What am I doing wrong?

[Diestl]

In my experience this whole post is so absolutely wrong I don't know where to start.

If this works in your world Diestl then lucky old you, but I'd never advocate this sort of attitude to anyone, let alone to the person who started this thread because he is struggling to get work at the moment.

My post was made through the haze of a previous nights drinking, but my point is agents only care if you have the technical skills, if all else is equal then banter with the agent may help.

[Stuart@itworksrec.co.uk]

get a pushbike and get out there!!!!

[Spacecadet]

My post was made through the haze of a previous nights drinking, but my point is agents only care if you have the technical skills, if all else is equal then banter with the agent may help.

Banter helps as it gives the agent an impression of how you would behave in an interview.

[Stuart@itworksrec.co.uk]

Banter helps as it gives the agent an impression of how you would behave in an interview.

It is banter but to be fair any recruiter worth his salt will be interviewing you for the role to see your suitability... Idea is to match candidate and client not just be a CV forwarding service. If you just want your CV out there without marketing get every possible email address you can and sit back... I guarantee no one will look at you

[Ardesco]

Banter will get you the gig, not a list of technologies.

Remember you have to come across as somebody who will easily integrate with the team and be able to instantly build a good working relationship with anybody in the business.

If you sit through the interview looking like some tech geek who is scared to say boo to a ghost there is a good chance the other guy with an equally impressive CV (although some of it is a stretch of the truth) but ca blag away happily and make the interviewer feel like his best mate will get the gig.

There are loads of people out there with the same skills as you, but not everybody has the gift of the gab.

[Spacecadet]

It is banter but to be fair any recruiter worth his salt will be interviewing you for the role to see your suitability...

There is that, however most (if not all) agents I've spoken to have very little idea of the technical side of things. They don't know the questions to ask the candidate. Many times i've been asked "technical" questions which are un-answerable because the question is complete nonsense. Usually I explain to the agent why the question is wrong, then answer the question they should have asked

Basically if you sound like you know and confident in what you're doing, sound like a "normal" person, ie someone who can easily get on with other people and give coherent answers to questions in a non-arsey way then the agent is happy that they're not sending some social misfits CV to the client.

[Diestl]

Banter will get you the gig, not a list of technologies.

Remember you have to come across as somebody who will easily integrate with the team and be able to instantly build a good working relationship with anybody in the business.

If you sit through the interview looking like some tech geek who is scared to say boo to a ghost there is a good chance the other guy with an equally impressive CV (although some of it is a stretch of the truth) but ca blag away happily and make the interviewer feel like his best mate will get the gig.

There are loads of people out there with the same skills as you, but not everybody has the gift of the gab.

Depends on the role, if I was the employer looking for a programmer I would want the geek, not someone who talked all day and never got anything done.

[Agent_Orange]

my point is agents only care if you have the technical skills, if all else is equal then banter with the agent may help.

It's true to an extent. Above all you need to have the right skills for the job, but by building a relationship/raporte with an agent, I think they are far more likely to remember you when roles do come up that suit you, and give you first refusal.

[ratewhore]

...any recruiter worth his salt will be interviewing you for the role to see your suitability...

Never been interviewed by a pimp, never! Nor would I expect to. They are, for me, word matching monkeys comparing my CV with the spec. That's not criticism either, it's my experience (before anyone starts gobbing off!!)...

[Diestl]

Never been interviewed by a pimp, never! Nor would I expect to. They are, for me, word matching monkeys comparing my CV with the spec. That's not criticism either, it's my experience (before anyone starts gobbing off!!)...

I agree, I played around with my CV and by making the key skills I was targeting bold near the top, along with things like "successful delivery to large clients..".

Maybe there are lots of contracts for my skill set (C#,SQL,ASP.NET) and I don't need to try as hard. Once you have a few big name clients matched with good CV and confident assertive communication skills it should be no problem to land a contract with a decent rate IMHO.