Hi all,

A little call out to any people out there that can suggest good IT agencies for looking for IT work with. I have been to a number of interviews at the moment, some unsuccessful, some fallen through due to the economic environment and some on hold and am getting very frustrated now.

Any pointers in the right direction would be very much appreciated.

For the record, I do both Technical and Enterprise Architecture work, have almost 20 years of experience and what I believe is a very good CV and references, am currently based in Baden but would relocate anywhere although I would like to stay in the German side of the country.

Thanks.

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Living it up in Gersau.

hi Colin,
you might want to look at the consultancy I'm working for: www.t2b.ch based in Basel.

cheers,
Stefano

Hays have an office in Basel. I've found them to be one of the best agencies I've worked with.

www.elanit.ch

I usually look on jobserve.com and put the location I want to work in. You can then see which agent have jobs in your area and contact them.

This is a company that helped me get a job. I talked with the office in Basel, but they have offices in most major cities.

http://www.oprandi.ch/

me 2.......

Same here. Basically every agent has English jobs to offer. As long as the job's there, they offer it, it's money and all agents care about.

http://www.iet.ch/

If you want to make real money, never use an agency unless is has the words "Executive" on it.

Job agencies work for the other side, never for you. I have faced in two separate occasions the same job for the same company offering about 30% lower salary via agency than going directly to the company.

I've heard someone doing something really bad: He would apply for jobs via agency by using a false name and address. Then, the agency will arrange a meeting with the company where he will never show up. The next day he would apply for the same job directly and negociate better wages.

Of course, this is problaby immoral, I don't know, so don't do this!

Just my two cents.

Sorry, but this makes zero sense. What is the hear-say guy doing? Why does he want an agency to set up a meeting he doesn't go to? How would he know what salary they'd possibly offer him after two interviews or so?

Agencies don't work "for the other side" at all. They work for themselves. They typically want a quick sell, so they will convince you to accept a salary that is a tad bit lower what you can get if you negotiate hard and they will convince the employer to accept you while they could possibly find a better candidate if they'd put more effort in the search. Easy.

I'm an IT recruiter you can PM me for help / advice

Check www.stellen.ch quite now and then.What I have found different in this site is they list the company that has posted the position while monster or elanit will just have vague specs about the company. It is helpful since you can directly apply in the company's website and it sometimes works faster than through a consultant. I recently went through the job hunt phase and I have got a call from the company's HR in less than 30 mts of submitting the application whereas the consultant may take forever to get back.

105k last time I checked. A bit less than me, and a bit less benefits, but ok salary nonetheless.

The agency believes he will go to the meeting, thus providing him either the company name or the address. He needs the company name in order to offer himself to the company directly.

He asks the angency and gets a ballpark estimate.

True. What I meant is that agencies do not work for sure. That's for sure.

Cheers!

"What I meant is that agencies do not work for sure. That's for sure."

I meant:

What I meant is that agencies do not work for YOU. That's for sure.

No, not really. I've been using IT recruitment agencies as a hiring manager, employee and contractor for 20 years. The ones with Executive in their title are simply trying to impress. They're neither better nor worse than any others.

For permanent employment, while they want to get you in, a 30% differential is unlikely in the extreme. With a 70K salary, the agency cost might be 17K, once, so if they're not having to pay that, you might negotatiate 75K (a year, every year). Salary via agency 70K, direct 100K? I don't think so!

For contracting, you might get a 30% differential... except few employers will take on a contractor direct - they prefer agencies for lots of reasons.

Yes, your friend is behaving immorally, probably telling lies about 30%, and clearly unsuccessful in his blagging, if he's only managed 100K, which is normal for IT work.

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Down with racism. Long live miscegenation!

Hmmm.. You know: Switzerland is a fairly small country. I am here for six years by now and have changed my job twice. As it happened, I met the same headhunter over the years at three different agencies - hiring seems to be one of the industries with the biggest turnover. So I do not think it is smart to even attempt this for several reasons:
- There is no way I would hire you if I find out you behave so unethically. I would not expect you to be a loyal employee and I think your moral compass is so broken that I would not trust you with any confidential stuff my competitors would like to know. Headhunters and clients talk... so they do find out sooner or later.
- If you plan to stay here longer, the chance is high that you will be looking for another job in two or three years. You have a fair chance to run into the same consultancies and people again then...
- and karma comes in a full circle...

On a side note: 105k CHF a year is nowhere near "executive" for Zurich standards. Nothing under at least 150k is. Any agency actually talking to people of that level is not doing "executive search" - they use the term to look professional, nothing else. Its a bit like "luxury": If you need to write it in your advertisement, you probably aren't... otherwise it's obvious.