Recession rates

[James Laver]

On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 5:24 PM, Paul Makepeace <paulm at paulm.com> wrote:
> At the risk of jumping to the defence of a recruiter(!!), this chap
> seems pretty straight up and quoted that his cut is 50quid/day.

Chances are he's lying.

I've noticed recently that SNR of calls has dropped massively, that
I'm getting form-spammed a lot more than I used to and that more
recruiters than ever ignore you if you ask to be removed from their
database (even if you include a link to the information commissioner's
website, noting that you judge it to be marketing spam).

I've had one recruiter ignore me after i expressed interest in a
position (this happened twice), I've had one pimp apologise for the
sleaziness of the agency he works for, I've been told that I need to
drop my rate to 'be more accommodating in the current economic
climate' from a pimp trying to shift some ridiculous 150/day
do-everything monkey farse and i've had a pimp complain that I've
complained about his form-mailing me.

One of the contractors working with me had a great experience too. His
friend received a call about a "golden opportunity, in the bag
definite -- the previous guy lives in brighton and the job is getting
in the way of his family life, he wants to spend more time with his
wife and kids". It was his job and he has neither a wife nor kids.

It's sad that it's come down to this but there are very few agencies
I'll deal with now. They're dishonest about their rates, they lie
about EVERYTHING, they'll put your CV forward without permission,
they'll try and sell you a completely unsuitable position and then to
top it all off they'll have the audacity to tell you you're the
problem.

--James
(Whose contract runs out at the end of the month and is expecting no
difficulty finding a replacement)