A person with company A has a concern about some work that needs to be done. They call outsource IT firm B with whom they have a contract. Firm B has nobody on staff with the required experience. Company B is big and well known. Their solution: call recruiter C who in turn checks their database and realizes that Linux systems consultant D has the experience. Hi! I’m D.
Unfortunately this is being handled like a game of telephone and the information C gave to D (me) didn’t clearly explain what they needed so D (me) asked for more information. In the meanwhile I get a note from B forwarded by C that makes it very clear what is needed. Thank you, C, but… I now have to go back to C to tell them my question is irrelevant. Asking it would make me look stupid because it really isn’t the issue at all. If that message gets through in time I give them what they need to present me successfully to B and A. Fortunately C did get the message before presenting D to B.
Why might this still not happen? B presents this as if A is demanding someone who has worked on the exact same hardware running the exact same application. That’s why I asked an irrelevant application question in the first place. Software vendor E supports the revised environment for their application and actually has this all very well documented. I work with E for another client so I have access to their knowledge base. I can definitely solve the problem. That doesn’t change the fact that I don’t match on the irrelevant points of experience and they may turn around and look for someone who does.
Welcome to the world of IT consulting in 2017. Does this make sense to anyone? It doesn’t to me.