Contract hunt advice

[Bhimyo]

Hi All

First time on this forum. I would like a bit of advice please. I have been contracting for a short time, two roles, each 9 months long. I am an infrastructure engineer and I found those roles quite easily. I finished my last contract in December and took a holiday and started looking in from mid January and I haven't found anything and found the market to be quiet. Is this the usual. What is the usual bench time between contracts? Feel like I might be panicking when I am thinking of applying for permie roles in 4 weeks time if nothing turns up. Just some advice please

Thanks

[northernladuk]

So about 4 weeks? Not uncommon really I'm afraid. Some people on here have gone for a few months or more. Hopefully you built yourself a solid warchest up so you can survive inbetween gigs without worrying. Ideally you want 6 months + to be safe but anything over that doesn't hurt.

[uk contractor]

Hi All

First time on this forum. I would like a bit of advice please. I have been contracting for a short time, two roles, each 9 months long. I am an infrastructure engineer and I found those roles quite easily. I finished my last contract in December and took a holiday and started looking in from mid January and I haven't found anything and found the market to be quiet. Is this the usual. What is the usual bench time between contracts? Feel like I might be panicking when I am thinking of applying for permie roles in 4 weeks time if nothing turns up. Just some advice please

Thanks

Infrastructure roles are being outsourced left right & centre mainly to cheaper people from outside the UK based in Poland or India & or virtualisation is taking a lot of the requirement away now. Perm is probably a better option if you can even find that the entire support market is a race to the bottom salary & rates wise. Quality & experience does not appear to count for that much these days its all about how cheap you are due to a virtually limitless pool of cheap happy to be exploited import IT workers who should not even be granted the visa to do these roles anymore in the UK.


4 weeks gap is nothing to worry about either even 4-9 months is quite normal now but I have known highly skilled contractors to be out for 1 year or more & still find something. I would worry more about getting a decent perm role that last's several years than a contract role which is part of the rapid race to the bottom of the rates ladder. Most businesses right now see IT support as how cheap can we get it done for and quality is being ignored for cost savings to boost profits.


Read this long thread to get a flavour of how bad it is as well!
http://forums.contractoruk.com/busin...te-market.html

[ruasonid]

Infrastructure roles are being outsourced left right & centre mainly to cheaper people from outside the UK based in Poland or India & or virtualisation is taking a lot of the requirement away now. Perm is probably a better option if you can even find that the entire support market is a race to the bottom salary & rates wise. Quality & experience does not appear to count for that much these days its all about how cheap you are due to a virtually limitless pool of cheap happy to be exploited import IT workers who should not even be granted the visa to do these roles anymore in the UK.


4 weeks gap is nothing to worry about either even 4-9 months is quite normal now but I have known highly skilled contractors to be out for 1 year or more & still find something. I would worry more about getting a decent perm role that last's several years than a contract role which is part of the rapid race to the bottom of the rates ladder. Most businesses right now see IT support as how cheap can we get it done for and quality is being ignored for cost savings to boost profits.


Read this long thread to get a flavour of how bad it is as well!
http://forums.contractoruk.com/busin...te-market.html

A good move might be to get a perm role outsourcing infra, then after a couple of years go back to contracting doing the same, or a perm role with an infra provider/Cloud company.

As for being on the bench, agree that several months is not unheard of. Make the most of that time. Eventually, availability will play into your hand.

[PurpleGorilla]

Contract hunt advice

I was on the bench for 8 weeks over last summer.

Try security cleared jobs for engineering;

https://www.securityclearedjobs.com/...countrycode=GB

[SussexSeagull]

So about 4 weeks? Not uncommon really I'm afraid. Some people on here have gone for a few months or more. Hopefully you built yourself a solid warchest up so you can survive inbetween gigs without worrying. Ideally you want 6 months + to be safe but anything over that doesn't hurt.

I personally think that should be a year's money now. I know everyone is different but a lot of people seem to be out for up to a year now.

[SussexSeagull]

Four weeks is nothing but are you seeing suitable adverts? Are agents getting in touch with you?

[SeededLoaf]

Worst bench time was back in 2008. 5 months of chuff all.

On the plus I managed to get some certs done but the lack of routine screwed my head up.

Are you on Linkedin? Does your title state looking for roles? Are you sending your CV to agencies regardless adverts? They'll look at their database as well as posting on Jobserve etc

[northernladuk]

I personally think that should be a year's money now. I know everyone is different but a lot of people seem to be out for up to a year now.

Indeed. The more the better.

[Nayab]

Agreed. The more in the war chest, the better. After a few months on the bench, even the clueless/gigless me managed to secure a short term easy project (which I am sure the cynical regulars will take great delight in mocking me for).