Been away for a while now, mostly working for a very demanding client in the frozen North followed by a PM stint in what was probably the most chaotic programme I’ve ever worked on (and I’ve worked on a few…). I got the job done, somehow, but towards the end I was doing 10 hour working days plus two hours drive each way leaving home at 4:00 am for a 6:00 am shift including weekends. I’m getting too old for that kind of excitement. Rate was pretty crap as well…
So had a bit of a break to recharge the batteries and indulge in some other pursuits totally unrelated to IT and am now back on the market. And every time I come back, life gets a little more depressing…
Actually, there appear to be two separate camps developing in agency world. On one side you find people who are pretty professional, who follow a solid process (one not only sent me the job spec for the interview, but how to get there, a quick profile on the interviewers adn what the company are looking for and their copy of my CV as submitted) and who almost behave like agents used to in the days when you could talk to them. On the other side, there are a load of ex-estate agents…
Standard practice used to be to send in the CV and follow it up with a phone conversation. These days, I’ve started checking out their Linked In profiles first (every recruiter has a LinkedIn profile, even though they wouldn’t dream of using LinkedIn themselves). If, as is often the case, the “recruitment consultant ” is either an office PA or only been in the job five days, there’s no point in talking to them so you may as well save the cost of the phone call. And that means at least half your carefully worded applications vanish into to the ether, never to be seen again.
Odd thing is, I meet them in roughly equal numbers. And the ones I think are worth talking to and that have a brain usually put me forward or can explain why they won’t be. Which is how it should be.
Still early days. Only had a couple of interviews and no offers so far. Watch this space…
