[UPHPU] Freelance Opportunity Starting ASAP

[Mac Newbold]

Today at 1:43pm, Robert Merrill said:

> *Is there* a negative bias toward agencies.. for either contract or direct
> recruiting?  Following that, if there is a bias, any general or specific
> reasons why?  I would like to know.  Personal replies to secure anonymity
> will be held that way, of course.  Looking for ways to improve service to
> you, that's all.
>
> so...
>
> if ($bias < 0) || ($your_opinion >= $0.02) { echo $explanation; }
>
> I know many other recruiters from other shops are "listening" so, have your
> say ;)

I'll throw out a few thoughts... I'll separate the different perpsectives 
by the different roles in which I act, so it doesn't just get all mixed 
together.

As a developer/employee/self-employed contractor:

I dislike working through agencies/head-hunters/people-finders/brokers 
because I like getting paid for all of what my work is worth. If company X 
is willing to pay $50/hr (for example) for my work, then I don't want to 
get paid $45/hr (for example) with $5/hr going to the place that 
introduced us. I don't think the value of their introduction depends on 
every hour of work I do for them from now until whenever. If I'm worth 
$50/hr, then I'd like to get paid $50/hr, not something less. Unless I'm 
asking the recruiter to help me find a job, the service they are providing 
is to the company, and the value of that service is separate from and 
should be handled independently of my worth. (I dislike most kinds of 
middle-men generally, as I usually don't feel they add much value to the 
transaction, so I'd rather get them out of the middle and improve the 
efficiency of the exchange.)

As an employer/business owner:

First, I don't want to pay more for a person's time than I think they're 
worth. Second, I don't want them to be recieving less than I think they're 
worth. Third, I believe that a service from an agency/recruiter is 
something that should be agreed upon and arranged for between them and the 
person who requested their service. If I choose to use one, I'd arrange 
terms with them, and would want to know exactly how much the employee was 
actually seeing, etc. If the employee chose to use one to find a job, I'd 
want him or her to arrange and pay for that independently of whatever 
happens with any employement arrangement I may offer them.

Probably the biggest issue though for me as an employer is that it feels 
like I think the recruiter/broker/agency/etc's service is worth a lot less 
to me than they think it is worth. I'm not saying that they don't do any 
work, because it takes time to build a group employer contacts and a group 
of employee contacts. The act of introducing employer and employee is a 
relatively quick and simple process though, and while it has some benefit 
to me, I don't value it highly enough to pay thousands of dollars for it.

Another contributing factor is that I'm am accustomed to a social network 
of friends and colleages where stuff like that happens for free generally. 
I participate in several communities (work related and otherwise) where 
people know people, and introduce people to others with whom they may make 
a business arrangment, without any expectation of payment or compensation 
of any form other than perhaps gratitude and reciprocation if the 
opporunity arises. Because that's something I do free of charge for 
people, and other people do free of charge for me, I have never really 
considered it something worth paying a lot of money for.

Another smaller factor is that I'm kind of a do-it-myself kind of guy when 
it comes to that. I know quite a few good places for looking for 
employees, employers, clients, contractors, etc., and so until I have 
exhausted all those resources and come away unsatisfied, I won't be 
willing to pay a lot money for something that costs me relatively little.

Given all of that, I may be open to using such a service (more likely as 
an employer than as an employee) but only if the cost was what I 
considered reasonable, based on the time/money/effort it saves me and the 
quality of the result. I'd judge the result by how fast it happened, how 
good the match was, and how good the person is that I connected with. I of 
course wouldn't want any obligation (either directly, or indirectly 
through not wanting to waste the expended money) to keep the employee 
longer than I wanted to, say if it doesn't work out.

All of this begs the question of what I find reasonable. Well, none of 
this is good news for recruiters I'm afraid, and this is probably no 
different. It probably wouldn't be worth more than a few hundred dollars 
to me unless I were really in a bind to find someone right away, which I 
carefully avoid. If I was in a tight spot, it might be worth $1000-$2000, 
like I said depending on what my savings and value were from it. In either 
of these cases, I'd be willing to pay a little more if the payment was 
over time, especially if it was contingent in some way, since that lets me 
better understand the value of the person I hired. For example, if instead 
of $500 up front, it was $100/month for 6-8 months, or instead of $1000, 
$100/month for a 12-15 months, that would be acceptable to me, especially 
if it was under a condition that if the employee left or was terminated 
before the payment time was complete, no further payments were owed.

I'm absolutely sure that there are plenty of people who have other 
opinions and disagree with me and my skeptical/pessimistic view of the 
value of recruiters and agencies. And I look forward to hearing what they 
have to say.

And to any recruiters or agencies who don't like how I feel, my apologies, 
I don't intend to belittle anyone or their career choices. For any 
ethically and morally acceptable profession or career, I think that if 
enough people value your work highly enough that you can earn the living 
you want from it, and it makes you happy, that's great. You can't ask much 
more than that. It it makes you feel better, most of the comments above 
could easily be applied to all sorts of agents and brokers, like real 
estate for example, regarding whom I feel the same way about wanting to 
pay what I feel their service is worth, or not use their services. And 
that is the case even though I have several very close ties with a lot of 
real estate agents and brokers.

Thanks,
Mac

P.S. A gold star to anyone who makes it all the way to the end of this 
unintentionally lengthy email.

--
Mac Newbold		MNE - Mac Newbold Enterprises, LLC
mac at macnewbold.com	http://www.macnewbold.com/