Many vendors require that you carry insurance. It is not a client requirement it is theres. Alot of the insurance is expense. Here is a list of common insurance.
1. General Liability: Basically if you drop kick a monitor you are covered. Its about $600/year for $1 million.
2. Car Insurance: Yes many companies require that you carry this. It's stupid. It's just standard contract BS and they don't want to tailor it. They usually want a $1 million policy. Just in case you accidently drive into the building and kill a few people. I believe this is about $200.
3. Errors and Omissions(E&O). This covers you making a coding mistake. It's very expense. Up to $4000 per $5 million in coverage. Some companies want $20 million in coverage.
The car insurance often requires that you pay $150 up front. However, the rest does not. Here is what you do. Call an insurance company. Get the required insurance. They will send you confirmation by email. Send that info to your vendor. Cancel the insurance without paying.
They never check. If you are concerned hold on to it for a couple of weeks and then cancel without paying. If they question it later do it again. If you do a good job onsite and the client loves you they won't "fire" you. You have power if you do a very good job for the client.
The car insurance is idiotic. General Liability is silly. I mean seriously are you going to lose your laptop? What are the odds? If you do, how often will you do it? Once? Business laptops are not expensive. Just pay for it.
Now E&O is a risk. I have never met anyone sued for making a coding mistake. Ever. However, if they do you are screwed. I risk it. I am not paying this much money.
Friday, June 29, 2007
Friday, June 8, 2007
For those who say H1Bs are benign
I am a US citizen. I just got this off of my anonymous resume on monster. It does not mention H1B anywhere in it. I also got one a few months ago that talked about how they have an immigration lawyer on staff.
Whoever heard of having to pay a $500 deposit for a job? It basically means you pay them and if you don't take the job they keep the money. So H1Bs are paying these guys to find them a job. I believe this is against the law. Don't bother emailing him and asking if they hire non-US citizens they won't respond.
Title: Looking for change/H1 Transfer?
Hi
I was going across your profile on one of the Job Portals and found suitable for our Direct Client Requirements. I would like to know if you would like to pursue full time opportunity with Universal Software. All the projects will be with prestigious clients of Universal and contractual in nature. You should be open to relocate or should have minimum relocation constraint.
We also expect 1 month of exclusive right in marketing your profile. Also during this period we need your availability to take calls. We deliver what we commit.If interested please mail your resume with following details.Total (IT US exp)
Current SalaryExpected Salary, Visa Validity,Notice Period Current locationRelocation Details.
BENEFITS OFFERED
We provide benefits like-
1 On bench Salary, (Base Salary)
2 Medical Benefits (65%)
3 Relocation Benefits
4 2 weeks of paid vacation/annum
5 Technical and professional training
6 Sponsorship for Certification
7 Green Card
TERMS AND CONDITIONSThere is year long contract with the company
There is a security deposit of $500 which is refundable within 60 days of joining the company.ABOUT UNIVERSALUniversal Software (www.Universal-sw.com) is a leading provider of global software engineering, customization and integrated services located at Nashua. Universal is focused on enabling clients with the best IT infrastructure to suit their needs, in a timely fashion and at the best value.Our client list consists of companies like Johns Hopkins Hospitals, Speranza Systems, Nortel Networks, DaimlerChrysler, Sun Microsystems, Partners Health Care, Morgan Stanley, Sprint , Gateway, IBM Global, Mass General Hospital , HSBC Securities, Verizon Inc, Schneider Automation, Idiom Technologies, MED Institute, Inc , Jensyn , LLC, AliasWire Inc, Nellymoser, Inc., Edocs, Patni Computers, etc.For more details please log on to www.universal-sw.comPlease confirm your interest.
For more details please log on to www.universal-sw.com
Please confirm your interest.
Thanks and Regards,
Renu SharmaUniversal Software Corp
20,Industrial Park Drive,
Nashua,NH 03062978-703-0504
mailto:renus@universal-sw.com
MSN IM
renu_usoftware@hotmail.com
Whoever heard of having to pay a $500 deposit for a job? It basically means you pay them and if you don't take the job they keep the money. So H1Bs are paying these guys to find them a job. I believe this is against the law. Don't bother emailing him and asking if they hire non-US citizens they won't respond.
Title: Looking for change/H1 Transfer?
Hi
I was going across your profile on one of the Job Portals and found suitable for our Direct Client Requirements. I would like to know if you would like to pursue full time opportunity with Universal Software. All the projects will be with prestigious clients of Universal and contractual in nature. You should be open to relocate or should have minimum relocation constraint.
We also expect 1 month of exclusive right in marketing your profile. Also during this period we need your availability to take calls. We deliver what we commit.If interested please mail your resume with following details.Total (IT US exp)
Current SalaryExpected Salary, Visa Validity,Notice Period Current locationRelocation Details.
BENEFITS OFFERED
We provide benefits like-
1 On bench Salary, (Base Salary)
2 Medical Benefits (65%)
3 Relocation Benefits
4 2 weeks of paid vacation/annum
5 Technical and professional training
6 Sponsorship for Certification
7 Green Card
TERMS AND CONDITIONSThere is year long contract with the company
There is a security deposit of $500 which is refundable within 60 days of joining the company.ABOUT UNIVERSALUniversal Software (www.Universal-sw.com) is a leading provider of global software engineering, customization and integrated services located at Nashua. Universal is focused on enabling clients with the best IT infrastructure to suit their needs, in a timely fashion and at the best value.Our client list consists of companies like Johns Hopkins Hospitals, Speranza Systems, Nortel Networks, DaimlerChrysler, Sun Microsystems, Partners Health Care, Morgan Stanley, Sprint , Gateway, IBM Global, Mass General Hospital , HSBC Securities, Verizon Inc, Schneider Automation, Idiom Technologies, MED Institute, Inc , Jensyn , LLC, AliasWire Inc, Nellymoser, Inc., Edocs, Patni Computers, etc.For more details please log on to www.universal-sw.comPlease confirm your interest.
For more details please log on to www.universal-sw.com
Please confirm your interest.
Thanks and Regards,
Renu SharmaUniversal Software Corp
20,Industrial Park Drive,
Nashua,NH 03062978-703-0504
mailto:renus@universal-sw.com
MSN IM
renu_usoftware@hotmail.com
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Treat Recruiters like the bitches they are
Recruiters do not represent you. They are not brokers. They are not looking out to you. They will lie to you. They will feed you BS. Treat them the same way, but pretend like you like them. Learn the ancient art of BS. Recruiters are sales people. If you go to a recruiter office its often a room with some desks. They just do accounting.
This is how they work. They suck up to companies and feed them garbage. So they get vendor status with the company. They then forward resumes and people onsite do interviews. So it does not matter who your contract company is. Your boss is the person onsite. I have repeatedly heard vendors state things like "we have worked with such and such for 'x' number of years." We have tier one vendor status or some other name with the client. The programmer who is interviewing you does not care who forwarded your resume. You will pass or fail the interview on your own merits.
I have been contacted by as many as 10 recruiters for the exact same job. The rate varied by $23/hour from low to high. I picked the highest one and one of the few who would give me a corp to corp contract so I can get my tax breaks.
Recruiters make money two ways. Increase the bodies and increase the profit margin of the rate they are paid to what they pay you. That is the only way they make money. They are the only ones who know what that margin is. I have told clients that they should institute standard rate markups so that they can control their costs. If you are making $50/hour and your bill rate is $150/hour and the guy sitting next to you is making $100/hour and his bill rate is $110/hour who do you think has higher expectations? Why you with your $150/hour bill rate. Who do you think will get cut first? Well typically you with your $150/hour bill rate.
There is a myth that when recruiters do full time placement they are always trying to get you the best salary because they get more of a markup. That is similiar to the myth that the real estate agent is trying to get you the highest price for your house. In both cases they want to make the sale so they can work on the next sale. Look there is competition. If they can get you to take $10k less than the next guy they think they will look good to their client and increase the chance of getting their commission.
Now you are thinking... if they sell you for $10k less they will make less money. Correct, but they will get the sale. Which is what they want. The typical commission is around 20% of your salary. So $10k in salary is $2000 in commission. Sounds like alot of money. However, recruiters work for an employer. They don't get the whole $2000. They get a portion. How much they get typically varies from employer to employer. They would rather get 20% of something then get nothing. That being said you don't know whether the company is hiring on cost. Companies typically don't care about $5-10k drops in salary. Recruiters want to make themselves look good so they can hit the forward button on more resumes. I actually had one recruiter tell me to just take the job and quit when I passed on a permanent position.
Here are some more tips:
If you are an "employee" of a temp agency you are still a temp. They are just trying to trick you and the client into thinking you are a real employee. They do this so they can increase their marketing by going hey look at all of "our" consultants. They also do this in many cases so they don't pay you overtime(but they pocket the money), they have gimick bonuses, and/or they can try to get you to do work off the clock for them because you need to be a team player.
Now lets look at gimick bonuses. I have heard this before. "We don't pay overtime, but we have a good bonus plan". My Response: Give me my money. They have the bonus plan for a few reasons. They don't have to pay you right away so they can do stuff with the extra money. Also, if you quit you don't get your bonus(overtime), and they reserve the right to not pay you if they have a bad quarter. As if you should care about that...
Here are a couple of my favorite gimick compensation plans.
1. We pay everyone $45,000/year + 15% of their rate. This way you have an incentive to work over time.". Give me my money.
2. We consider 35 hours to be full time and then have a bonus plan. This really means you work 40 hours plus, but they don't pay you right away(and reserve the right to not pay you) and then pretend like they are family friendly.
I am seeing an increase in the number of "move at your own expense" temp jobs where you become an employee of the temp agency. Has anyone else been spammed by Ace Technology? I have gotten 25+ emails from them. They want me to move at my own expense to New York City for $80,000/year. A quick search shows me that my skill set pays $95k-$130k(at an I-Bank) on salary in New York. So no wonder they can't fill these positions. They claim to pay relocation, but its basically a week in hotel. They don't cover moving costs. Plus since they won't give a 1099 or Corp to Corp none of your expenses are tax deductible. This is clearly an H1B company. The number of move at your own expense temp jobs where you pretend to be an employee will increase as the number of H1Bs goes up.
This is one of my favorite lines from recruiters "While working with us we ask that you not work with any other recruiters". Then you never hear from them again. This is what you say back "Sure you sound like a great recruiting agency". Then continue to use other pimps.
When recruiters ask you where you are in your job search you always tell them that that you just got started and you don't have anything yet. Or else they won't talk to you again. I have said this when I have had multiple offers in my lap. You never know if they can get you a better deal...
Remember as I said in a previous blog entry, ALWAYS use an alias when communicating with recruiters until you get past money and the name of the client. You do NOT want them submitting you and locking you up. A small number of companies will throw you out if you dual submit. However, contract companies lie to you and try to get you to sign a binding contract with them so this does not happen to you. Very few companies actually do this. The first company owns you.
When you look at alot of recruiter websites they all look like the same thing. All they do is keyword searches, forward resumes, and then accounting. So do not fall for the "we are not a body shop". I have never heard a body shop go "we are a body shop". They are just liars. The worst are the ones that really pretend like they are more than a body shop and want you to come in and interview with them. This typically entails wasting time taking off of work to talk to them and then they hit you up for other resumes. One pimp wanted me to drive 52 miles to see them and they did not even have a job req. Yeah that was going to happen. I generally blow off pimps who make me go in to see them before talking to the client. Why should I waste my time? The client is all that matters.
All this being said. When you talk to recruiters sound positive. Lie and tell them you want to be a team player and their agency looks like a terrific agency. Tell them that they are the only pimp you are working with if you need to. They will lie to you. So lie to them. They don't matter.
Only the people who are interviewing you matter.
This is how they work. They suck up to companies and feed them garbage. So they get vendor status with the company. They then forward resumes and people onsite do interviews. So it does not matter who your contract company is. Your boss is the person onsite. I have repeatedly heard vendors state things like "we have worked with such and such for 'x' number of years." We have tier one vendor status or some other name with the client. The programmer who is interviewing you does not care who forwarded your resume. You will pass or fail the interview on your own merits.
I have been contacted by as many as 10 recruiters for the exact same job. The rate varied by $23/hour from low to high. I picked the highest one and one of the few who would give me a corp to corp contract so I can get my tax breaks.
Recruiters make money two ways. Increase the bodies and increase the profit margin of the rate they are paid to what they pay you. That is the only way they make money. They are the only ones who know what that margin is. I have told clients that they should institute standard rate markups so that they can control their costs. If you are making $50/hour and your bill rate is $150/hour and the guy sitting next to you is making $100/hour and his bill rate is $110/hour who do you think has higher expectations? Why you with your $150/hour bill rate. Who do you think will get cut first? Well typically you with your $150/hour bill rate.
There is a myth that when recruiters do full time placement they are always trying to get you the best salary because they get more of a markup. That is similiar to the myth that the real estate agent is trying to get you the highest price for your house. In both cases they want to make the sale so they can work on the next sale. Look there is competition. If they can get you to take $10k less than the next guy they think they will look good to their client and increase the chance of getting their commission.
Now you are thinking... if they sell you for $10k less they will make less money. Correct, but they will get the sale. Which is what they want. The typical commission is around 20% of your salary. So $10k in salary is $2000 in commission. Sounds like alot of money. However, recruiters work for an employer. They don't get the whole $2000. They get a portion. How much they get typically varies from employer to employer. They would rather get 20% of something then get nothing. That being said you don't know whether the company is hiring on cost. Companies typically don't care about $5-10k drops in salary. Recruiters want to make themselves look good so they can hit the forward button on more resumes. I actually had one recruiter tell me to just take the job and quit when I passed on a permanent position.
Here are some more tips:
If you are an "employee" of a temp agency you are still a temp. They are just trying to trick you and the client into thinking you are a real employee. They do this so they can increase their marketing by going hey look at all of "our" consultants. They also do this in many cases so they don't pay you overtime(but they pocket the money), they have gimick bonuses, and/or they can try to get you to do work off the clock for them because you need to be a team player.
Now lets look at gimick bonuses. I have heard this before. "We don't pay overtime, but we have a good bonus plan". My Response: Give me my money. They have the bonus plan for a few reasons. They don't have to pay you right away so they can do stuff with the extra money. Also, if you quit you don't get your bonus(overtime), and they reserve the right to not pay you if they have a bad quarter. As if you should care about that...
Here are a couple of my favorite gimick compensation plans.
1. We pay everyone $45,000/year + 15% of their rate. This way you have an incentive to work over time.". Give me my money.
2. We consider 35 hours to be full time and then have a bonus plan. This really means you work 40 hours plus, but they don't pay you right away(and reserve the right to not pay you) and then pretend like they are family friendly.
I am seeing an increase in the number of "move at your own expense" temp jobs where you become an employee of the temp agency. Has anyone else been spammed by Ace Technology? I have gotten 25+ emails from them. They want me to move at my own expense to New York City for $80,000/year. A quick search shows me that my skill set pays $95k-$130k(at an I-Bank) on salary in New York. So no wonder they can't fill these positions. They claim to pay relocation, but its basically a week in hotel. They don't cover moving costs. Plus since they won't give a 1099 or Corp to Corp none of your expenses are tax deductible. This is clearly an H1B company. The number of move at your own expense temp jobs where you pretend to be an employee will increase as the number of H1Bs goes up.
This is one of my favorite lines from recruiters "While working with us we ask that you not work with any other recruiters". Then you never hear from them again. This is what you say back "Sure you sound like a great recruiting agency". Then continue to use other pimps.
When recruiters ask you where you are in your job search you always tell them that that you just got started and you don't have anything yet. Or else they won't talk to you again. I have said this when I have had multiple offers in my lap. You never know if they can get you a better deal...
Remember as I said in a previous blog entry, ALWAYS use an alias when communicating with recruiters until you get past money and the name of the client. You do NOT want them submitting you and locking you up. A small number of companies will throw you out if you dual submit. However, contract companies lie to you and try to get you to sign a binding contract with them so this does not happen to you. Very few companies actually do this. The first company owns you.
When you look at alot of recruiter websites they all look like the same thing. All they do is keyword searches, forward resumes, and then accounting. So do not fall for the "we are not a body shop". I have never heard a body shop go "we are a body shop". They are just liars. The worst are the ones that really pretend like they are more than a body shop and want you to come in and interview with them. This typically entails wasting time taking off of work to talk to them and then they hit you up for other resumes. One pimp wanted me to drive 52 miles to see them and they did not even have a job req. Yeah that was going to happen. I generally blow off pimps who make me go in to see them before talking to the client. Why should I waste my time? The client is all that matters.
All this being said. When you talk to recruiters sound positive. Lie and tell them you want to be a team player and their agency looks like a terrific agency. Tell them that they are the only pimp you are working with if you need to. They will lie to you. So lie to them. They don't matter.
Only the people who are interviewing you matter.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)