Help finding next Contract

[radish2008]

No with your first paragraph but yes with your second.

There is no such thing as wrong events as long as there is a chance to talk to loads of people afterwards. Contracts can come just from knowing random people as long as you aren't mercenary.

I once got a contract at the bar in a pub. It turned out the guy next to me had just fired his developer. I was telling the barman I'd just finished a local gig.

[MrMarkyMark]

I once got a contract at the bar in a pub. It turned out the guy next to me had just fired his developer. I was telling the barman I'd just finished a local gig.

Top man

I have had quite a few contract offers via the technical forum I contribute to.

[squarepeg]

Is it normally to be out of work for 5 weeks at a time?

Id welcome any advice or comments on this.

Thanks and regards,
Jas

It isn't normal, if you had remembered to start interviewing/actively looking ~2 months before the end of your last contract. It is normal if you think you can carry on as usual without taking proactive steps well in advance. If you haven't been networking until now, you will look like another looser handing out his CVs. You are a much hotter property when you have a contract, because the lizard brain of your potential clients thinks that if you are good enough for the current client, you must be good enough for them. I get a crapload of phone calls from recruiters trying to woo me to jump my current contract within the first 4 weeks of starting.

[northernladuk]

What do you do if you secure a gig 6 weeks before the end and you've got a notice period? Hope they will wait or bail on your client everytime?

Don't agree with the last half of that at all. Too much to bother picking through.

[SussexSeagull]

I don't even look until a month before I am due to leave.

[squarepeg]

What do you do if you secure a gig 6 weeks before the end and you've got a notice period? Hope they will wait or bail on your client everytime?

Don't agree with the last half of that at all. Too much to bother picking through.

The end of the contract is the end of the contract, notice period applies to the duration of the contract, no need to give a notice when it just ends. I always talk to my current client first giving them the option to extend, and they almost always do. If they don't want to extend, I start looking, interviewing, and have little to no downtime between contracts.