Bad Contract Assignments
Can you spotpotentially bad contract assignments at interview? We show you how to spot those bad contracts.
A reader penned this.
Direct Correlation in Bad Contract Assignment
One thing I have noticed is that there is a direct correlation between contracts working out well and how things turn out in the initial stages prior to and during the interview stage.
Spotting bad contracts is not an exact science, but it’s worth noting that if:-
- The job spec is a rambling mess of ‘catch all possibility’ requirements that encapsulates just about everything on earth connected with a particular role.
- You realise, on closer examination, it would take more than one person, even a whole team, to fill the requirements, as outlined in full.
- When contracts are not as good as you expected them to be, or the client turns out to be a potential shafter, it’s normally the case that the interview doesn’t go as they led you to believe either.
- A one-off interview, that they told you would lead to a quick decision and start date, suddenly stretches to a second interview. You weren’t aware of this before attending the first.
- They tell you that only one person will interview you. When you turn up for interview, there is a panel or more than one person.
- When asking about the project, the interviewer gives the impression that everything is going smoothly, with hardly any setbacks. This is rubbish with most projects.
Only Candidate Put Up
7. You are the only candidate put up for interview by any agency.
Very flattering in some ways because it makes you feel that you are uniquely qualified for a job. However, most discerning interviewers would want to interview at least one other candidate too.
Two or three is normal, more than that means that the interviewers don’t have a clue what they are really looking for.
8. The interviewer plugs you for value-added information. They are scene setting questions designed to draw out solutions to problems they’re currently facing.
If that is the case, then you may not be considered a serious candidate for the role at all. You are simply being used as a free consultant.
9. You see the same advert for the same job repeatedly advertised three months or less apart on the job boards. This suggests a rapid turnover of staff).
10. The client takes forever to get back to the agency for a start date when you were originally told they wanted someone for an immediate start.
If one or more of these happen then you can be sure that itis going to be one of those bad contracts. If many of these things happen then you can be sure that it is going to be one of those bad contracts.
My recruitment agency experiences in this respect are not good.
Best Assignments
I avoid bad contract assignments. All my best assignments, where the contract conditions have been honoured and I have stayed for the full duration of the assignment, have had the following features:
1. The interview turns out exactly how the agency described it prior to attending a first interview.
2. The client got back with an answer the day they said they would.
3. There are no long delays between the interview and start date.
4. There was some competition for the role I went for (except on one occasion).
5. There were no reappraisals of the job spec once I started on the job.
