I have now been working in IT since 1989 and been an IT contractor since 2000.  I am still amazed how much the market hasn’t changed and how contractors get treated by IT agencies.
In the UK they are a necessary evil.  Large companies wont hire direct and can’t be doing with the hassle of searching, filtering as well as paying non employee staff so I can understand that part.  The agencies handle this (and to be fair other things) and yet most seem to lose all sense of manners sometimes.  My best experiences have been working direct but that requires a special relationship with the company for it to work.
Back in the day my contacting peers used to use the same agent who would look after them and get them work.  They used to wine and dine them and treat them as valued assets.  That seems to have changed since then and not got any better.

  • You fire off a CV, there is sometimes not even acknowledgement of receipt.  How hard is this be in 2014 ?
  • They call you – you have a long chat, say that “will submit CV” and then you never get any form of communication post that.  Again its not hard is it ?
  • They advertise jobs when blatantly there is no job.  They are just fishing for CV’s to then send companies
  • Ask you call premium rate numbers to speak to them
  • Hide behind filtered email addresses

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not bitter about the process.   I realise there is a lot of poor CV’s and yet worse staff in the market.  I pride my CV on being accurate and true. I also have worked for some very, very good agencies (my current is brilliant) and some really bad (one didn’t pay me until the end of the third month)
I have done well over the years and am sure they have too (don’t start me on margins!) but a bit of common courtesy wouldn’t go a miss.  It takes 1/2 minute to type an email or leave a message.  Otherwise they live up to there reputation as ‘pimps’ and in the same pigeon hole as ‘estate agents’ for most people.