Freelancers who acquire new orders have been experiencing significant changes for some time now. Fewer and fewer companies have direct contact with their contractors when they are commissioned. Recruitment agencies are increasingly pushing their way between companies and independent contractors.
If specialist knowledge is required for a project, companies are happy to call on external specialists. This approach gives companies the greatest possible flexibility in terms of cost control. But freelancers also benefit from this practice. They can focus exclusively on topics in which they have a strong interest. This avoids being used for boring, routine standard tasks. Due to their experience in different organizational structures and the variety of projects, independent contractors have a broad portfolio of unconventional solution strategies. This knowledge base is very attractive for clients, even if a freelance external employee is initially more expensive than their permanent colleague. Freelancers can bring positive impulses to the project due to their diverse experience, which can overcome a standstill.
Unfortunately, for some time now, companies have no longer been making an independent effort to recruit the specialists they need. The task of recruitment has now been outsourced to external recruitment agencies almost everywhere. These so-called
I actually find the idea of having my own agent who takes care of my order acquisition very appealing. It’s like in the film and music industry. You have an agent who has your back and gives you regular feedback. This gives you a picture of the technologies that are in demand and in which you can develop further. This allows you to improve your own market relevance and ensures regular commissions. This would actually be an ideal win-win situation for everyone involved. Unfortunately, what actually happens in reality is something completely different.
Instead of recruiters building a good relationship with their professionals and encouraging their development, these recruiters act like harmful parasites. They harm both the freelancers and the companies looking to fill vacancies. Because business is not really about finding the most suitable candidate for a company. It’s all about offering candidates who fit the profile you’re looking for at the lowest possible hourly rate. Whether these candidates can really do the things they claim to be able to do is often questionable.
The approach of recruitment agencies is very similar. They try to generate a large pool of current applicant profiles. These profiles are then searched for keywords using automatic A. I. text recognition systems. Then, from the proposed candidates, those with the lowest hourly rate are contacted for a preliminary interview. Those who show no major anomalies in this preliminary interview are then suggested to the company for an interview appointment. The recruitment company’s profit is enormous. This is because they pocket the difference between the hourly rate paid by the client and the hourly rate paid to the self-employed person. In some cases, this can be up to 40%.
But that’s not all these parasitic intermediaries have to offer. They often delay the payment date for the invoice issued. They also try to shift the entire entrepreneurial risk onto the freelancer. This is done by demanding pointless liability insurance policies that are not relevant to the advertised position. As a result, companies are then given vacancies for supposedly skilled workers who are more likely to be classified as unskilled workers.
Now you might ask yourself why companies continue to work with intermediaries. One reason is the current political situation. Since around 2010, for example, there have been laws in Germany aimed at preventing bogus self-employment. Companies that work directly with freelancers are often put under pressure by pension insurance companies. This creates a great deal of uncertainty and does not serve to protect freelancers. It only protects the business model of the intermediary companies.
I have now gotten into the habit of hanging up without comment and immediately when I notice various basic patterns. Such phone calls are a waste of time and lead to nothing except annoyance at the audacity of the recruitment agency. The most important indication of dubious recruiters is that the person on the phone is suddenly completely different from the one who first contacted you. If this person also has a very strong Indian accent, you can be 100% sure that you have been connected to a call center. Even if the number shows England as the area code, the people are actually based somewhere in India or Pakistan. Nothing that would underline the seriousness.
I have registered on various job portals over the many years of my career. My conclusion is that you can save yourself the time. 95% of all contacts made via these portals are recruiters as described above. These people then have the scam that you save them as a contact. However, it is naive to believe that these so-called network requests are really about direct contact. The purpose of this action is to obtain the contact list. This is because many portals such as XING and LinkedIn have the setting that contacts see the contacts from their own list or are offered them via the network function. These contact lists can be worth a lot of money. You can find department heads or other professionals who are definitely worth writing to. I have therefore deactivated access to the friends list for friends in all social networks. I also reject all connection requests from people with the title Recruitment without exception. My presence in social networks now only serves to protect my profile name against identity theft. I no longer respond to most requests to send a CV. I also do not enter my personal information on jobs, studies and employers in these network profiles. If you would like to contact me, you can do so via my homepage.
Another habit I’ve picked up over the years is to never talk about my salary expectations first. If the other person can’t give me a specific figure that they’re willing to pay for my services, they’re just looking for data. So that’s another reason to end the conversation abruptly. It’s also none of their business what my hourly rate was in previous projects. They only use this information to push the price down. If you are a bit sensitive and don’t want to give a rude answer, simply quote a very high hourly rate or daily rate.
As we can see, it’s not that difficult to recognize the real black sheep very quickly by their behaviour. My advice is, as soon as one of the patterns described above occurs, to save time and above all nerves and simply end the conversation. From experience, I can say that if the brokers behave as described, there will definitely be no mediation. It is then better to concentrate your energy on realistic contacts. Because there are also really good placement companies. They are interested in long-term cooperation and behave completely differently. They provide support and advice on how to improve your CV and advise companies on how to formulate realistic job offers.
Unfortunately, I fear that the situation will continue to deteriorate from year to year. The impact of economic development and the widespread availability of new technologies will also continue to increase the pressure on the labor market. Neither companies nor contractors will have any further opportunities in the future if they do not adapt to the new times and take different paths.
