Hello all,
I would appreciate any advice as to how I can improve my chances of securing a new contract. I am unsure where I am going wrong with what I am doing. I have been out of contract for nearly 6 months and now open to permanent work as well. My experience is roughly 9 years working on central government programmes of work (i.e. planning, PM, project delivery focused roles) and I am looking for PMO/project management roles. I have been contracting for 8 years and have never had this type of problem securing a contract before.
So here is what am I doing:
1. I search relevant jobsites for my next role (i.e. jobserve, jobsite, cwjobs, etc). However before I just apply I call the agency and speak to the recruiter further clarifying the position, my fit and essentially 'selling' myself for the role. If it is a good fit then end the call with the recruiter sending me the job spec and I tailor specific parts of my CV to the role.
2. I then either apply via the job advert or more than likely get the recruiters direct e-mail address and send my CV directly. I then chase this up once sent and usually get an idea on timeframes and keep track of when my CV will be submitted to the client. I regularly chase the agencies and push for quicker progress.
3. I also regularly update my linkein profile, add new connections, actively 'like' and comment on relevant articles, etc and am subscribed to relevant groups/bodies (although I am skeptical of how much this will really help find a new role). I have been told I need to use the social networking sites more to sell myself to the market better and to use the 'hidden job market'! I use linkedin to search for new opportunities via agency contacts or other vacancies.
4. I have a rapport with particular agencies built up over the last few months. I proactively call them every so often and refresh their memories I'm still looking, etc.
5. As time goes on I am becoming more flexible with location, rates and type of roles too (i.e. I dont want to but seem to have to start applying for perm roles too)
6. I quite regularly keep in touch with former colleagues, with some hope of another route to finding a new role. there have been occasions where this has developed but for one reason or another the roles have not materialised
Here are the problems I am finding:
1. Even though my skills set are very transferable many of the roles I see are those asking for specific investment banking, retail banking, card payments or other type of banking/specific experience. Many of these also clearly note in the job spec CV's without this experience will not be considered. I used to apply but don't anymore as frankly it seems highly unlikely they will even consider my details. I have no banking experience whatsoever
2. Roles for public sector clients died down alot leading up to the May elections (understandably) and have now picked up. However even with this I apply for roles via the Capita framework which is something most government roles go through nowadays. Basically Capita further shortlist the CV's based on keywords/knowledge of the skills set and whatever other process they may use before final 3-4 CV's I sent to the line manager. I find this process highly irritating and cumbersome. There have been roles where I have not been shortlisted although a very good fit to the role. This makes me feel like this process is pretty useless and baffles me at times as to why I havent been shortlisted.
3. In the nearly 6 months of searching I have had just two interviews. One for RBS (they decided to offer someone with banking exp instead) and the other with a government body (they decided to offer someone with more programme management exp, my experience on this is limited at that level and more suited to project management level roles so I kind of understand this. the position was a bit of a hybrid project/programme roles). I have revamped my CV so more descriptive and explaining my achievements as I began to think it must be my CV that isn't working anymore. Although when asking agencies view it is generally positive although I dont hold this to great merit nowadays from the majority of agencies
n.b. My last contract finished in Dec 2014. This was after 4 years and 2 months. Is the length of this contract a problem when reviewing my CV/does this work against me?
Does anyone have any advice on where I am going wrong? What am I not doing and what should I do differently? Is this normal nowadays and should I just stop whining and get on with it!? Does anyone else have similar issues when searching for new work? The process is different to when I was last out of contract (for 2 months) and I seemed to get more calls from agencies then too. Albeit this was over 4 years ago. Plus there was no mention of a Captia framework working as a 'gateway' for the process.
Any advice will be much appreciated.
Regards,
I would appreciate any advice as to how I can improve my chances of securing a new contract. I am unsure where I am going wrong with what I am doing. I have been out of contract for nearly 6 months and now open to permanent work as well. My experience is roughly 9 years working on central government programmes of work (i.e. planning, PM, project delivery focused roles) and I am looking for PMO/project management roles. I have been contracting for 8 years and have never had this type of problem securing a contract before.
So here is what am I doing:
1. I search relevant jobsites for my next role (i.e. jobserve, jobsite, cwjobs, etc). However before I just apply I call the agency and speak to the recruiter further clarifying the position, my fit and essentially 'selling' myself for the role. If it is a good fit then end the call with the recruiter sending me the job spec and I tailor specific parts of my CV to the role.
2. I then either apply via the job advert or more than likely get the recruiters direct e-mail address and send my CV directly. I then chase this up once sent and usually get an idea on timeframes and keep track of when my CV will be submitted to the client. I regularly chase the agencies and push for quicker progress.
3. I also regularly update my linkein profile, add new connections, actively 'like' and comment on relevant articles, etc and am subscribed to relevant groups/bodies (although I am skeptical of how much this will really help find a new role). I have been told I need to use the social networking sites more to sell myself to the market better and to use the 'hidden job market'! I use linkedin to search for new opportunities via agency contacts or other vacancies.
4. I have a rapport with particular agencies built up over the last few months. I proactively call them every so often and refresh their memories I'm still looking, etc.
5. As time goes on I am becoming more flexible with location, rates and type of roles too (i.e. I dont want to but seem to have to start applying for perm roles too)
6. I quite regularly keep in touch with former colleagues, with some hope of another route to finding a new role. there have been occasions where this has developed but for one reason or another the roles have not materialised
Here are the problems I am finding:
1. Even though my skills set are very transferable many of the roles I see are those asking for specific investment banking, retail banking, card payments or other type of banking/specific experience. Many of these also clearly note in the job spec CV's without this experience will not be considered. I used to apply but don't anymore as frankly it seems highly unlikely they will even consider my details. I have no banking experience whatsoever
2. Roles for public sector clients died down alot leading up to the May elections (understandably) and have now picked up. However even with this I apply for roles via the Capita framework which is something most government roles go through nowadays. Basically Capita further shortlist the CV's based on keywords/knowledge of the skills set and whatever other process they may use before final 3-4 CV's I sent to the line manager. I find this process highly irritating and cumbersome. There have been roles where I have not been shortlisted although a very good fit to the role. This makes me feel like this process is pretty useless and baffles me at times as to why I havent been shortlisted.
3. In the nearly 6 months of searching I have had just two interviews. One for RBS (they decided to offer someone with banking exp instead) and the other with a government body (they decided to offer someone with more programme management exp, my experience on this is limited at that level and more suited to project management level roles so I kind of understand this. the position was a bit of a hybrid project/programme roles). I have revamped my CV so more descriptive and explaining my achievements as I began to think it must be my CV that isn't working anymore. Although when asking agencies view it is generally positive although I dont hold this to great merit nowadays from the majority of agencies
n.b. My last contract finished in Dec 2014. This was after 4 years and 2 months. Is the length of this contract a problem when reviewing my CV/does this work against me?
Does anyone have any advice on where I am going wrong? What am I not doing and what should I do differently? Is this normal nowadays and should I just stop whining and get on with it!? Does anyone else have similar issues when searching for new work? The process is different to when I was last out of contract (for 2 months) and I seemed to get more calls from agencies then too. Albeit this was over 4 years ago. Plus there was no mention of a Captia framework working as a 'gateway' for the process.
Any advice will be much appreciated.
Regards,
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