When recruiters lie

The phrases “contract to hire” or “temp to hire” seem at first to be tempting offers if you trust the recruiter you are working with. Keep in mind most recruiters don’t care about your well being and will say anything or do anything to get you into the position they are pushing. Think of them as car salesmen. It is their commission that matters most to them. They will say the job is contract to hire when in fact it is only a contract and you will be out of a job in 30 or 90 days once the project is finished.

The reasoning they use is that the employer wants the opportunity to evaluate you before they make you permanent. This is a lie. If the company actually wanted a permanent employee they would hire and would not use a recruiter. The company does not want to spend money on finding temporary employees so they use recruiters. Recruiters know that most people won’t take an outright contract so they have to fudge the truth and say it will turn into a permanent job. The truth is there is no such thing as a contract to hire. There is only contracts (temp jobs). Recruiters spin it to make it look better then it is. Don’t be fooled.

Companies play the game as well and may also say it will turn into a permanent position just to get you on board for the project. Once the project is finished however , they get rid of you because to them you were nothing more then a temp worker. This setup works out great for the company because most of the work they have is project based and they need highly skilled workers for only a short time. They don’t have to worry about benefits or taxes, all they have to do is use a recruiter who is good at lying to people who think they are getting an opportunity to prove themselves when in fact it is all a lie.

If you decide to take a contract anyway remember when negotiating pay that YOU have to pay your benefits. That means you pay for healthcare, retirement, and you get no time off. No sick time, no vacation time, not family leave time….nothing. If you have to miss work you simply lose pay because as a contract worker you are paid hourly not a salary. There are no raises and no bonuses. It may seem like they pay you a lot hourly but remember they are not paying taxes for you and no benefits. They actually save money on you when you are a contractor. If they paid you the hourly rate that factored in all the benefits, loss wages for being sick, vacation, whatever; they could not afford you and they would not be able to make money off of you. A lot of people forget about this and realize (after they become a contractor) they are making less then if they were as a perm employee. Think about it. How are recruiters able to stay I business? Why do companies do it? It’s not because they love paying high hourly wages. There are hidden costs to having a perm employee. Contractors are a cheap work force and it is all based on the lies of the company and the recruiters. The business of contracting is based on taking advantage of people who simply don’t know any better. Recruiters may even try to offer you benefits but guess what, the benefits are only available to you while you are on the contract and typically are not very good to begin with. They will try to keep you on the contract by extending it and telling you more lies like your doing a good job and just to wait a little longer and you will be perm. Don’t believe them. It is a lie. They are profiting more and more the longer you are on the contract. Don’t fall for this, it is an effort to keep you from leaving and finding perm work.

The only time a contracting position should be considered is if you are unemployed and you need to make ends meet. Even then, you must understand it should be a temporary situation until you can find permanent employment. No one regulates this industry and it is kept hush because businesses benefit greatly from this type of arrangement. Recruiters benefit. You do not.