Convincing Employer of Motives for going Perm

[edison]

It's a nice thought, but I found that HR mostly only want people already experienced in their own particular industry vertical.

Perhaps the best way in is to do the old start-as-a-contractor-and-switch when you've proved you can hack it.

I was going for IT Director roles with a significant element of facing off to senior functional business stakeholders. In my experience and from what I've picked up from headhunters over the years, retail, financial services and pharmaceuticals are the sectors that most commonly prefer people with past sector experience.

One headhunter coach advised that because I had been a contractor for 7-8 years, getting a contract role and converting to perm was probably my most likely successful option.

[Lance]

After a long and illustrious contracting career, I'm going to move back to the dark side. Last couple of yers have been tough with too much downtime and I just don't think it's worth it anymore.

So, faced with a CV like mine, any potential hiring manager is rightly going to think this guy's going to jumo ship as soon as the market picks up again.

What sort of things coukd I say to convince him/her otherwise?

you need to convince them you are after perm as a lifestyle, and not simply because you have no work.
Best bet is to be interviewing for the perm work whilst still in a contract. Cos that is the only way you can convince them you'll not jump at the first sniff of another contract.

They might take a punt on you anyway, but they also recognise that you are a 'flight risk'.

[PerfectStorm]

If you are neither then again mention travelling, stability, miss being part of a team and growing with the company.

Are we at least trying to sound credible?

"I really miss all-day brainstorms with curly sandwiches and dirty looks in the corridor"

[escapeUK]

Tell the truth. Tell them that the anti-business government has made it utterly pointless, given they want to tax you just as much as a perm while simultaneously denying you all the benefits and rights.

[PCTNN]

I switched back and forth many times and I've always used the mortgage excuse/lie.

When I wanted to switch from contractor to permie I would say that I wanted to get a house and a mortgage so I couldn't afford the risk of being out of work for months at the time and therefore I wanted the income stability that a permie job would give me.

When I wanted to switch from permie to contractor I would say that I only went permanent strategically because it was easier to get a mortgage approved and it was always my plan to go back contracting after the mortgage had been secured.

So, in general, lie like there's no tomorrow but make sure it's a believable lie.