Better approach

[Meghana Meduri]

Hello,

I have this scenario where I cannot tell what went wrong.

I am working at client site and my employer is a consulting firm. This is like a two layered scenario where my employer is working with another consulting firm say "ConsB" and I am on the ConsB client site. So, I report to the ConsB Program manager.

In one of our meetings end client said that they are looking for a developer and they are interviewing few people this week.

I was interested in this position and I sopke with my ConsB programmer if they can be considered for the position. (my current position is like couple months and I am not sure if it gets extended or not).

He asked me why I am interested and started talking about loyality and all that stuff. He was asking if I get offer from some other company real soon will I quit job and take that offer.

It really confused me as I was not excepting any such questions and It became more worse when he discussed with my employer.

Now, Is there any better approach to handle such things.
I am sure many of you might have recrutied by your end client when you were consultant with them. Is it just this scenario or it happens in every firm or this is something that should not be approached.

Your thoughts will give me a good insight in handling such things in future

[Jason Cox]

This happened at my last client actually, where they tried to hire away about five people but ended up with only two.

I can say that it caused quite a stir because we all had non-compete agreements, though the client was willing to buy them out. It does look disloyal if you are a full-time direct hire. If you're a subcontractor, I don't see what the issue is. I always feel like subcontractors need to look out for themselves first and not worry about their parent companies too much. After all, if they saw you as anything other than an asset they'd be giving you a permanent position.

That said, you generally do not discuss a prospective employer with your current employer. It does look very disloyal. Personally I struggle with this from an ethical standpoint because you basically have to pretend like everything is perfectly ok while you are in fact working on getting another job. There really is no good way to go about it other than keeping it as quiet as possible.

[Meghana Meduri]

Thanks alot for your reply Rob.
Tomorrow my employer is meeting me in person to discuss this.
I hope it goes well.

[Mark Herschberg]

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding. It sounds like you're currently in a contract with your current employer. You should be looking for your next job after that, and they should expect that of you (although from what I understand many poorly run companies don't understand this).

Your manager understandably feels concerned about your leaving. If you leave before the job is done, it will impact him (e.g. he didn't complete the project on time).

First, make it clear to your manager that you are happy with your current job, will absolutely honor your commitment, like him, like the company, etc. Don't add to his concerns, and at this point alleviate them. That said, explain that you have to be concerned about your next project (again note that you will not leave before this job is complete). This could be a good way to nudge him about extending your contract. To do that, for example, you could note how much you like this contract, and that you felt anxious because they haven't talked about renewing it. At this point he might work to lock you in by extending your contract (note: don't think you've got it until you have a signed contract and one they can't reneg on without penalty; some bad employers will simply string you along until the other role is filled.)

--Mark

[Meghana Meduri]

Thanks Mark,

Fortunately My Employer is very understanding and he is willing to let me persue this position if my ConsB Project Manager has no Issues.
When I asked my ConsB Project Manager about this position I told him that I will first complete my current project.

While my ConsB project manager is figuring out why I want to persue this position, I hear that position got filled up..

I am Glad that My Employer is fair enough and said he will look for contract to hire position in future.