Getting a Foot in the Door

[northernladuk]

Just to add, dipping in and out of contracting won't help. Permies will see this and assume you are there just to skill up and leave rather than being commited to the job.

[Lance]

Upon graduating I managed to land a few accounts admin and credit control type of roles but as accounting doesn't interest me,

'interest' is a luxury you cannot afford it seems.

If you can do accounts admin then do that. If you can become an accountant there are a lot more choices available and a lot more interest to be had as there are many different types of accountant.
More often than not a career path chooses you rather than the other way round.

[northernladuk]

'interest' is a luxury you cannot afford it seems.

If you can do accounts admin then do that. If you can become an accountant there are a lot more choices available and a lot more interest to be had as there are many different types of accountant.
More often than not a career path chooses you rather than the other way round.

A good point. It does appear a number of students come out of university expecting everything to fall at their feet because they've got a degree. They just don't get they've still got no skills and the real hard work is just about to start. We've had a couple on here in the not so distant past.

[LondonManc]

A good point. It does appear a number of students come out of university expecting everything to fall at their feet because they've got a degree. They just don't get they've still got no skills and the real hard work is just about to start. We've had a couple on here in the not so distant past.

The other thing that they don't realise is that every year above them has a set of people with degrees, who are also racking up the experience.

OP, as brutal as this sounds, I believe that you'd be best doing a career rewind and starting at the bottom of where you want to start and work your way up. Contracting is a market that's getting squeezed badly in banking with various culls across the City and Canary Wharf. I was in a team of ten 18 months ago and there are 4 of us left now with one of those having taken a contract in another country's offices to get her off London headcount.

Learn your trade, climb as high as you can by the time you're 35 and you'll then have a much better experience and skill set to command higher day rates. Patience is the key - there was a recent thread about when people went contracting and most were after at least 8 years. As you're finding out, it's not about the first contract, it's about the next one.

[Cirrus]

It's a numbers game.

I'm beyond frustrated and don't know what to do now. I've been applying for both permanent and contract roles but so far have had no interviews.

I would have thought you stand half a chance of landing something in the banking/compliance area.

You need to understand the Market can be very tough. There is evidence (on this channel) it is particularly bad at the moment.

For my most recent contract, I applied for 133 roles and took 8 months to get a job. The worst campaign I suffered was 213 roles and 23months.

Just keep plugging away and something will pop out the woodwork.

[SueEllen]

I would have thought you stand half a chance of landing something in the banking/compliance area.

You need to understand the Market can be very tough. There is evidence (on this channel) it is particularly bad at the moment.

For my most recent contract, I applied for 133 roles and took 8 months to get a job. The worst campaign I suffered was 213 roles and 23months.

Just keep plugging away and something will pop out the woodwork.

But you have clearly identified specialist skills.

The OP has done a role in the past few years where the only transferable skills are due to their accountancy admin experience.

If the OP had clearly specialist skills and was starting out but couldn't get a break in London or didn't like particular places in the UK, I would tell them to see if any company abroad is interested in you. Lots of them are happy to employ British STEM graduates and you can get to live in a capital/major city in another country.

[SueEllen]

A good point. It does appear a number of students come out of university expecting everything to fall at their feet because they've got a degree. They just don't get they've still got no skills and the real hard work is just about to start. We've had a couple on here in the not so distant past.

One of the issues, and I didn't realise this until I was watching a series about the 20th century on the Beeb, is older people even with degrees tended to work part-time as teenagers.

So we ended up with real workplace customer service skills, team working skills, admin skills, etc so when we got our first sh*tty proper post-degree jobs we were simply glad not to be paid a complete pittance to do some of the same work. The fact that we were gradually also given more interesting tasks to do as well helped.

[gables]

Upon graduating I managed to land a few accounts admin and credit control type of roles but as accounting doesn't interest me,

Out of interest what did you graduate in and how old are you now?

A friend of my parents told me this once "get a job you're good at, not what you like" - food for thought?

OP, as brutal as this sounds, I believe that you'd be best doing a career rewind and starting at the bottom of where you want to start and work your way up. Contracting is a market that's getting squeezed badly in banking with various culls across the City and Canary Wharf. I was in a team of ten 18 months ago and there are 4 of us left now with one of those having taken a contract in another country's offices to get her off London headcount.

Learn your trade, climb as high as you can by the time you're 35 and you'll then have a much better experience and skill set to command higher day rates. Patience is the key - there was a recent thread about when people went contracting and most were after at least 8 years. As you're finding out, it's not about the first contract, it's about the next one.

Definitely do this. Forget contracting, I'd be looking for a permie job, get in, get working, take it from there.

A little story, my girlfriend at 54 quit her 31 year NHS nursing career (fairly senior) and did a BA Business Management course, is now at the bottom of the tree aged 58, not earning a lot but progressing rapidly, loving it though - re-evaluating\starting again can be done.

[kaiser78]

OP - Another option is to look at junior PMO permie roles and from there you can move in Jnr PM, then PM and then move into the contract world. Even then this is not guaranteed and you will need to get some good experience under your belt.

[flamel]

'interest' is a luxury you cannot afford it seems.

If you can do accounts admin then do that. If you can become an accountant there are a lot more choices available and a lot more interest to be had as there are many different types of accountant.
More often than not a career path chooses you rather than the other way round.

If you go down this path, get a perm job with training - as an accountant you absolutely have to get a qualification