Nearly every day some recruiter emails me about a job opportunity. I am not really interested in switching since my arrangement is flexible and comfortable, but just for kicks, I always reply that I am available as a remote contractor at a rate of $130 an hour.
No recruiter has ever wanted to move forward or hear more. Why not? Is it the remote thing, or the contractor thing, the way I am responding, or what?
It seems like a lot of contracting happens in the industry, and overall contracting seems like a great way to bring someone on risk free, before trying to convert them to a full time employee (although I never go for this). What is it about offering back a remote contract that makes the recruiters run for the hills?
The client in this case is the company hiring an employee. They are asking for an FTE. They want to pay a certain salary. You are a consultant. You are asking for a certain hourly/daily/weekly/monthly rate. It's not that they don't like you. They just want something else. It's nothing personal.
Recruiting is a very concrete, straightforward task. Anything that doesn’t fit into the mold is simply ignored. It’s not illogical, don’t take it personally. They got horse blinders on and aren’t focusing on anything that isn’t directly tied to their duties.
Also (anecdotally) the kind of recruiters who are going to reach out to you are not the kind of people you want to be working with anyway.
All this being said, I empathize with you. Ultimately there’s a significant chance that you are exactly the type of person that they are ultimately being hired to find... but it’s not the way that business works.
You are replaceable commodity. Like iron ore etc.
Market yourself in terms of the actual value you provide to customers and simply ignore those recruiters.
#1 gets a commission for hiring someone for a job as an employee. The employer will pay him a percentage of your yearly salary to the recruiter if you are hired.
#2 is a contract shop recruiter. You are hired by the contract shop and then subcontracted to the employer at an hourly wage which they get an ongoing cut of.
These two types of recruiters are different animals with different skills and motivations.
In my experience, #1 will not do #2 type deals. #2 will sometimes act as #1 doing conversions of temp-to-perm for a lump sum.
There is also a variant of type #1 - a recruiter for a large company that I believe recruits for a salary without commission. This may be to eliminate conflicts of interest in the hiring process (or more properly, favor the employer to be)
all this might have morphed - I haven't interacted with type #2 for many years.
Recruiters are paid to find employees, and get a percentage of their yearly salary when they make a placement.
In contrast, agencies and contractors are completely different. It’s normally the job of the agency to find clients, they are not found by recruiters. If youre getting paid $100/hr, it’s likely your agency is charging $200/hr. That may seem unfair, but it’s likely they spent a ton of time and energy trying to find a client who values your work. That extra money supports those client development activities.
In many ways contractors/agencies are competing against full time recruiters. I wouldn’t expect them to be your friend.
Keeping a secret becomes harder as more people are involved. Employee (or contractor) turnover means more people are involved.
The same goes for the number of work sites, with each remote worker being their own work site. It is reasonable to guess that you don't have 24x7 guards, video recording, and competent on-site IT staff.
Then add in a training investment, the legal implications (tax, insurance, holidays...) if you are in a different jurisdiction, and all the uncertainties that a one-of-a-kind agreement would bring. Not every company is prepared to deal with the situation you would create.
Recruitment agencies charge anywhere from 25% to 50% annual wage for a successful hire, at least here in SEA, I'm not sure about the US, but imagine it must be comparable.
How would they charge for bringing in a contractor?