).]

[This message has been edited by Taff (edited 04 October 2001).]

 

a lot of the agencies are as bad as each other. a majority of them phone you for jobs that you can't do or in a part of the country your not looking in or with a wage much lower than your willing to accept, but still try and push you into the job.

i can recommend looking on

 

the amount of agencies that have my CV and call me up with Win NT admin opportunities (I'm a solaris admin), or they see I have been working contract for a year, and I only do contract work, so they phone me up saying they have a wonderfull placement which just happens to be permenant??

lol @ agencies. most of them haven't got a clue.

 

that sounds so familiar, my hubby is a contractor and the amount of agencies that phone his for permie work and offer £30k pa and they say well it does have a wonderful package, unfortunately pensions, gym membership doesn't pay the bills, why don;t these agencies understand this. most of them are from another planet i think