Brian I thought both of your reasons were pretty much a given these days - they always underestimate and they want an easy way to get rid of an incompetent. Not much the recruiters can do about it - they just repeat what the client tells them. ck Hi Anna, Thank you for letting us on the list know of these positions. Could I respectfully suggest that you leave out the rate-cutting commercial about 'they may extend beyond 6 weeks'. If they have no idea how long the job will take, then either they have not had the benefit of a good job estimator, or they are using the 6 weeks as a probationary position descriptor. Brian. <snip> I have 2 x 6 week contracts in Melbourne commencing in a week or so. They may extend beyond 6 weeks but that will be the initial term. ************************************************** To post a message to austechwriter, send the message to austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx To subscribe to austechwriter, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "subscribe" in the Subject field. To unsubscribe, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe" in the Subject field. To search the austechwriter archives, go to www.freelists.org/archives/austechwriter To contact the list administrator, send a message to austechwriter-admins@xxxxxxxxxxxxx **************************************************