>As a career contractor you need a really good agent, or ideally master the skills of a really good agent (ie sales). You need to build and maintain a network of previous managers who know how good you are, and actually call you for work. It takes time, but is by no means impossible for the average HN user.
I get managers I've contracted for in the past calling me, but they always make me go through a third party agency for the pay, so I think these preferred lists are more important than you think. (I have a corporation with 4 employees, 3 fullish-time, counting me, and the total revenue would make what I'm getting paid as a consultant look small, so I believe I'd be on the correct side of Section 1706.)
I have not heard of contractors in my industry having "agents" - I mean, sure, there are body shops that I can call or that will call me; is that what you mean? The body shops work for the clients, though, not the consultants.
They may make you go through a preferred agency for payroll/invoicing, but any fees they add should be passed back to the employer, not met by you. Typical enterprise/gov BS, needlessly adding 10-20% to the cost.
By agents I mean 'recruitment consultants', that's what they are called in London (along with pimps). Most people hate dealing with them, but they are a necessary evil.
>They may make you go through a preferred agency for payroll/invoicing, but any fees they add should be passed back to the employer, not met by you. Typical enterprise/gov BS, needlessly adding 10-20% to the cost.
The employer pays the agency, usually around 30% more than the agency pays me. You could say that the employer is paying that fee, sure, but that's like saying the employer is paying the 7.5% payroll tax that the employer has to pay if you are an employee and not a contractor. That's coming out of the pool of money the employer is willing to spend to get my labor, even though it's not going to me.
>By agents I mean 'recruitment consultants', that's what they are called in London (along with pimps). Most people hate dealing with them, but they are a necessary evil.
Someone who works for the consultant? I don't know of anything like that in America. As far as I can tell, in this industry and location, all of the middlemen are paid by the clients.
I get managers I've contracted for in the past calling me, but they always make me go through a third party agency for the pay, so I think these preferred lists are more important than you think. (I have a corporation with 4 employees, 3 fullish-time, counting me, and the total revenue would make what I'm getting paid as a consultant look small, so I believe I'd be on the correct side of Section 1706.)
I have not heard of contractors in my industry having "agents" - I mean, sure, there are body shops that I can call or that will call me; is that what you mean? The body shops work for the clients, though, not the consultants.