I found out about the consultant position through an HR networking group and emailed my resume directly to one of the HR Managers @ Prudential. The two interviewers liked me and they told their external staffing agency that they were interested in moving forward. I did not know that when it comes to consultant positions, the negotiations and the payroll are done through an external staffing agency. Their staffing agency contacted me and I emailed the hiring manager if I could go under Pru payroll and she said no. I was excited about this contract position, but from the start of negotiating with a third party, the scummy external recruiter, it just went all south. I gave an initial offer with a medical premium estimate bc I was told to do so by recruiter, Pru could not do the medical premium cost, so I took it off the table, and made a 2nd offer. Then without even trying to reach middle ground, they went back to their initial offer. The wait and communications was two weeks, but just dealing with the recruiter, you don't really know what is being said to the company and what info is really being exchanged and the recruiter started telling me about the costs for covering consultants under his payroll. Had it been directly with the company, the process would have been quicker and we could have met middle ground. The third party just muddles the whole process. Pru and I did not benefit by having the car salesman there.