Cerco it

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Cerco are cashing in on pretending to be Serco, who are a well known and respectable... Oh, wait a sec...

 

Cerco It - Yes, they used to charge £4000 for their course (comprised of many things mainly using floppy disks to install XP and including a requirement to pass "exams" that have the answers read out the day before and again immediately prior to the exam) but now they focus on financial profit from recruitment and subcontracting.

Sometimes as an "Engineer" you will be expected to work your first "Buddy Shift" (which is shadowing another employee while you help them do their job) without pay, my first shift was 16 hours long including transport.

* Most transportation reimbursement is well below the required 45p per mile (usually around 22p/mile - so you would need to claim the extra back in tax at the end of the financial year - this you will not be advised to you but I hope you remember my advice on this.)

* Most installations are scripted that you are required to print out and then keep printing all of the updated scripts (of which there may be 60+ pages each and 3-4 revisions during a short period of time e.g. 2 months).

* You must supply your own tools (which I recommend purchasing once you have received a script detailing tool requirements - otherwise you will have excess kit you will likely never use) and mostly your own transport as well as your own business insurance for your transportation.

* The contracts you accept may prevent you from working for the companies you will be contracting to for at least a year.

* Some of the Engineers you shadow will work for the companies that you are taking jobs from as a subcontractor so may be less than professional in their training.

* Employment is on a contractual basis therefore you may be technically unemployed for months while Cerco IT expand their customer base.

* You should double check every pay slip and keep records of all transactions of fuel and expenses as occasional minor errors may occur.

* Contact from their HQ in Crewe is not for technical support so you may have to call premium numbers while on site from your mobile (or call them from the on site phone as is advised) which you will not automatically be reimbursed for but will have to claim back with a copy of your phone bill to your HR with payslips and await conformation.

* You will not usually be paid from the moment you leave your place of residence to attend a site and therefore have to give up the first 30-50 miles per day of fuel reimbursement. (again, keep records and claim back in tax)

* You will usually find yourself in a challenging role which will be exciting!

*You will occasionally find that the people who worked on the site previously had a "that will do" attitude as payment is for the day regardless of how long it takes to complete a task and therefore have to do extra work to correct their issues (although this sadly seems an industry standard when contractors are concerned).

* You may get contacted to fill a role on short notice that another employee has simply not bothered to turn up to/refused/quit.

* You may be responsible for the collection of kit (computer systems; monitors; etc) for the individual site from a depot or drop off kit and remove waste from the site yourself.

I personally enjoyed working for them once I got used to their unique approach. The sort of person that would benefit the most from this company is someone without much experience of the IT industry and not concerned with a company that will support & help you grow. If you have a couple of years of 2nd line support experience already I would maybe consider other employment. If you are working for other agencies at the same time then you may benefit from adding CERCO IT as another team to find you contracts.

 

There's no cost other than accommodation - just a way to offer CCSN "Engineers" to their customers.

I know this was posted an age ago however its still one of the only sites around giving info on the company.

Ok so.. Things must have improved since you worked for them because £65 is the minimum I've heard of for a low task day shift with £70-£90/day (or night) (based on an 8 hour shift) it is possible to get the full days pay for finishing a job in 45 minutes so £70 for less than an hour's work isn't all that bad wouldn't you agree? It does also swing the other way though with some issues dragging out to 10-16 hours depending on the site and if you include travel to distant sites. £90 is not the cap either, they can find you permanent salary contracts and occasionally offer you higher wages for additional work. Some weeks you can take home £500+ others £0 depending on the contract availability.

The pence per mile argument is somewhat justified except I've personally never seen it drop below 22p per mile and if your smart, you can claim the remainder of the 45p per mile back in tax at the year end.

If you claim the business model is a "scam" then could you go ahead and detail the foundation of the scam as as far as I can see, its about as legit as most any other recruitment organisation out with less focus on morals and more on "business growth" (like most every other recruiter out there) - other than the fact they award certificates that abbreviate to resemble Industry Recognised certifications and their name sounds like a cross between CISCO and SERCO...