I am an IT professional currently in the job market. I live in a northeast state which is a suburb of NYC. In my state, we have two big companies which regularly post 6-12 month contract positions with basically the same requirements. This positions will pop up once a month. One of the company is in the health product business and the other is in the communication business. Since I’ve been looking for employment since February, I’ve noticed a pattern which is, to say the least, very interesting: 1. The job requirements for each month are basically the same, give or take a few variations on the listed skill set. 2. On the first day of the posting, I will get 10-12 calls from different recruiters/agencies but all of them are the same nationality/country. 3. The calls originate from various out of the way states (Georgia, Missouri, Wisconsin, etc.). 4. All these calls are prior to receiving an email regarding the job. 5. All the callers insist on keeping you on the phone even if you tell them that you are driving or in a meeting. 6. They will call your home phone if you do not answer the initial call. 7. You eventually get an email afterwards with the job details and asking for a right to represent while offering 50%-75% of current market rate. 8. Only the next several days will I get an email THEN a call from US based recruiters regarding the same job posting offering prevailing market rates. I’ve noticed this pattern the first few months I was looking but didn’t want to post anything about it since I might get blacklisted by every IT placement firm. Now, I’m just about fed up and wish this would stop so I can concentrate on legitimate job offers.