The Disappearing Project Phenomenon

It's happened to us all, hasn't it? Recruiter submits you name to a project and it goes into a black hole. Worse, you have a firm start date and it gets pushed back. And back. And the recruiter doesn't hear from the contact. It might not be as big of a concern in a larger market, but I'm neither in New York nor Washington, DC. Projects here are smaller for the most part, and there are more agencies than seems realistic for the size of the market. Competition seems pretty fierce. Then again, both rent for a workspace and hourly rates for contract attorneys are less, not to mention the abundant supply of unemployed attorneys.

One mistake that people here make is to register only with one agency. I know the agencies prefer that, but in this market, it isn't realistic. I have worked for two agencies the last two years because neither has had projects consistently. I'm registered with a total of six agencies currently, none of which has a project.

Many attorneys register with one agency, possibly two, and wait until one of these two players has a project. I recently registered with a national agency which has only recently opened an office in my city; I was on a long-term project, so no real need to register. Until my project ended and the other possible project was canceled. I had spoken with the recruiter a few months ago, but held off due to the open-ended project I was on at the time. Had I registered with her sooner, nothing would have changed; she didn't have a project then and doesn't have one now.

When my projects end, I immediately update my resume and send it to all agencies with which I'm registered and let them know my project has ended and I'm available to work. I also send a resume to any agency advertising a project with which I haven't registered. If you don't let people know you're available, you're going to be sitting home collecting unemployment. While I realize that in the summertime that isn't the worst possible outcome, I have bills to pay, financial goals to achieve and would rather work.

I find it incredible that people don't contact additional agencies once they learn that the agency with which they have worked has no available options for them. I tend to contact that agency each week, thinking that if I do so, I have the best chance of getting on a project; on more than one occasion, I have contacted my recruiter and been told she has nothing, only to get a call within a few days telling me about a project to which she'd like to submit my resume. A couple of those projects have lasted much longer than originally projected.