Santosh sent me an email about a Data Architect position in Rochester, MI. Before I even had a chance to read the email (and I was reading email at that time), he called me. Now IT leadership is my forte and my resume is tailored thus, but my technical expertise is RDBMS, Enterprise Databases, Data Warehousing, ETL, BI, Data Modeling, Optimization, ODBC and generally making systems and databases talk to each other. So, I am a good fit for this.
The Position
So he tells me the rate, for the sake of illustration, let us say $80/hour. I am looking for a job; the money was ok, the location is great, bring it on. He wanted a current resume. I send it and qualified it with the statement that it is a resume tailored for technical leadership.
Then Santosh tells me the position is for the Mayo Clinic. Now, I know the Mayo Clinic is in Minnesota and I asked again, just to be sure.
Trish: "The Mayo Clinic is in Rochester, Minnesota, and I am in Michigan, are you sure about the location of Rochester, Michigan?"
Santosh: "Oh! No, No, they have a location in Rochester, Michigan."
Ok, I think to myself. Crittenton Hospital and Oakland University are in Rochester, MI. Henry Ford Health has IT services and medical offices in Rochester, MI. The Mayo Clinic very well could be opening a satellite office. It is not outside the realm of believability. So, I go along with Santosh.
Negotiating?
Santosh tells me the client loves me, and although he quoted me $80/hour, he has to be able to undercut the competition, so he can only go $75/hour. He tells me his firm will only be "breaking even" on the deal.
I'm thinking that's $200 A WEEK, he's nicking me for. And, he is sending me another email, could I please fill-in the number of years of experience in each of the following areas? Ok, I agree and proceed to fill out the experience grid. Less than 5 minutes later, he calls me AGAIN.
Santosh: "Trish did you receive my email? Where is the experience grid?"
Trish: "I am working on it now."
Santosh: " Oh, did you receive my email? Where is the experience grid?
Trish: "I am working on it now."
Santosh: "My manager says we can only pay, $74/hour. Can you please put in your response to me, that you agree to this rate."
I am grumbling to myself that he just nicked me for another $40/week. But justify it by telling myself, I am on a diet, I will do without lunch. But also thinking that Santosh wasn't going without lunch. I
do as he asks. As I was pressing "send", he called AGAIN. Now they can only go $73/hour (and another $40/week, I'm going to end up paying them.) can I please agree to that in an email. Now, this position was to run 6 months. Recall the rate started at $80/hour and he nicked me for $280/week, that totaled $7280 for the contract. Nobody likes to take a $7000 plus hit. At this point I'm feeling like he's scammed me.
As I pressed send, he call me AGAIN. Now the client just loves me, but needs me to sign an agreement for Syntel to represent me. So, I get the email and Santosh, had sent my resume back to me, no agreement. So again, before I even could call him. He was calling me yet again.
"Where is the agreement? Can you please sign and return it to me"
I told him, he needs to send me a copy of the agreement.
Location, Location, Location
As I describe what transpired the other day, I may have left out a couple of calls, but I just checked my phone to verify how many times he actually called me. In the span of 3 1/2 hours, Santosh and I had a total of 10 calls. And the above gives you a flavor for the afternoon. And after all this, I am both amused and mildly irritated at the same time. You know the feeling? Finally, his email with the agreement arrives. I read it and the position location is in Rochester, MINNESOTA!
You know the feeling? To put into the words of the great, Charlie Brown: "ARRRGGGGH"
The Icing on the Cake
So, I call him back and explained that my rates had to go up 25% for a remote location. I followed up with an email, outlining the new rates with and without expenses included, and even offered to telecommute for the agreed upon rate. The icing on cake was the following day, when he actually responded to my email, saying that telecommuting was not a valid option.
Recruitard Award
Santosh of Syntel, LLC is a tr
uly deserving recruitard. Santosh, in honor of your blundering ways in recruiting, you are hereby awarded the Recruitard's, Heads UP Award.Check out my other blog at: http://detroitprojectmanagers.blogspot.com
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Armada Business Consulting, Inc.
Armada Business Consulting, Inc specializes in excellence in execution for Technical Project Management and LEAN implementations. Contact Trish at trish_sutter@yahoo.com.
