In on of my No BS IT podcasts, I ‘ve compared relations between IT consultants and agents with how whores and pimps operate. Last week I was wearing the pimp ‘s hat, and here ‘s the story.

A group of consultants from our company works for a very reputable customer. You may not know, but it takes a lot of work and repeated performance for a small company to establish and maintain good relations with multi-billion dollar giants. We respect the rules, and whenever new job requirement comes in, we spend time finding a really good candidate before submitting the resume.

This time our client needed a strong Java consultant. None of our consultants was sitting on the bench (read standing on the corner), and we ‘ve asked a partner company if they may have someone who meets the requirements. They sent us the resume of Puneet Pagi, and it was good – there were lots of Java EE technologies and great projects, which looked real.

Real-shmeal…I interviewed Puneet to check if his technical level matches the resume. He was real.

Submitted the resume to the client, and they liked it too, politely asking what would be the convenient time for Puneet to come for a face to face interview. I passed this request to Punnet, and he sounded excited. This was ten days ago.

Five days passed, no word from Puneet. The client sending me emails asking why I haven ‘t responded. I knew that there was something fishy with this candidate. OK, picking up the phone.

“Puneet, I ‘m been waiting for your response for five days… ”

“This week was very busy for me, and I wouldn ‘t be able to go for an interview. ”

“I never asked you to go there this week, I just asked what would be a convenient time for you. Listen, I understand that people may be considering multiple opportunities, there is nothing wrong with this. Just tell me, so I ‘ll present to our client the right way. ”

“No, it ‘s nothing like that. It ‘s been a busy week, but I can go there on Monday or any other day next week. ”

“Are you sure? ”

“Yes ”

I made arrangements with the client, three people were involved to get Puneet a visitor ‘s pass, three client ‘s developers were assigned to meet with Puneet on Monday. Everything ‘s ready. The only thing that financial giant forgot to do was to roll out a red carpet.

On Thursday night, the HR person from our partner company called saying that Puneet notified them that he ‘s got an offer from another company. Basically, he lied to me.

Our consulting partner sent us an email with apologies. I apologized to our client. They understood. I still have some bitter aftertaste in my mouth. I ‘m sure our client has it too. Now we need to rehabilitate our reputation by sending them best of the best. We will.

Puneet didn ‘t bother apologizing. Remember, he had a busy week building his career.

Dear whores, pimps are your friends. Team up with them – it ‘ll be beneficial for everyone. I know, you are not happy that pimps are getting their cut from your hourly rate, but they don ‘t get it for nothing.

This game with the resumes exaggerating everyone ‘s skills is not perfect. I know that people make up “real-world ” projects to get their first jobs. But why in the world can ‘t you stop lying at some point?

Good luck, Puneet with your career. I wish people will always treat you the same way. What goes around comes around.