'Part time' contractors

[nomadd]

FWIW:
Been contracting 27 years.
Aim for the last 13 years has been a 70/30 split (on-contract/off-contract), which I have achieved.
Never had a problem with "gaps" (not with agents, clients, c.v. or teeth.)

[theroyale]

FWIW:
Been contracting 27 years.
Aim for the last 13 years has been a 70/30 split (on-contract/off-contract), which I have achieved.
Never had a problem with "gaps" (not with agents, clients, c.v. or teeth.)

Just wonder how specialised you (and other posters on this thread who have successfully part-timed) consider your skills to be? Say on a scale of 1-10. Obviously if your skills are highly specialised and you're an expert in your field then it would be churlish of agents/clients to bother with the odd 3-month gap.

I'm in my 6th year contracting but I'm taking a more generalist route (Microsoft SQL/BI dev), fairly common skillset but the upshot is that its a strong market and there are dozens of viable contracts available at any one time. The downside is that there are lots of people applying, which means there is a risk that agents/clients may start to use things like contract gaps in order to filter down candidates.

[Hobosapien]

there is a risk that agents/clients may start to use things like contract gaps in order to filter down candidates.

If you have a ltd then you can legitimately fill gaps by doing work for your own company, such as trying a plan B that happens to have an IT element.

Longer the gap the harder it may be to cover but I've not had any real aggro with CV scrutinisation, though expect it's more of an issue if going for security cleared or more sensitive work.

A month or two here or there will probably not even be noticed if you just put 'holiday' in that gap on the CV. Many contractors take a break between contracts unless they're short ones or they're in need of the moolah.

If the agency makes negative remarks on gaps maybe it's a good indicator they're not contractor focused and will end up offering you a temp employee contract or send you for an interview that turns out to be a permie role.