Advice need regarding job offer/recruitment agency

CJWelch89 · May 2014

Hello all,

I've just managed to bag myself my first job in IT, my job title - First Line Support Analyst. Woopee.

That's great and all but I'm a tad confused as to what the hell I've let myself in for. I was contacted by a Recruitment agency a couple weeks back asking me if I am interested in this job, no mention of having to sign up as a temp or anything like that, I showed a lot of interest and an interview was lined up. I passed the interview with flying colours and thought to myself great, I start next week! Get back home and I'm contacted by the agency congratulating me on the job offer but telling me that as I'm going to be working for them as a temp I'll need to come in to sign lots of documentation.

What? Nobody mentioned to me I would be working through an agency as a temp. Not until after I'd received a bloody job offer.

Call me naive and a plonker but I feel cheated, I'm pretty peeved by this knowing a cut of my salary will be going to an agency and by signing up I'll be forfeiting a bunch of my rights like the right to equal pay and unfair dismissal etc.

What do I do? Call the agency and tell them I feel misled? Call the company directly? Tell them to shove it and forget about recruitment agencies and only apply directly from this day onward?

networker050184 · May 2014

Well, if you need the job just go with it would be my advice. It's not uncommon for entry level roles to be filled this way. If the agency did in fact mislead you (rather than just a misunderstanding) I'd be very careful of what you are signing. If you don't need the job I'd just keep looking.

LionelTeo · May 2014

Follow Warren Buffet advise, honesty is a very expensive gift, don't expect it from cheap people. The worse thing that could ever happen is to work with cheap companies and cheap people. They will impact your salary and career growth in every way you can. If you are in the business world, we call this doing deals with people, and sometimes, you are force to do deals with people base on trust, especially on business start up, where black and white aren't clear and you are most likely had to trust people at some point of time, this could be working with your co partner and ensuring that he or she will not tamper with the money before you even had the budget to put an audit in place (keep in mind its a small company start up). So if that particular person had a bad history of trust, then you wouldn't want to put your money or business deal with him, else he will took it find ways not to even returned; the same goes for your career, you wouldn't want to put your career path with dishonest company to begin with. Take your time and do not join deal to a moment of folly, keep cool and take it slow. If you already had a job, it is a matter of time you would find a better offer for IT field. If you are not in a hurry to get a job, taking your own time and continue finding. In worse scenario, take up the offer and continue finding a job, but you should not had second thoughts leaving a company that cheated you.

boobobobobob · May 2014

Are you getting market rate for your skills? Unless they are low balling you, there shouldn't be a problem with this. Staffing agencies are common, do not go directly to the company. One thing you want to verify is whether the position in the company is permanent or not. Perhaps the company needs additional helpdesk temporarily for some kind of install they just did but once the install stabilizes they may lay everyone off.

lsud00d · May 2014

Echoing what @networker050184 said, READ EVERYTHING VERY, VERY CAREFULLY.

You don't want to sign your rights away, even if it is for a sweet new job.

iBrokeIT · May 2014

If you only want W2 work and don't want to work as a temp or 1099 contractor that is your responsibility to verify those details, especially before going into an interview. If you are going through a third party company for a job the majority of them are going to be contract or contract to hire.

Unless they outright lied to you and said this a W2 position then pulled a bait and switch, this one is on you for not stating your employment terms before it got to this point.

An unfortunate lesson but you still have time to gracefully back out. Do not burn any bridges just in case the staffing company happens to some direct hire positions available.

Advice need regarding job offer/recruitment agency

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