First Time Contractor in Edinburgh - What to expect?

[noobie1231]

I've just relocated to Edinburgh and am looking for my first contracting gig as a Business Analyst after being permy for quite a few years. I'm very green! How long, on average, have you found it normally takes to land a contracting gig? A couple of weeks? A couple of months?

In particular, I'm interested in how long it normally takes after submitting an application to hear back. I applied for a bunch of roles last week, but have yet to hear anything. I'm guessing (/hoping) this is quite normal, and not a case of a bad CV

Thanks in advance for the advice!

[wogewwabbit]

I've just relocated to Edinburgh and am looking for my first contracting gig as a Business Analyst after being permy for quite a few years. I'm very green! How long, on average, have you found it normally takes to land a contracting gig? A couple of weeks? A couple of months?

In particular, I'm interested in how long it normally takes after submitting an application to hear back. I applied for a bunch of roles last week, but have yet to hear anything. I'm guessing (/hoping) this is quite normal, and not a case of a bad CV

Thanks in advance for the advice!

Depends on the current market. As a general advice (which I was given too, and now I agree with it), always have enough savings to survive for 6 months without a contract. You can never know when you will be sacked. One day everything might seem 100% safe, the next day you are fired. A new manager could come in to the company, bringing his own contractor mates.
It took me 4 months to find my first contract in 2010, and even then I had to be very flexible - I had to go abroad. After that it took me another 3 months to find the next one.
Then the market seemed to be better (or it was just blind luck), there was basically no time between my next three contracts. While I was spending the last month of my previous one, I could secure the next one easily.
It is always harder to find a contract from January to March, so make sure you secure a contract in December that will take you through these couple of months.
If you are flexible about the location it may be easier.

There is no general rule about how long an application would take. It can take 2 days or 2 weeks. If you have 4 weeks notice, then it may be a problem - most of the time contractors are needed asap. But also there are some roles for which a company is willing to wait longer for the right person - but you shouldn't count on this.

[northernladuk]

You have to fire and forget. No feedback is standard so don't get caught up chasing applications and expecting any feedback. If you are not suitable you'll go in the bin. End of. The agents have to earn their bonus so they will only focus on what's going to make money. Telling contractors no thanks makes them nothing so it won't happen.

You could go for the scatter gun approach and apply for everything but if you do you are going to get very few interviews for a lot of applications. You should only really be considering gig's you are 100% suitable for. Not ones you might be able to do or could have a stab at. They want people that have done it before, can hit the ground from day one and bring extra value to the role. They are not looking for good people that could do the role with a biting coaching. That's permie land stuff.

[heyya99]

Maybe target a consultancy that has a history of hiring contractors as a way if getting your first gig.

[fuzzypenguin]

I've just relocated to Edinburgh and am looking for my first contracting gig as a Business Analyst after being permy for quite a few years. I'm very green! How long, on average, have you found it normally takes to land a contracting gig? A couple of weeks? A couple of months?

In particular, I'm interested in how long it normally takes after submitting an application to hear back. I applied for a bunch of roles last week, but have yet to hear anything. I'm guessing (/hoping) this is quite normal, and not a case of a bad CV

Thanks in advance for the advice!

The start of the year (Jan / Feb / start of March) can be a bit slow, but tends to pick up after this, possibly to do with budgets being aligned to financial year. I would put your CV on the job boards and set your status to actively looking. You should get calls from agents then who have jobs but haven't advertised them. Just develop a thick skin quickly, as they will only tell you what you want to hear, and a lot will just try harvesting you for contacts (fellow contractors or more likely previous bosses / decision makers to sell their services in to). Sort out your LinkedIn profile too. Check out meetup.com for tech groups that are relevant to your skill set (although they tend to be dev focused, so not sure how relevant this is to you), as these can be a good place to get work direct without the agencies being involved.

It can be quite normal not to hear anything back for a week, depending how urgent the role is (and whether it existed in the first place), so don't panic. Even if you get an interview, it's common not to hear anything if you haven't been successful, as other's have said they don't earn anything from giving you bad news so don't bother. If you are successful at interview though, they will hound you to sign the contract and accept as soon as possible.

[Eirikur]

In particular, I'm interested in how long it normally takes after submitting an application to hear back. I applied for a bunch of roles last week, but have yet to hear anything. I'm guessing (/hoping) this is quite normal, and not a case of a bad CV

if the role is real and the agency thinks you're suitable you will be contact within hours, if not minutes, after submitting.
Just keep on firing your cv to as many suitable roles and agencies (if the same role is advertised by multiple agencies just send it to all of them) until your bum is actually physically on a client's seat.

Also make sure your cv has all the right buzz words in it when uploading to the jobportals to pop up in the agencies queries when searching for Cvs

[stek]

I'm getting shed loads of sniffs re: roles in Edinburgh, all seem to be related to an RBS data centre migration. Good rates too, fancy London-style ones!

[despot]

Most agencies are OK and reasonable. The quickest I have landed a role is 2 weeks from contact to start of contract. The average wait can be 3 - 6 months. If you are just starting then it is going to be down to luck and depends on the demand for your skill set. Good agencies are Head, BE-IT and bright purple. The very worst (in my experience at least) - Lorien. Avoid like the plague.

[stek]

Most agencies are OK and reasonable. The quickest I have landed a role is 2 weeks from contact to start of contract. The average wait can be 3 - 6 months. If you are just starting then it is going to be down to luck and depends on the demand for your skill set. Good agencies are Head, BE-IT and bright purple. The very worst (in my experience at least) - Lorien. Avoid like the plague.

Strange, Lorien were great for me at DVLA, was at TEK a few years ago, awful, with TEK again now, great!

Just shows, YMMV.....

Aviod the the Indian agencies like the plague, and any role that mentions Wipro....

[northernladuk]

Most agencies are OK and reasonable. The quickest I have landed a role is 2 weeks from contact to start of contract. The average wait can be 3 - 6 months. If you are just starting then it is going to be down to luck and depends on the demand for your skill set. Good agencies are Head, BE-IT and bright purple. The very worst (in my experience at least) - Lorien. Avoid like the plague.

Quickest is 2 weeks?!??! Blimey.. I can't remember doing on that was more than a week. 3 have been interview Tues/Weds and on site Monday...