Handling Recruitment Agencies
There are ten golden rules for handling recruitment agencies that contractors absolutely must know.
A reader Joe appended this article as Comments onto one of our articles.
Golden Rules
Obvious stuff but many seem not to know the golden rules for handing agencies which is shocking:
1. NEVER tell them specifics about other interviews.
2. NEVER give references until you have had an interview – clients NEVER need references before interviewing you. If they ask its not a real job so don’t worry you have lost anything cos you haven’t. Most roles don’t need references at all.
3. NEVER start a contract until you have a counter signature – applies to renewals (seen many get bitten by not having a valid contract – immediate termination) – no matter what they say agents and clients do take contracts seriously as you just might sue to enforce one.
4. ALWAYS send in your invoices weekly – get your money ASAP.
5. ALWAYS stick to your rate once quoted – if they renegotiate after the interview its just to extend their margin, let them take any cut from the client (and they will), once a client is interested an agent will bend over backward to ensure they get the business.
6. ALWAYS assume the recruitment agent is lying at all times, take nothing at face value.
7. ALWAYS put your tax money aside.
8. If its not in writing and counter-signed its worthless.
9. When looking for a job the spam approach works best.
10. Treat all job ads as fake – but send your CV through for when they have a real opportunity that’s like the one you saw.
Smartly Using Agencies
I’ll bet you’ve fallen for one of the above tricks at one time or another when handling agencies. They are a wily bunch and they deal with contractors on a daily basis. You’ve got to be smart when handling agencies.
However, to be forewarned is to be forearmed. If you keep these ten golden rules in mind when handling recruitment agencies then you should be fine.
To apply for specialist mortgages for contractors click on Specialist Contractor Mortgages
