Applied for a full-time job, got a contractor offer

[MSchemist80]

Unfortunately Life Science PhDs are terrible for employment and a sizable portion of the jobs available are such permatemp jobs with corporations especially Pharma. He can take the job but continue searching with full effort for a real job because I wouldn't bet on them ever offering you perm employment. In such companies and I've worked for a large corp before contractors are second class citizens.

[LakeLifePA]

Originally Posted by sevimli

I applied to this company for a certain position, during all my interviews nobody had ever mentioned "contractor" position. Job description that I applied for was also for a full time job for this big pharma. All of sudden I have to deal with a different contractor company that supposed to represent me.

What would you do in this situation? what are my options? I am open to your suggestions!

Welcome to 2015. This is not unusual and a way for companies to vet people before making long term obligations to them. Here's the thing: You don't have to accept the position. If it makes you uncomfortable then don't.

[oberon_1]

Originally Posted by sevimli

Hi all,

I am a PhD with 2 years of postdoctoral experience in life sciences.

This past summer (yes, almost 7 months ago) I applied for a scientist position in a big pharma (XYZ). In this period, I had 4 phone and 2 onsite interviews, all went well. Sometimes I had to wait about 1 month between the interviews as they couldn't find a good time that meets everyone' schedule in the team. My experience with this job application was so far so good. All HR persons who contacted me were always from XYZ's own HR department.

Long story short, today I was contacted by their HR, and I was told that everyone in the team is very positive about me and therefore I will be offered a contractor position . So far all I know is a staffing company(!) will be (who knows when?) contacting me for the details for the job, I don't even know my salary, benefits etc.

Now HR does not want provide me any details as they are "only" hiring FTEs to the XYZ, and do not handle the contractors.

Can a big company share my personal information with an external staffing company without my consent? Is this even legal?

I applied to this company for a certain position, during all my interviews nobody had ever mentioned "contractor" position. Job description that I applied for was also for a full time job for this big pharma. All of sudden I have to deal with a different contractor company that supposed to represent me.

What would you do in this situation? what are my options? I am open to your suggestions!

Sucks, but it comes down to how much you want the job...Today employers do whatever they want on a whim.

Originally Posted by FeelinLow

Sounds like they are trying to save money and not pay benefits or a long term job.
They probably have been dragging their feet to wait for the new year's budget to kick in too. Just a guess.
It would bother me too. I would request an interview to learn more about this option, if you are still interested.

Sometimes they don't save money at all, but follow a sudden decision made by senior management. At other times the savings are minuscule, not worth mentioning. People don't know, but these HR companies charge a lot. I mean big money.

[sware2cod]

Are you in need of a job? If the pay is good enough, it might be a good stepping stone for you because it could look good on your resume.

If you are out of work, then it's better than nothing for now, right? Unless the pay is so low that it will hurt your future job prospects. You have to outweight low pay over having a big gap on your resume, especially if you are fresh out of school. Ideally you want to begin gaining experience in your career field as soon as you complete school or a few months later. Else the job prospects in your field can dwindle due to the gap in time between finishing school.

Good luck. I do contract work. I like it. The key here is to make sure you are paid market rate (or higher). In my field (IT), you can make very good money doing contract work. It's scary listening to the Chemist poster above about Big Pharma contract worker pay. I hope your offer is good. Pls keep us posted.

[MSchemist80]

Contract pay in the sciences is lousy. I went from about $40k and absolutely no benefits and having to file ss-8 when the agency tried to dodge payroll taxes to $65k and full benefits and am now at $72.5k A lot of the big corps (expecially pharma) have armies of contractors that are second class citizens treated like excrement and rarely hired. I was reading about Eli Lilly and AMRI and they use such large ammounts of contractors thye have agencies almost completely at their disposal.

Contracting is pretty much the Industrial equivalent of Post-Doc limbo in Academia.

[sevimli]

Thanks for all the replies!!!


Currently I am employed, I love what I am doing, but my salary is 40K. Job is secure for 2 more years, but I don't see a future here and I have a family to look after. My goal is to become a FTE in a big pharma. I am seeing this an opportunity to step inside the pharma world. The more I stay in academia the harder is to do the switch.

As of today, I haven't gotten any verbal/written offer yet.
I talked to the the hiring manager regarding job responsibilities and starting date. She was not able to discuss any further questions in my mind (benefits (if any), salary, etc. ).

I am still waiting a call from the staffing company. What are my options for the negotiation? Hiring manager already thinks I will be working for her, so they want me, no questions there. What if staffing company doesn't like my counter offer? Is it the end of the story?

[DavidRudisha]

Do some internet research to find out what it's like to be a contractor (i.e. not a "real" employee) of the company. Some companies are open to hiring their contractors and other companies aren't. Some put contractors in sophisticated roles and others give them brainless grunt work.

[MSchemist80]

Originally Posted by sevimli

Thanks for all the replies!!!

I'd rather keep the $40k [Is it a post-doc?] than get into big pharma contract limbo. Most of the big corps are notorious permatemp houses that never hire. Some smaller companies do the tryout the employee on contract deal (not all of them hire either). That seems to be the future of big pharma that they are not going to hire any scientists but have armies of disposable contractors. As I said I wouldn't count on ever getting hired permanently from it.

As for the agency they will lowball you. If you tell them you are making 40k They will probably try to offer $21 an hour no benefits, not even sick leave or vacation.

Have you considered maybe a smaller company or biotech? Big pharma has been a slaughterhouse for the past decade for scientific careers and I don't see that changing in the near future.

Above all else if you end up taking the contract job for heavens sake continue searching for a real direct job with full effort as though you were unemployed because at any second you can become unemployed. They have absolutely no commitment to you as a contractor. All it takes is one phone call to toss you back to the curb.

[Gasolin]

Well first of all, never give your salary. No need. For a contractor job, the usual salary scale should not apply. The rate the agency will invoice to your pharma company will not change, and it's just a matter of your takeout %.

You need to have more information about the market salary for such a position, and basically increase it +10% to cover for contingency, and increase again to cover for the various taxes you are going to have to deal with.

Then, you will negotiate.

Even in the pharmaceutic industry, I suppose jobs vary a lot. Do you have some SAS skills maybe? Or statistical skills? Those would help to increase your rate.