Attention, Contract Vendors
By Mitch Berg
(This post was actually written about a month ago, in the middle of a quick, sharp job search. I figured discretion was the better part of ire, and tabled the post at the time – but I figured I’d post it now, in case it helps someone).
You know who you are – you’re a contract vendor. You essentially run a high-tech temp service; you connect companies that want to rent a programmer or a project manager or a business analyst for a project (and maybe to evaluate for a fulltime gig) and the people who do the job. You take a handsome cut off the top – somewhere between 33% and 50% of whatever client pays.
Now, high-tech – after the misery of the early ’00s – is back to being a bit of a seller’s market. It’s hard to find people in some fields; business analysts are hard to find, and Usability people are at a bit of a premium (score!).
And we have memories. And as long as the economy is doing well, we can afford to use them.
So here are a couple of tips for you, Mr. Contract Vendor:
- If you call us up to tell us about a “three to six month contract”, and at the interview the client tells me the project has a hard eight-week deadline, that’s a bad sign.
- If you quote me a rate in that initial phone call – to pick a figure at random, say, $40 an hour – and after the interview tell me “um, the highest we can go is $32”, that’s even worse.
- If, as we’re waiting for the client to make up their minds, you try to get me to commit to the (shorter, lower-paying than you told me) job and blow off any other leads I have working, I might suspect that you are desperate to land this gig, and probably not the kind of vendor I’d like to work for if I don’t have to. Which, heaven be praised, I don’t at the moment.
That is all.
December 6th, 2006 at 9:38 am
Amen.
I won’t say who my contract vendor is so as not to sound like I’m trying to sell them, but in the almost 1.5 years I’ve worked with them, they haven’t tried any underhanded tricks like you describe above, and the few times I have had problems or concerns about anything, they were addressed ASAP. I work for a large, nationwide vendor that is NOT RHI, Accenture or Compuware. Their office is in Edina, right around 100/494. Now it’s entirely possible we work for the same vendor, but just have different recruiters and account managers. But I would imagine that A) my vendor didn’t achieve the status they are at by letting their people act like you’ve described, and B) with as large as they are, they don’t need to act like you’ve described.
December 6th, 2006 at 4:05 pm
I have done contract work for over 10 years. Contract firms can be great, or they can be slime. Many are staffed with people that have no knowledge of your industry. They also work hardest at screwing you and the client out of as much cash as possible. The lies I have been told are amazing.
Don’t get me started on contracts that basically amount to indentured servitude. I question sometimes if those are even legal.
I have learned to keep my rate high and pass on the low paying work as long as possible. Of course when the Mrs. notes that I have been off a while, the rate drops pretty quickly.
December 7th, 2006 at 10:22 pm
It’s been my opinion that it’s better to work than to shop. Sometimes it sucks, sometimes it’s sweet. I just like the “flow” part of cash flow. And yes, the Mrs. can have a direct impact on the hourly rate. So can the tadpoles….