[batou]

Very true.

Also the advice about marketing yourself is crap. Recruiters are the #1 way of landing contracts. They're finders and you're paying a finders fee for that service. They have the big guys with oodles of cash to get hold of.

If you can't get a gig through a recruiter then you either don't have skills that are in demand or don't come across as someone who they'd want to sell.

If you don't go through the recruiters, you end up being left with the cheap arse companies that won't pay up anyway. If you're sneaky about it, you and the recruiter can get the client to pay the finder's fee.

Once you're in the system, build up a network of contacts and then move through that rather than using the recruiters. I'm doing that at the moment and ended up taking a perm position that was better paid than the contract rates were (without all the hassle of IR35, rolling a Ltd etc)

[jacquesm]

> If you don't go through the recruiters, you end up being left with the cheap arse companies that won't pay up anyway.

I've never used a recruiter, the companies I work for paid pretty good and I had one unpaid bill in a couple of decades.

Building your own network and getting rid of recruiters as your main source of income is very important to new contract programmers.

For one they take a cut and for another they will sell those parties where they can take the largest cut first.

I'm not saying they don't have a function but recruiters goals and the recruited goals are not 100% aligned and you should be very much aware of that when using one.

One way to side-step recruiters is to build up (large) number of contacts with people in the industry who may get to know someone that needs your particular skillset.

The more peculiar your skills the harder it will be for recruiters to place you and so more of the acquisition part will have to be done by yourself.

Think of using recruiters as 'outsourcing acquisition', it has all the upsides and the downsides associated with all other forms of outsourcing.

Another danger with outsourcing your acquisition to recruiters is that you are handing the keys to one of the most important parts of your business to another party, who can then either cut you off at will, replace you and retain their contact with the company you were placed in and so on.

The sales department (which you've essentially outsourced) is a very important (if not the most important) element in any company, even a small one.

You may be able to make your life a little easier by not doing that work, especially if you're an introvert but in the longer term you're setting yourself up in a very dangerous position.

So, use recruiters if you have to but be wary and make sure you have alternative channels to being hired under your own control. Never let a single recruiter get you all of your jobs or even a majority of your jobs.

[batou]

You're right on all the points there.

I did find that you can play recruiters off against each other quite easily to negotiate a higher rate. Also when you sign, you sign with the company not the recruiter and have a solid contract in place. Never work for sharecropper recruiters like some of the bigger ones.

If they want to get rid of you after 2 weeks, make sure there's an exit fee. That is usually 100% for me if under 6 months of contract left. I did 2 weeks at a company on a 3 monther at £550 a day and completed the work but was paid for the 3 months.

The particular sector I worked in was finance and that is still heavily recruiter driven unfortunately.

[tonyedgecombe]

This echoes my thoughts and experience, all the while I was contracting I could easily find new work through word of mouth. The few recruiters I talked to seemed happy to waste my time (and their own).

[klausjensen]

How do you find out who are the good contracting recruiters if you are interested in contracting in London/UK?

It is such a massive grey mass of companies, if you just google it or try to search LinkedIn.

[throwaway1410]

In practice, it's they who find you. Just change the address on your linked in profile to "London" and see the emails coming in. If they don't come, your CV is probably not a good fit to the current needs of available contracts (due not enough experience in technologies that are currently hot).

[batou]

Look for smaller companies and individual recruiters first. If they get you an interview in under 48 hours for a non shonky outfit and are willing to discuss your terms rather than enforcing theirs then you're probably ok. The big ones are shit. Requires phoning around for a couple of days.