New to Contracting - Did I jump in too soon?

[harper146]

Hi

I'm 6 months in to my first contract but I cant help thinking I should have gained more experience in the permanent market first.

I was a MI analyst (with a bit of data developing) for 2 years, built up some good skills around SQL, the BI Stack and Tableau but my salary was low, around 21k so I decided to get a new job. A large investment bank offered me a year contract at £140 a day as a reporting analyst (excel based) so I thought brilliant, good pay rise and a decent length 1st contract.

I've began looking at other contracting jobs and my rate seems quite low, in fact I couldn't find any that were at my rate, so I applied for them. I got a lots of calls of agencies but no interviews and I think my experience is the problem.

I'm quite confident I could get a permanent position in a technical role fairly easily so should I do that and gain more experience or should I do up my cv, create a Linkin profile and start seriously applying for contracts nearer to the end of my current contract?

Any advice will greatly appreciated.

[Nayab]

Jazz up the cv and LinkedIn. Never stop looking. Build up a network of contacts.

And don't take my advice. It's usually wrong according to other form members.

[northernladuk]

I was a MI analyst (with a bit of data developing) for 2 years, built up some good skills around SQL, the BI Stack and Tableau but my salary was low, around 21k so I decided to get a new job. A large investment bank offered me a year contract at £140 a day as a reporting analyst (excel based) so I thought brilliant, good pay rise and a decent length 1st contract.

I've began looking at other contracting jobs and my rate seems quite low, in fact I couldn't find any that were at my rate, so I applied for them. I got a lots of calls of agencies but no interviews and I think my experience is the problem.

I'm quite confident I could get a permanent position in a technical role fairly easily so should I do that and gain more experience or should I do up my cv, create a Linkin profile and start seriously applying for contracts nearer to the end of my current contract?

Any advice will greatly appreciated.

Fairly common mistake which we see a lot on here I am afraid. Someone underskilled or new in their career suddenly sees all this extra money contract and on go the rose tinted specs. No thought to long term career growth, availability of gigs and so on.

Sounds like you've been taken on as a cheap bum on seat to fill a supplementary role, not as a product specialst providing services the client doesn't have. As you see it's going to be very difficult to get end to end gigs so really not worthwhile.

Only you will know your skillset and up to you to do the research as to how marketable your skills are but at those rates I can't believe there is a lot out there.

I'm a firm believer of doing your permie time, skilling up and then coming back to sell them at a premium. There do seem to be quite a few guys n gals on here that started at the bottom and worked their way up through contracting but it can't be for everyone.

Personally I'd say go skill up. You can only apply for contracts that are available and if they aren't you are going to do a lot of unpaid bench time. To be fair with contracting going the way it is you might be better off still in a decent permie role in 2 or 3 years time when there is nothing left for contractors but who really knows.

[LondonManc]

Bank are using you to avoid business NICs and hassle. Better sticking with perm for longer. You'll climb higher and command a better contract rate longer term. A good MI analyst should be earning treble what you're on as a perm and same for your day rate.

21k isn't bad for a first job role, it's the house deposits that are higher these days

[Cirrus]

my salary was low, around 21k so I decided to get a new job. A large investment bank offered me a year contract at £140 a day as a reporting analyst (excel based) so I thought brilliant, good pay rise

Sorry but by normal measures, that is a pay cut. £140 a day is equivalent to about £18k pa.

[harper146]

Thanks for the advice it's more or less what I expected to hear.

I'd like to think I have a strong skill set but at the end of the day if I'm not going to get consistent work there's no point.

I have a really good relationship with previous managers, they offered me my old job last month so hopefully they will again in 6 months

For now I'll finish my contract and see what happens as I quite like the company.

[harper146]

Sorry but by normal measures, that is a pay cut. £140 a day is equivalent to about £18k pa.

Then again if I'm competing with people with your math skills for a contract I fancy my chances

[Lance]

Then again if I'm competing with people with your math skills for a contract I fancy my chances

if you think £140 a day is a pay rise from £21k then you need your head examined. There's more to it than just "day rate x 200"

[uk contractor]

2 years experience is nowhere near enough your competing with contractors who have 10+ years experience! Who do you think will win the contract you or them! They will get the bigger rate your stuck on £140 a day until you have many more years experience. Develop a perm career for at least 7-10 years & try to move into a more senior perm PM role from there contracting right now is all about extensive experience. £140 a day for this type of role is also ridiculous its about £260-360 per day LESS than an experienced contractors would earn your consultancy or agency must be laughing all the way to the bank their profit margin will be huge and you have no little chance of getting any of it either ask for any extra £50 a day or threaten to leave just be honest say you think the role is worth a lot more but be prepared to leave as they will replace you if you threaten this & they do not want to pay you anything more!


Or ignore the good advice given on this forum & see how long it takes to get a decent rate-role with your current (lack of) experience level no wonder the bank wanted to employ you on such a low rate! your skillset is also at best bare minimum you are simply outgunned by a large margin with the experienced contractors who have whatever you have plus many more years experience with legacy AND more recent programming languages simply by being current & having way more experience.


A lot of novice contractors make the same mistake as you and just see £££ signs in their eyes without analysing how & why some contractors gain work & the rewards that can go with it.

[Cirrus]

Then again if I'm competing with people with your maths skills for a contract I fancy my chances

We tend to work on

Contract hourly rate X 1000 = annual perm salary.