Contracting...

[Damien Braniff <Damien_Braniff -at- PAC -dot- CO -dot- UK>]

Re Melissa's comments.
Things in the UK are pretty much the same.  General accepted agency "cut"
is 7-15% though they are always out to get as much as they can.

Someone I used to work with told me about when he first went contracting.
Not great money but his first contracting job.  One of the people at the
company where he was placed "accidently" left the agreement where he could
see it!  THe agency were taking over 50%.  He was not very pleased but got
no joy form the agency when he confronted them -so he left!  Got taken on
direct by the company as they really liked his work and since then he's
been purely freelance finding his own work.  His principle is that if the
going rate is ?20/hour (0r whatever) he can afford to undercut that by up
to 15% and still get as much as if he'd gone through an agency and, of
course, the employer is happy as it costs him less.

I, myself worked on-site for 6 years (effectively as a contractor) with my
company negotiating a new rate each Xmas.  We were taken out for a meal and
we then discussed OUR rate!  The argument put forward was that it didn't
matter what the employer was paying the agency as long as we were happy
with what the agency was paying us. This fell down, of course, one year
when we were told that they hadn't got as bit a rise as expected in the
rate and one of the other authors chirped up that it didn't matter what the
agency was being paid.....

Damien Braniff
Technical Author
PAC International

	http://www.documentation.com/, or http://www.dejanews.com/