gpmorron@watsol.waterloo.edu (Gary P. Morrison) (12/23/89)
I need information about an EMPLOYMENT AGENCY I am considering using.
The agency is P.J. Ward of Toronto. My problem is that they are being
very tight lipped about their commission and the whole topic of the
negotiation of salary.
I'm a recent U. of Waterloo grad (Comp. Sci./Information Systems, May '89)
and I plan to attend grad school in September '91 (for either Management
Science or a M.B.A.). I have three years of programming experience (mostly
in "C", both DOS and UNIX).
Can you answer the following?
1. What is the industry standard for commission on (a) finding CONTRACT work,
and (b) finding full-time employment? What combination of fixed fee
plus percentage of my earnings should I expect to pay?
2. The contract commission is to be skimmed from my earnings as long as I
hold the position. Has anyone negotiated this into something more
reasonable? (I.e. skim until some mutually agreeable amount is reached).
3. What do employers expect to pay an agency for locating people in
the systems profession?
GENERAL COMMENTS about agencies (and the art of contracting) are WELCOME.
Responses will NOT be posted to the Net (unless you do it). If you're
interested in the replies I receive then let me know and I'll send a summary
to you.
Please reply ASAP...I need your advice now!
P.J. Ward reps are welcome to reply!
- Gary Morrison
___________________________________________________________________________
! Everton F.C. -- The Pride of Merseyside! !
!_________________________________________________________________________!joel@torsqnt.UUCP (joel) (01/10/90)
This is a reply to Gary Morrison's article of Dec 22 1989 Dear Gary: Thanks for taking the time to register your questions about using P.J.Ward. Ihope you will find the following response helpful. P.J.Ward is a placement agency specializing in information system plaements, both permanent and contract. For contract positions: We always establish an hourly rate range, $x, with the contractor prior to presenting him/her to our client. When a contract placement is arranged we pay the contractor the agreed to $x/hour; payment is every 2 weeks, automatic deposit into the contractor's account. We then mark up the contractor's hourly rate, by some percentage, and bill the client. Note: no agency's fee is deducted from the contractor's hourly rate. All our contractors are self employed. When a contract position is arranged a contract is signed between the contractor and P.J.Ward confirming the hourly rate, the duration, the client site etc. Permanent Positions: It is illegal for any agency to charge a candidate a placement fee; the client, and not the candidate, pays the fee. If the candidate is hired on a permanent basis the client pays a percentage of the candidate's first year's salary. Our rate is 25% if the client is working with us exclusively, or if the first year's salary is less than $25K; otherwise, our rate is 30%.(Other agencies have different fee structures). "Selecting a good headhunter", is an insightful article, recently published in Computerworld, Nov 6, 1989 - page 123 which discusses what to look for in a placement consultant. Plese fell free to contact me if you have additional questions. This article was entered by Joel Smith for Angela Williams. We are both Placement Consultants with P.J. Ward.