Trouble getting a new contract

[dwater]

The reality is that 95% of the job posts by agencies are fake - there was never an explicit end client asking for that contract to be sourced. (- e.g. many of them engage in fraud - and would have a hard time if someone would have enough of it and they ended up in court).

So, it is probably not you...

I find this interesting. I've been very selective in responding to the ads on the job boards. If they're fake, then perhaps I really shouldn't be so selective and only use them as a rough guide?

[Milkyway]

Never had one for contract position. Even got one contract without being interviewed by the client. That lasted 2.5 years at a decent rate.

So you are contracting in cloud cuckoo then? Do they have IR35 there?
Seriously, It's never a good idea to not have interview... You need to remember that you are interviewing the client too, not just the other way around.
You need to see if they/ecosystem will work for you to run a peaceful and decent gig in the first place.
Unless of course, you know the client very well already, in which case you knowing the client well itself means you have effectively interviewed them.

[Lance]

So you are contracting in cloud cuckoo then? Do they have IR35 there?
Seriously, It's never a good idea to not have interview... You need to remember that you are interviewing the client too, not just the other way around.
You need to see if they/ecosystem will work for you to run a peaceful and decent gig in the first place.
Unless of course, you know the client very well already, in which case you knowing the client well itself means you have effectively interviewed them.

All valid points... but I'd been on the bench for 2 months and the notice period was 1 week. So not a lot to lose really.
It was for a very large US consultancy as well so that helps.

[LondonManc]

I'm set on contracting now. I've done before, even though it was a while ago, so I'm not going in completely blind. I suppose I could change my mind, but in my mind that is one advantage of contracting - you get to see inside the company before you decide to work there. So often, companies look good on the outside and are complete trash inside.

Sounds like you want more of a contract to perm role than a true contracting lifestyle.

[LondonManc]

So you are contracting in cloud cuckoo then? Do they have IR35 there?
Seriously, It's never a good idea to not have interview... You need to remember that you are interviewing the client too, not just the other way around.
You need to see if they/ecosystem will work for you to run a peaceful and decent gig in the first place.
Unless of course, you know the client very well already, in which case you knowing the client well itself means you have effectively interviewed them.

I've contracted for a previous boss (hiring manager for NLUK but typing that defeats the point....). The interview consisted of:
"Are you available at the moment?"
"Yes"
"What time can you come in?"

Phone call with the agent driving in, had a day's trial and sorted the contract that evening.

[dwater]

Sounds like you want more of a contract to perm role than a true contracting lifestyle.

I don't think so. I quite liked the time I did contracting before, and worked all over the place - Southampton, Taunton, Crawley, Reading. Having said that, I don't think I'll need to do that since I live withing a 35 min train ride to central London. Previously, I lived in Somerset and rented a room close to the client during the week.

My comment was more that, if I find a company that is really good, then perhaps I might want to stay there...working there as a contractor is a way to see inside first, not that I expect to find such a company/
I've worked with many contractors in my time as a permie...and there have been some who have switched to permanent - one guy at SGI in California comes to mind - that was the best company I've worked for, imo - what's left of it is soon to become part of HP, so I hear :/.

[northernladuk]

Even said all that I think LMs statement stands. This is the first time I've seen a contractor looking at it from a future perm perspective.

I'd understand contractor for life until something crops up i can't turn down but using contracting as a way to check clients for permiedom doesn't sound right at all.

[m0n1k3r]

Your problem is you're using job boards and agents. Both are a waste of time and you will spend months until get an interview, let alone an offer.

Most contractors get work through their extended networks. All about who you know as they say..

Nope, contractors usually get work through agencies.

Consultants, on the other hand, usually get work through their extended networks. Agencies tend to think that a consultant is a recruiter, because they call themselves consultants (even 'Java consultant' if they focus on recruiting Java software engineers).

[MrMarkyMark]

FTFY

If you are shopping for clients try a permie role at one of the consultancies, where you will end up farmed out to a client where the work environment is tulip..

[m0n1k3r]

I'm fairly new to the contract market in the UK. I read a lot of threads on the boards here where everything is doom and gloom and so many people are on the bench. Within 1 week of applying on job boards I had two contract offers.
Having said that though, agents are getting flooded with CV's and this appears to be the hardest stage to get past. Several people were put for one of the contracts I was offered and some of them their CV's were better than mine, yet they couldn't get past the technical questions at the interview stage. The kind of questions that only someone with a lot of true experience can answer. Might also depend on the line of work too. There might be more work available in the infrastructure space than coding, project management etc

Few agents understand the role they are recruiting for and are not in a position to ask the right questions. They instead find the CVs that match as many keywords as possible, and where the few most recent gigs appear to have some resemblance with what the client is asking for.

They then select the 1-3 CVs that they like the most based on these shallow criteria and present to the client, who, among those few, have to find one that actually match what they are looking for. The person they actually want is most of the time in the agent's 'reject' pile, who the agent almost invariably (there are always exceptions) tell they are being 'represented' so as to not have any of those people being 'represented' by some other agency instead in direct competition with their own chosen few.

I am frequently on the receiving end of agencies and would nowadays rather read through 150 CVs myself and make up my own mind than having an agent filter out the few that matches the most keywords, usually to my dissatisfaction.