Confessions of an IT Manager_Phil Factor

182 IT Agencies and the Devil
1. Gather CVs
The best way of accumulating CVs used to be to advertise entirely fictitious
jobs in the IT press, something like this:
'A Developer with good interpersonal skills is required. No qualifications
necessary – all training provided. Highly competitive salary. An excellent
employer with offices throughout the South East of England'.
I've never met anyone who doubted the quality of his own interpersonal
skills, so the agency should be swamped with CVs from hopefuls. Nowadays,
of course, you can get as many CVs as you want just by buying them from one
of the major job sites. Nevertheless, it is always best to do a few 'fishing trips'
so as to build up a pool of fresh potential candidates.
These adverts are a nuisance because the people who don't realise that they
are fake subsequently acquire completely unrealistic expectations about
potential salaries in the industry, and of the effort required to find a decent job.
Unfortunately, this practice still goes on; the same bland adverts promising
employment nirvana keep reappearing, with the wording changed only slightly.
2. Find and contact companies that are recruiting
One might assume that the easiest method is to poach the client list of other
agencies by poaching their agents. Agents seem to regard the contacts they
make during their salaried employment as their own personal property. To
expect otherwise would be like expecting crocodiles to be vegetarian. The
worst problem with this approach is that an agent who would do that to their
previous employer is likely to pull the same stunt on you. Also it is
unnecessarily expensive.
There are much easier and cheaper ways of building the client list. The
'Employment History' sections of the CVs garnered from your spoof adverts
provide you with a directory of potential employers. Now all you need is some
contacts within these companies. The 'Referees' sections on the same CVs are a
joy in this regard: a ready made list of people (usually managers) to whom you
can sell your services! (If you think I'm being wicked and cynical, then plant a
CV on one of the major job sites quoting, as a referee, a spoof person with a
real contact phone number in a registered company. Then sit back and see how
many phone calls that number gets from agents touting for custom).
Still need more contacts? Then, once again, your potential job candidate will
often prove an excellent, if unwitting, accomplice. The technique goes as
follows: you phone up each candidate and tell them what magnificent CVs they
have and how hopeful you are of getting them one of the splendid jobs you