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Re: Common practice? WAS: How To: Tactfully deal with salary questions in TW job interviews?
Subject:Re: Common practice? WAS: How To: Tactfully deal with salary questions in TW job interviews? From:Bill Swallow <techcommdood -at- gmail -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Sun, 19 Jun 2005 10:02:42 -0400
> I don't think this is amusing, I consider it rather rude. Is this common practice with agencies to hang up on you? Is this a geography thing?
>From my experience, a good percentage of agencies are out there to
farm out work to anyone who will take it for a low-ball bid. These
types of agencies don't care how complex the work is, or how qualified
the candidates they send out to do the work are. They just like the
fact that a company is paying them $150/hr to staff a position and
they got some neophyte with a nice looking skills list to take the
contract for $30/hr (or less).
If this seems wrong to you, it is. But, people take the work at
low-ball rates for various reasons (usually because they need money).
This is exactly why I advocate learning about the job before haggling
on price, and always tossing out the high figure and whittling down
the pay rate while simultaneously whittling down the requirements of
the position.
Many people complain that they don't make enough money, yet the
situation above (the agency) feeds the exact problem. If we routinely
don't go for the low-ball, eventually the low-ball will go away.
And yes, it is not unheard of for an agency to take up to 80% of the
offered rate for itself and give as little as 20% to the contractor.
Thankfully there are agencies out there who play fair as well.
So know your worth and let the agencies who don't want to give you the
info you need in order to quote the job just hang up. They'll look for
another victim, but hopefully the victim pool will srink as others are
educated on the practice.
It's rude for them to hang up, but in my opinion it's ruder to take
the contract and get such a small percentage of the company's rate.
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