Where to look for perm roles?

[FIERCE TANK BATTLE]

I added my last gig to my CV and whacked it on a couple of job sites for contracts and have had 0 calls/e-mails etc.

I just know that if I start applying to jobs they'll turn out to be fake and it'll be a complete tulip show.

I'm 90% sure I should just bite the bullet and immediately start looking for perm roles, at least for the next year.

I wonder if anyone would agree that makes sense / is sensible?

For gigs I looked almost entirely on jobserve, then from the fake roles they'd grab my CV and later might get in touch with contract roles.

I believe (perhaps mistakenly) that perm roles are more likely to be advertised directly from the companies in addition to recruiters. Would be nice to be able to go direct for perm, especially since it's more of a shopping expedition to find a cushy role than in contracting where I'll do the tuliptest gigs without batting an eyelid. And roles just never really seem to tell you who what or where, it's just 'job. skill1 skill2 skill3. call us.'

Advice welcome.

[Lance]

I added my last gig to my CV and whacked it on a couple of job sites for contracts and have had 0 calls/e-mails etc.

I just know that if I start applying to jobs they'll turn out to be fake and it'll be a complete tulip show.

I'm 90% sure I should just bite the bullet and immediately start looking for perm roles, at least for the next year.

I wonder if anyone would agree that makes sense / is sensible?

For gigs I looked almost entirely on jobserve, then from the fake roles they'd grab my CV and later might get in touch with contract roles.

I believe (perhaps mistakenly) that perm roles are more likely to be advertised directly from the companies in addition to recruiters. Would be nice to be able to go direct for perm, especially since it's more of a shopping expedition to find a cushy role than in contracting where I'll do the tuliptest gigs without batting an eyelid. And roles just never really seem to tell you who what or where, it's just 'job. skill1 skill2 skill3. call us.'

Advice welcome.

all my perm roles (Ok that's a few years ago) were all Jobserve or Jobsite.

[jayn200]

In addition to the job boards some companies will post on Linkedin or their company website. You should apply to some well known companies directly if you can. If they only post the job on their website and not on any of the job boards or linkedin they will also get fewer applicants which means less competition as well.

[rocktronAMP]

I added my last gig to my CV and whacked it on a couple of job sites for contracts and have had 0 calls/e-mails etc.

I just know that if I start applying to jobs they'll turn out to be fake and it'll be a complete tulip show.

I'm 90% sure I should just bite the bullet and immediately start looking for perm roles, at least for the next year.

I wonder if anyone would agree that makes sense / is sensible?

For gigs I looked almost entirely on jobserve, then from the fake roles they'd grab my CV and later might get in touch with contract roles.

I believe (perhaps mistakenly) that perm roles are more likely to be advertised directly from the companies in addition to recruiters. Would be nice to be able to go direct for perm, especially since it's more of a shopping expedition to find a cushy role than in contracting where I'll do the tuliptest gigs without batting an eyelid. And roles just never really seem to tell you who what or where, it's just 'job. skill1 skill2 skill3. call us.'

Advice welcome.

I would make sure that on Linkedin your profile is set to "actively looking for a job". You can post media such as a marketing (personal branding) PDF to LinkedIn. If you feel brave even a head frame video of yourself ( 1 or 2 minutes long) and an elevator pitch to potential recruiters. Everyone, or nearly every professional on the planet, is now used to seeing a Point of View camera of a person talking.

[PCTNN]

I'm 90% sure I should just bite the bullet and immediately start looking for perm roles, at least for the next year.

I wonder if anyone would agree that makes sense / is sensible?

It depends on your skillset. Given you haven't had much luck in your search for contracts, I take it your skills are not that niche, in which case looking for permanent roles as well will open up more opportunities. I'm doing exactly the same: given the lack of contract opportunities, my main focus is on permanent roles now, but I still apply to contracts, if something comes up.

I believe (perhaps mistakenly) that perm roles are more likely to be advertised directly from the companies in addition to recruiters.

This is also correct. Lots of companies only recruit directly and don't use agencies; this is mostly true for big companies that have bigger HR departments so sifting CVs and organising interviews is not a massive problem.

I have a list of 10-15 companies I would like to work at (including former clients, former employers from when I was a permieand I check on a weekly basis if they have any new vacancies. I also use indeed.co.uk and LinkedIn as well seems to be pretty good for permanent roles.

[wattaj]

LinkedIn

Update your profile and set up the careers bit so that people can see that you're looking.

If you're in two minds about going perm, then start applying now. Perm recruitment is painfully slow and just as incompetent as that for contracts.

Go direct via to the client if you possibly can.

Dig in for the long-haul.

HTH.

[PCTNN]

Perm recruitment is painfully slow and just as incompetent as that for contracts.

So painfully slow.

A few times I received interview invites for roles I completely forgot having applied for. I'm talking about 3 months after I had applied...

To avoid that, I keep a spreadsheet with all my applications and I write down the main things such as salary advertised and the job spec so that I know what I'm talking about if the company wants to interview me and I'm still interested.

[CheeseSlice]

I tried a number of methods during the lockdown to find contract or perm work. Job boards in this market seemed to be no use whatsoever, so I started looking at company career sites and even cold calling (via linkedin). Company career site applications worked maybe 50% of the time in getting a call back.
To cold call (speculative application is the better name) I found a firm that I liked or was in an industry I had experience in, and using linkedin searched for 'talent acquisition specialist' or similar. Fired off a few messages to one or more of them giving a brief bio and what I have to offer and what I'm looking for.

A lot of the time I'd get a new connection, and occasionally it led to an application for a job that hadn't been advertised yet. Its a long game though as you're just trying to be fresh in their memory for future opportunities. If you template the message its quite easy to rinse and repeat. Some of my messages received replies weeks or months later when they had something, or they just don't use Linkedin much.

Over the lockdown I had interviews from a mixture of headhunters, JS apps, company job portals and cold calling. I even had a perm offer from a Linkedin cold call so it does work.

The bottom line is to try a number of different methods. Don't just rely on getting calls by uploading a CV.

[SussexSeagull]

I tried a number of methods during the lockdown to find contract or perm work. Job boards in this market seemed to be no use whatsoever, so I started looking at company career sites and even cold calling (via linkedin). Company career site applications worked maybe 50% of the time in getting a call back.
To cold call (speculative application is the better name) I found a firm that I liked or was in an industry I had experience in, and using linkedin searched for 'talent acquisition specialist' or similar. Fired off a few messages to one or more of them giving a brief bio and what I have to offer and what I'm looking for.

A lot of the time I'd get a new connection, and occasionally it led to an application for a job that hadn't been advertised yet. Its a long game though as you're just trying to be fresh in their memory for future opportunities. If you template the message its quite easy to rinse and repeat. Some of my messages received replies weeks or months later when they had something, or they just don't use Linkedin much.

Over the lockdown I had interviews from a mixture of headhunters, JS apps, company job portals and cold calling. I even had a perm offer from a Linkedin cold call so it does work.

The bottom line is to try a number of different methods. Don't just rely on getting calls by uploading a CV.

Always remember you can fail 200 times but only have to succeed once.

[LondonManc]

LinkedIn

Update your profile and set up the careers bit so that people can see that you're looking.

If you're in two minds about going perm, then start applying now. Perm recruitment is painfully slow and just as incompetent as that for contracts.

Go direct via to the client if you possibly can.

Dig in for the long-haul.

HTH.

This.

A lot of companies now have "Talent Acquisition Manager" and similar people on site.

The main challenge that you face (assuming you get an interview) is convincing the client that you want to ditch contracting. Some will ask you to close your limited company down (if you've finish contracting, why wouldn't you will be their argument!).