July 5, 2013 at 1:07 pm
I'm curious to hear from contractors who work independently and how they find their clients. Right now I'm working corp-to-corp through a staffing/contracting company (40 hours a week) and do some side work for another company direct with them (no middleman). The side work I do is with a company I was previously employed with. So it wasn't overly difficult for me to get them as a client as I already had an "in" with the company.
My goal is to completely remove these vendors from my job searches and work directly with clients. Not only do I hope to charge a higher hourly rate, but I'd also eliminate the headache that oftentimes comes with working with these companies (it became common for me to get 6-7 weeks behind with unpaid invoices with them even though the client was paying regularly).
I read these forums enough to know that there are several people here who do this know (or at least I think there are). So any advice/general knowledge anyone wants to share in this area is welcomed. I don't see too much of this information being shared on the internet. It's mostly full-time folks and those trying to get into the SQL Server career field that I find the most information for.
July 8, 2013 at 3:02 pm
I kind of asked some specific questions but feel free to use this thread to share your experiences working as a contractor.
The good work for me comes and goes. Just today I got 2 calls for some pretty promising work....it's been at least 6 or 7 months since I've seen anything halfway decent. And now 2 in one day.
The "dry" time seems to be around the holidays, with work picking back up at the beginning of the year. I try not to get contracts that end around November or December and so far it's worked out but I could see how that's not always possible.
Touching on what I wrote above...another problem I have with the recruiting companies is when they call you for a job they are placing, they'll ask the rate your looking for. If I'm telling everyone I want $60/hour and someone else is saying $50/hour. They'll always call the other guy first, they're making more off of him, even if I'm far and away the better person for the position with more experience etc. I'm sure not all do this but I know it happens as I've been told from a couple recruiters who I've formed good relationships with. So I try to keep that information to myself until I absolutely have to give it up.
July 9, 2013 at 11:14 am
brendan woulfe (7/8/2013)
Touching on what I wrote above...another problem I have with the recruiting companies is when they call you for a job they are placing, they'll ask the rate your looking for. If I'm telling everyone I want $60/hour and someone else is saying $50/hour. They'll always call the other guy first, they're making more off of him, even if I'm far and away the better person for the position with more experience etc.
That's how it works. Contracting companies are not interested in hiring perfect candidates at all, because good specialists will ask for more money. They just want to find someone not super bad so he/she can get through all the interviews with their client. And the client has to pick someone eventually, wondering why there are so many mediocre applicants.
I've seen an example when 2 guys have been hired at the same time for the same job, the same title and the client was paying exactly the same amount of money for both of them to recruters, but guess what? One of them was getting $10/hr less just because he was too shy to ask for more.
I was asked once by a contracting company to lower my rate. It was after a few successful interviews with the client. And the reason was that there are so many candidates and the position was so demanded, therefore if I want to get this job I have to ask for less to be more attractive for the client. And I'm 100% sure that's a BS! These mediators will keep the money for themselves, period. They will lie to you in the face to get some money from you, that's their job. You just have to learn how to deal with it.
July 10, 2013 at 10:43 am
You were probably the highest man hourly wise and the client had you and 1 or 2 other people on their final list. More than likely they just wanted a higher commission on the "sale". I have seen instances where there are 2 candidates that are close in skillset and what not and the client hiring them will ask the staffing agency which of the 2 will give them a "deal" and then go with that one. Not sure how often that happens though.
Also, I think it depends on the client they are staffing for. Some will provide a dollar amount and say find us someone who fits in this budget and others will give them requirements for a role and say find us someone who knows this and then they pay based on experience and what not. The former is the one that you have to watch out for.
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