MSBI newb Contractor - whole lifecycle delivery question

[wannagopro]

As a newbie post, let me hopefully address some objections...

1. George Osborne hates contractors, now is a terrible time to become a contractor. My primary motivation is not financial.

2. There is greater risk with being a contractor. I'm happy with the risk/reward ratio with contracting.

3. There are already too many contactors in the market. People like you are causing deflationary pressure on our rates. The global economy is moving towards short, project based employment model. I'm aware that asking a bunch of strangers with competition interests may not be the most sensible idea I have had.

4. Are you aware of current and impending legislation regarding working as a contractor? After spending a lot of time 'lurking' on CUK, though I'm sure that new legislation may catch us all by surprise, I'm pretty certain that I've researched the business and legislation side of contracting significantly more than 99% of the 'thinking of going contracting' posts on here.

5. Do your own research - get on the job boards and find out for yourself! With a 3 month notice period, finding out for myself would involve me leaving my current job to enter a competitive market and only knowing for sure whether I have a chance towards the end of that 3 month period, leaving it rather late to gain re-employment should I need it.

6. YANCOTBAC! Possibly, though we'll see

Like I listed above, I have done plenty of research into the full implications of working as a contractor.

My main 'known unknown' right now is whether my work history will be impressive enough to get a foot in the door. I have delivered numerous projects with organisations well known in their respective industries for 6 years or so. They are not household names, and an agent or prospective client may not have heard of them if they are not familiar with the industries in question. Public, third and private sector, though predominnantly private sector work.

My experience thus far has been in the one man band, deliver the entire project arena. A lot of the roles on job serve etc are for what appears to be enterprise clients where the successful applicant would be working as part of a cog in a wider machine. Though I have no issue with this, my experience so far has been in planning and delivering the entire product lifecycle.

As such I am probably better suited to working with SMEs rather than enterprise clients.
I have a couple of questions.

1. Have any CUK users had experience working as a 'one man band' successfully.

2. Am I making an incorrect assumption that it will be difficult to land an enterprise client without enterprise experience?

I work in MS Business Intelligence, though I have wider BI experience that could be focussed on in the CV if required.

Thanks all.

[cojak]

Brevity has a lot going for it.

Try tweeting your question below, you may get more answers.

[wannagopro]

Brevity has a lot going for it.

Try tweeting your question below, you may get more answers.

Ok...

I have a couple of questions.

1. Have any CUK users had experience working as a 'one man band', particularly in BI, successfully.

2. Am I making an incorrect assumption that it will be difficult to land an enterprise client without enterprise experience?

[Willapp]

One great way of getting a foot in the door as a new contractor is if you can use your existing network of friends/colleagues/ex-colleagues to find out about potential contract opportunities and try to make something happen that way.

Assuming you are good at your job and well respected in your current/past roles then finding a contract locally through existing connections will be much easier as your reputation might be enough to get a foot in the door. Pitching your CV to an unknown client through agencies that have no previous experience working with you - and you having no previous contracting experience - can be a difficult sell. However there are plenty of examples on here of people who've made that leap of faith and landed contracts quite easily.

Really the only way to gauge demand is to speak to some agencies, get your CV to them and ask for some feedback. Use job portals like cwjobs to search for jobs in your skill areas, see how many contracts are available and at what rate.

With a 3 month notice period as you know, you'll probably have to hand in your notice first and start looking for contracts with 4 - 6 weeks remaining and hope to land something to start once you've finished. But it's a risk so you'll want to have at least a couple of months (ideally 4 - 6) savings in the bank to live off in case you don't get a contract as quickly as you'd like.

[MrMarkyMark]

1. Have any CUK users had experience working as a 'one man band', particularly in BI, successfully.

Depends what you mean by one man band.

I have been everything from a Lead Developer to an Architect in my time. In these roles you will be expected to provide lead technical direction.
However, I have also been employed by the BI vendor I specialise in, to be a principal consultant, which effectively means you are working on your own.

Primarily I work with a BI vendor's toolset, however I have to know about databases, networks, servers, FTP, publications, single sign on etc, etc, etc.

As for working full lifecycle, I don't think this is particularly unique. I would hope everyone working for me, had full lifecycle experience.

Also, I would suggest you are a type of Product Specialist In MS reporting Products, rather than a BI developer, which could cover multiple reporting technologies.

It certainly isn't impossible to gain further, additional, technology exposures, during contracting, but you should never expect it.

[wannagopro]

One great way of getting a foot in the door as a new contractor is if you can use your existing network of friends/colleagues/ex-colleagues to find out about potential contract opportunities and try to make something happen that way.

Assuming you are good at your job and well respected in your current/past roles then finding a contract locally through existing connections will be much easier as your reputation might be enough to get a foot in the door. Pitching your CV to an unknown client through agencies that have no previous experience working with you - and you having no previous contracting experience - can be a difficult sell. However there are plenty of examples on here of people who've made that leap of faith and landed contracts quite easily.

Really the only way to gauge demand is to speak to some agencies, get your CV to them and ask for some feedback. Use job portals like cwjobs to search for jobs in your skill areas, see how many contracts are available and at what rate.

With a 3 month notice period as you know, you'll probably have to hand in your notice first and start looking for contracts with 4 - 6 weeks remaining and hope to land something to start once you've finished. But it's a risk so you'll want to have at least a couple of months (ideally 4 - 6) savings in the bank to live off in case you don't get a contract as quickly as you'd like.

Good advice. I've dealt with agressive agencies in the past who have called through the office switchboard etc so have avoided so far, especially with the practice of hounding past employers with the '2 reference' rubbish.

Unfortunately previous projects need only a little maintenance now, so securing further work will be difficult. I do 'self promote' through a blog in one of those industries which gets 600 or so sessions a month so it may not be out of the question to push that button a little harder.

It shouldn't take a massive amount of time to get sorted with the savings. I know that six months is the recommended, that may be a bit of a none starter to be honest. 3 months is about doable.

[wannagopro]

Depends what you mean by one man band.

I have been everything from a Lead Developer to an Architect in my time. In these roles you will be expected to provide lead technical direction.
However, I have also been employed by the BI vendor I specialise in, to be a principal consultant, which effectively means you are working on your own.

Primarily I work with a BI vendor's toolset, however I have to know about databases, networks, servers, FTP, publications, single sign on etc, etc, etc.

As for working full lifecycle, I don't think this is particularly unique. I would hope everyone working for me, had full lifecycle experience.

Also, I would suggest you are a type of Product Specialist In MS reporting Products, rather than a BI developer, which could cover multiple reporting technologies.

It certainly isn't impossible to gain further, additional, technology exposures, during contracting, but you should never expect it.

I'm not sure I agree with the not a developer point. MSBI is my central area of expertise, though most of my work over the years has been in ETL and DWH work. The reporting tool used is the one most appropriate for the job, and isn't necesarily limited to microsoft products.

[MrMarkyMark]

I'm not sure I agree with the not a developer point. MSBI is my central area of expertise, though most of my work over the years has been in ETL and DWH work. The reporting tool used is the one most appropriate for the job, and isn't necesarily limited to microsoft products.

So you have development skills across other RDBMS, Oracle, Sybase, DB2 to name but a few?
You have also developed across a number of reporting products Business Objects, Microstrategy, Cognos, for example.

If so, you are totally correct, you are a "BI Developer".

In my mind, if you have had as much autonomy as you say you do and also know a lot about Project Managment, Business Analysis, Team Management, Web tiers, Networks, Single Sign on, etc. etc. you could even state you are a "BI Architect".

[wannagopro]

So you have development skills across other RDBMS, Oracle, Sybase, DB2 to name but a few?
You have also developed across a number of reporting products Business Objects, Microstrategy, Cognos, for example.

If so, you are totally correct, you are a "BI Developer".

In my mind, if you have had as much autonomy as you say you do and also know a lot about Project Managment, Business Analysis, Team Management, Web tiers, Networks, Single Sign on, etc. etc. you could even state you are a "BI Architect".

Possibly semantics, though it isn't unusual to have BI developers specialise almost exclusively in particular technologies. That might not fit your definition, if you are more comfortable describing my skill set as 'MSBI developer' for the purpose of this discussion, no problem, though there are plenty of 'Business Intelligence' roles, both contract and perm, that are looking for developers with predominantly microsoft technology expertise.

[MrMarkyMark]

Possibly semantics, though it isn't unusual to have BI developers specialise almost exclusively in particular technologies. That might not fit your definition, if you are more comfortable describing my skill set as 'MSBI developer' for the purpose of this discussion, no problem, though there are plenty of 'Business Intelligence' roles, both contract and perm, that are looking for developers with predominantly microsoft technology expertise.

Yup, semantics completely, but very relevant in the BI contract market.
I have also seen BI Developer roles that are predominantly SQL server based.
I was just suggesting that they can also be described as someone who works with both multiple RDBMS and reporting tools.
The difference is usually in the roles description / requirements.

With a 3 month notice period, finding out for myself would involve me leaving my current job to enter a competitive market and only knowing for sure whether I have a chance towards the end of that 3 month period, leaving it rather late to gain re-employment should I need it.

Yes, it is a risk and most of us have had to "bite the bullet" and go for it. My missus just did exactly this and bagged a role from her very first contract interview, however, she was previously a consultant so YMMV.

How many years experience do you have?