A good but a very short BOOM :)

**Gumbo Robot** · 22 October 2015, 18:18

Originally posted by Milkyway View Post

OK, finally landed a gig for myself today

Will be sending it over to QDOS for review tomorrow (for same day review service).
The contract paperwork is good in terms of IR35, from a quick read. But anyway i will let QDOS to judge it.
[Funnily enough, the contract paperwork has the "IPSE affiliate" membership logo in every page (agency contract paperwork), so I am wondering what QDOS will think of it

Anyway, coming to my main point of question...

The good thing about the gig is:

+ its in my specialist niche area/space, so its cool. I will have fun and will deliver it successfully... so can hope for more business after this.
+ I have managed to secure my usual top end rate
+ It nicely gets me out into 2016

Bad bit (or is it? that is the question):

- The gig is only going to the middle of Jan 2016... so effectively a 2.5 month gig

Now, obviously i am taking it, since work aspect is more important to me than the length of it.

But having seen some adverts recently where they mentioned the contractor should have done only long term projects and not just short gigs here and there, I was wondering if this is a general trend these days that clients insist, which means it will come to hurt me later on, since the most recent one (when i finish the new gig) will be only a very short one - 2.5 months one?

I have to say this is the shortest one i have done in my entire career. The shortest one has been 5 months, the longest has been the most recent one 2+ years.

Anyway, is this short gig going to hurt me - in the sense tha clients will look upon my profile in any bad way and not offer contracts?
I suppose, since all of my previous ones (prior to the one i am about to take) are very long ones, hopefully this new gig's length is not going to affect me going forward?

Have you undertaken short gigs? Did it hurt in getting contracts later on (purely based on the short gig's length)?

Apologies - too many questions there, but just wanted to ask.

TIA

I've had a lot of roles of 3 - 6 months duration. You go in, get the job done & move on to the next one. That's the way I generally like it and it has never been an issue until this stint on the bench where I've had it flagged in 2 separate phone interviews.

On both occasions I just said that, yes, there have been a lot of short stints but I have 5 clients on my CV with whom I've had repeat business. Should speak for itself really if they're worried that nobody wanted to renew me after the initial term.

I guess there may be other reasons having a lot of short roles doesn't look good but I don't know what they are.

**Dallas** · 22 October 2015, 18:29

**SarahL2012** · 22 October 2015, 18:49

I've only ever had a problem with those clients that think they are getting a quasi employee in instead of a freelance professional......

More problems with agents. One even went down every single contract saying 'why didn't they extend you?'

**SueEllen** · 22 October 2015, 19:13

Originally posted by SarahL2012 View Post

More problems with agents. One even went down every single contract saying 'why didn't they extend you?'

I tell agents who do that to p*ss off.

There is away to ask people questions to get the info you want and that isn't the way to do it.

**AnotherGuy** · 23 October 2015, 11:16

I don't think it's going to be something bad.

I would much prefer to get a 2.5 month contract than to be on the bench 2.5 months waiting for a 6 months rolling one.

And I suspect clients/agents will prefer to see short contracts than bench time.

**MrMarkyMark** · 23 October 2015, 11:44

The gig is only going to the middle of Jan 2016.

Not a bad time to be looking, in my experience.

**vwdan** · 23 October 2015, 12:24

My last contract was to give someone a hand for 6 weeks - after 4 weeks they opted not to renew the incumbent chap and I spent 6 months finishing up the project.

My first ever contract was 6 weeks and I'd finished in 5. That's the fun of contracting!

**LucidDementia** · 23 October 2015, 12:32

Originally posted by vwdan View Post

My last contract was to give someone a hand for 6 weeks - after 4 weeks they opted not to renew the incumbent chap and I spent 6 months finishing up the project.

My first ever contract was 6 weeks and I'd finished in 5. That's the fun of contracting!

Too true; my first was a random 3 weeks to get some documentation sorted in a hurry.
I was there 2 years and have been back for another one since.

**diseasex** · 26 October 2015, 13:27

Originally posted by Stevie Wonder Boy

if all your roles are 1 to 3 months, that yells - "No renewals" Bad ... Several 6 to 18 months roles, with one or two 3 month roles is fine. It's more of a negative check, never been anywhere more than three months, negative flag ...

You don't need to add that to your CV if it looks bad...

A good but a very short BOOM :)