I am struggling to find next contract, how about others?

**MrButton** · 4 May 2018, 12:58

Take a look through the last few months of this thread: https://forums.contractoruk.com/busi...te-market.html

Seems to be a common issue in a few areas - I noticed PM and BA in particular.

Other areas seem to have not been hit too hard.

**Agent** · 4 May 2018, 12:58

My advice would be to find a couple of senior / very experienced recruiters within your sector.

Use Linkedin and look for;

the ones with a good tenure at their current business,
highly active on linkedin
are advertising within your sector

Call them up and try and book a time to meet them, aim for at least 3. Once you've met them they'll help - assuming you're actually any good!

**uk contractor** · 4 May 2018, 17:19

OP its going to be a hard slog not what you want to hear but that is the way it is.

PM are ten a penny in London especially. Recruitment agents get around 750 CV's for well paid roles in the space of a day or so. Look outside Financial Services sector as well that has been hit harder than other sectors for headcount & or contractor budget approvals. Your doing the right thing in looking around outside UK as well but it appears the goldrush for PM roles ended a while ago there are fewer opportunities & way more competition as other contractors land on the bench reducing the overall chances for everyone. If you can I would seriously think about downsizing your home to reduce your mortgage or pay it up altogether as the near future is not going to suddenly produce a drastic change in PM hiring this appears to be a long term strategy shift away from PM contractors towards either a perm recruitment drive or internally resourcing or just making do for as long as possible. The reason I say this is because unless you have a large war chest its going to be tough to land a well paid PM role again the market is rapidly shifting away from this model now. Many end clients want to retrain internal existing perm resource or bring on highly skilled external perms as the cost savings are massive vs contractor PM rates.

Finally, agents can pick & chose in most IT based disciplines who they put forward & its very rate sensitive (just £5 a day difference can even cause you to lose out) so unless your prepared to work for a much lower rate card than before the reality of this is you will simply not get your CV punted over to the client as the other candidates who are prepared to work for lower rates will be the ones who the end client gets the CV for.

That is not just the agency playing you its the commercial reality of an over saturated IT contractor market, globalisation & market forces.

Its not just you either there are lots of people in the same position. Your probably not aware yet but if your a home owner then you are not even eligible to claim most state benefits (Universal Credit now which is way harder to qualify for & they will means test you & want proof of income, assets & all the usual documents like 6 months Mortgage Statements, Credit Card & Bank statements for you & your other half) they expect you to sell your home first before claiming as well & even if your accepted its a 6 week minimum wait for any payment so that means 2 months from when or if you need to claim this to get by. I think the mortgage interest only payments are also much harder to be accepted for & only kick in after 9 months registered as unemployed. If you have any BTL interest as well they want full details on that & again will expect you to get rid of those assets & your combined bank balance must also be under £6,000. At the online application stage DWP auto reject you if your a current homeowner, BTL investor or company director or other small business owner. If you own a car or boat or any other disposable non essential asset they will expect you to sell that to live on. It's a real slog to speak to someone knowledgeable @ DWP who you can explain your personal circumstances to so that they can kickstart the application process for Mortgage interest relief. This process is a last resort for many but be aware its a complex time consuming process if you simply cannot get another role & need to get some money to live on.

Good luck but if nothing has turned up after almost 4 months I would start to look at moving home, downsizing or risk running your war chest capital down drastically.

**clearedforlanding** · 4 May 2018, 17:44

Forget about Europe unless you are perfectly fluent in at least one and preferably 2 relevant languages and have dual nationality. It just aint going to happen.

Companies are woried about the post Brexit exposure for PM roles with regards to project stability.

**Cirrus** · 4 May 2018, 21:17

Originally posted by uk contractor View Post

Good luck but if nothing has turned up after almost 4 months I would start to look at moving home, downsizing or risk running your war chest capital down drastically.

I was in this market and would not be unduly surprised at the 3-4 month point. In today's market I could easily see 6+ months to land something. My last campaign was 5 months and things look worse now.

As always just keep playing the numbers game.

And don't turn your nose up at the bargain basement £345 roles with the likes of Lloyds Banking Group. You can live comfortably off chicken feed. even paying your own travel and accommodation.

**washed up contractor** · 5 May 2018, 22:32

Originally posted by PMPro View Post

Hello,

I am an experienced contract PM with over 15 years of Project Management experience in retail banking and financial sector in payments and regulatory change projects. I finished my previous contract in Nov 17 and took some time off due to ill health followed by home renovation work. I started active search from Feb 2018 on wards and have been searching since then without much luck.

Some times the suitable roles for which my CV has been submitted by recruitment agents are being put on hold and some times even if there is 50% match agents are not willing to put forward my CV as they are "inundated by candidates with more suitable payments project management experience". I have now cast my net wider to any where in UK or Europe (not just London)

It feels much harder this time to find so wanted to check how others with similar sort of experience are finding it?

Thanks in advance for your comments

RG

Sign of the time I am afraid. Agents are lazy bastards and want 100% tick box compliance before they will submit your cv. Plus, many agents you speak to are drones who just farm suitable cvs which are then passed to the 'account manager' who will sift out the ones he does not want.

Then there is the fact the agents figure you're only as good as your last job and if that isnt a 100% match for the one you are applying for, tough.

Although more and more agents are acknowledging more contractors are having bigger more frequent gaps on their cvs, they do not help because they only want those with short or no gaps. They say this is what clients want.

Back around the mid 2000s when contracts were few and far between, agents regularly told me they were not submitting any contractors who were on the bench. They were only encouraging those in contracts to leave and take theirs! How ridiculous was that?

**SillyPerson** · 5 May 2018, 22:38

Originally posted by uk contractor View Post

OP its going to be a hard slog not what you want to hear but that is the way it is.

PM are ten a penny in London especially. Recruitment agents get around 750 CV's for well paid roles in the space of a day or so. Look outside Financial Services sector as well that has been hit harder than other sectors for headcount & or contractor budget approvals. Your doing the right thing in looking around outside UK as well but it appears the goldrush for PM roles ended a while ago there are fewer opportunities & way more competition as other contractors land on the bench reducing the overall chances for everyone. If you can I would seriously think about downsizing your home to reduce your mortgage or pay it up altogether as the near future is not going to suddenly produce a drastic change in PM hiring this appears to be a long term strategy shift away from PM contractors towards either a perm recruitment drive or internally resourcing or just making do for as long as possible. The reason I say this is because unless you have a large war chest its going to be tough to land a well paid PM role again the market is rapidly shifting away from this model now. Many end clients want to retrain internal existing perm resource or bring on highly skilled external perms as the cost savings are massive vs contractor PM rates.

Finally, agents can pick & chose in most IT based disciplines who they put forward & its very rate sensitive (just £5 a day difference can even cause you to lose out) so unless your prepared to work for a much lower rate card than before the reality of this is you will simply not get your CV punted over to the client as the other candidates who are prepared to work for lower rates will be the ones who the end client gets the CV for.

That is not just the agency playing you its the commercial reality of an over saturated IT contractor market, globalisation & market forces.

Its not just you either there are lots of people in the same position. Your probably not aware yet but if your a home owner then you are not even eligible to claim most state benefits (Universal Credit now which is way harder to qualify for & they will means test you & want proof of income, assets & all the usual documents like 6 months Mortgage Statements, Credit Card & Bank statements for you & your other half) they expect you to sell your home first before claiming as well & even if your accepted its a 6 week minimum wait for any payment so that means 2 months from when or if you need to claim this to get by. I think the mortgage interest only payments are also much harder to be accepted for & only kick in after 9 months registered as unemployed. If you have any BTL interest as well they want full details on that & again will expect you to get rid of those assets & your combined bank balance must also be under £6,000. At the online application stage DWP auto reject you if your a current homeowner, BTL investor or company director or other small business owner. If you own a car or boat or any other disposable non essential asset they will expect you to sell that to live on. It's a real slog to speak to someone knowledgeable @ DWP who you can explain your personal circumstances to so that they can kickstart the application process for Mortgage interest relief. This process is a last resort for many but be aware its a complex time consuming process if you simply cannot get another role & need to get some money to live on.

Good luck but if nothing has turned up after almost 4 months I would start to look at moving home, downsizing or risk running your war chest capital down drastically.

It’s - it is (its - belonging to it)

You’re - you are (your - it’s yours)

Really - if your giving advise to someone to ‘move home or downsize’ based on one post then..we’ll im not sure your a expert.

**washed up contractor** · 5 May 2018, 22:48

Originally posted by uk contractor View Post

OP its going to be a hard slog not what you want to hear but that is the way it is.

PM are ten a penny in London especially. Recruitment agents get around 750 CV's for well paid roles in the space of a day or so. Look outside Financial Services sector as well that has been hit harder than other sectors for headcount & or contractor budget approvals. Your doing the right thing in looking around outside UK as well but it appears the goldrush for PM roles ended a while ago there are fewer opportunities & way more competition as other contractors land on the bench reducing the overall chances for everyone. If you can I would seriously think about downsizing your home to reduce your mortgage or pay it up altogether as the near future is not going to suddenly produce a drastic change in PM hiring this appears to be a long term strategy shift away from PM contractors towards either a perm recruitment drive or internally resourcing or just making do for as long as possible. The reason I say this is because unless you have a large war chest its going to be tough to land a well paid PM role again the market is rapidly shifting away from this model now. Many end clients want to retrain internal existing perm resource or bring on highly skilled external perms as the cost savings are massive vs contractor PM rates.

Finally, agents can pick & chose in most IT based disciplines who they put forward & its very rate sensitive (just £5 a day difference can even cause you to lose out) so unless your prepared to work for a much lower rate card than before the reality of this is you will simply not get your CV punted over to the client as the other candidates who are prepared to work for lower rates will be the ones who the end client gets the CV for.

That is not just the agency playing you its the commercial reality of an over saturated IT contractor market, globalisation & market forces.

Its not just you either there are lots of people in the same position. Your probably not aware yet but if your a home owner then you are not even eligible to claim most state benefits (Universal Credit now which is way harder to qualify for & they will means test you & want proof of income, assets & all the usual documents like 6 months Mortgage Statements, Credit Card & Bank statements for you & your other half) they expect you to sell your home first before claiming as well & even if your accepted its a 6 week minimum wait for any payment so that means 2 months from when or if you need to claim this to get by. I think the mortgage interest only payments are also much harder to be accepted for & only kick in after 9 months registered as unemployed. If you have any BTL interest as well they want full details on that & again will expect you to get rid of those assets & your combined bank balance must also be under £6,000. At the online application stage DWP auto reject you if your a current homeowner, BTL investor or company director or other small business owner. If you own a car or boat or any other disposable non essential asset they will expect you to sell that to live on. It's a real slog to speak to someone knowledgeable @ DWP who you can explain your personal circumstances to so that they can kickstart the application process for Mortgage interest relief. This process is a last resort for many but be aware its a complex time consuming process if you simply cannot get another role & need to get some money to live on.

Good luck but if nothing has turned up after almost 4 months I would start to look at moving home, downsizing or risk running your war chest capital down drastically.

Nailed it. Also, if you are in receipt of an occupational pension and it is more than 50 quid a week, you wont get any JSA Contributions based income if in an area UC has not been rolled out in despite having the qualifying contributions.

**fidot** · 6 May 2018, 05:56

Originally posted by SillyPerson View Post

It’s - it is (its - belonging to it)

You’re - you are (your - it’s yours)

Really - if your giving advise to someone to ‘move home or downsize’ based on one post then..we’ll im not sure your a expert.

Oh, the irony

I am struggling to find next contract, how about others?