Who was a recruiter I had back in London. Now, let's paint the tale - starving software engineer, down on his luck, looking for a job. Vani, the recruiter with a job, and The Man, in this case a company (whose name I have, actually honestly forgotten) which was in the business of "adult phone services". This is either (for women) crap like horoscopes and cooking recipes, and (for men) "adult phone services *wink wink*".
I added the "*wink wink*" just for clarification.
SO yeah, I blow them apart, do their dinky little "java test" and kill it, and then they offer me the job. It's not much money, and the company is by no means a bank, and it is in no way at all a career step that is worth my time. So I ask them for time to "think about it" - I'm waiting on some other offers.
Oh wait, it's an IT job, I wasn't actually being offered to pretend to be a women to lonely men over the phone.
The more time passes (I asked for 3 days - stupid!) and I don't have a definite on the other offers yet... Vani (the recruiter? Remember? He was a paragraph ago, goldfish-person) calls. I tell him I need more time.
Then he calls back.
"Andrew, this is Vani. I have just spoken to the client, and he is saying that he thinks he has given you the time to make the decision, and you should make the decision. He thinks that if you don't take it now, but take it later, it means you don't really want this job and you will just spend your time looking for new jobs."
Vani, mate, the client is astute. But this leaves me in a bad place! I can't possibly accept this job, but I don't have guarantees on the other fronts - what happens if IT ALL FALLS APART? Huh? What then?
So I accept. Oh, wait, I'm doing talk-things now instead...
"Vani, I'll accept the job, but the wage isn't what I'm looking for. See if you can get it up a bit, let's add, ummm, five thousand pounds."
Now, I know what this client (The Man) is thinking - they think that the other jobs have piked on me (when they are just slow), and I'm diddling around for more money.
"Andrew, this is Vani. The client has come back, and will add two and a half thousand pounds, and no more."
"Well, Vani, then I can't take the job."
"Andrew, I'll let you think about it, and will call you back."
"No, Vani..."
"*deet-deet-deet*"
(That last bit wasn't Vani SAYING deet-deet-deet, but was the sound of the hung-up dial tone. Got it?)
Ok, so, Vani calls back, and adds on ANOTHER thousand pounds. But after a bit, I tell him I can't accept the job. They wanted me to start immediately, and were generally being ridiculous about the whole thing.
Which is when Vani thinks the time is right to open up a can of Vani-quality-whup-ass on me.
"Andrew, this is Vani. I know you want to work in the financial sector, but you don't have enough experience to do that. You can't just get a job in that area without experience. This is a good job, and it's a good step up for you. After two years, you will have enough experience to get that financial sector job, but right now, you should take this. You only have a year's work, you aren't going to find a better paying job anywhere in London. If you don't take this now, you won't get another chance at this job."
It was the most cynical, disgusting thing that's happened on holiday, and I've seen the poor and impoverished. Vani was really just trying to twist the knife to get me to accept this job. It was being really crudely done by him, but he was doing it nonetheless. Anyway, I
