Best Time of Year to start contracting?

[jmcdglasgow]

Hi Guys - I searched to see if this had come up before and couldn't find anything.

I'm strongly considering making the switch to contracting by Oct 1st this year. I've heard that any later than that in the year and contracts begin to dry up towards Christmas: Is this true?

Is there a best / worst time of year for landing a contract or is it fairly constant, and if I'm going to do this should I do it in the next month or so, otherwise leave it to next year and not risk being unemployed over xmas?!

Cheers!

[Sockpuppet]

There are dry spells. Depends what field you are in. If you have the skills you should get a job no probs.

[blazzar]

The months when it goes quiet for me are normally Dec and Jan and the other time I notice a decrease in contact is the school summer holidays but that is only a general feeling I get and isn't as noticeable as the other two.

[jmcdglasgow]

There are dry spells. Depends what field you are in. If you have the skills you should get a job no probs.

Hi Sockpuppet - I've got the whole .NET Spectrum (VB, C#, ASP), C++, Java, T-SQL, HTML/CSS/JS and a few other bits and bobs. I've got a few large projects under my belt.

I'm just worried that if I leave it till Nov / Dec all I'm going to see is the odd Citrix / Novell / Powerbuilder contracts

But then again I have nothing to base this on other than what a couple of colelage have said...

[ChimpMaster]

If possible get a contract with a client that will wait for your 4 week notice period to come to an end. It rarely works but is worth a try - worked for me, but I am in a niche sector and I had a strong background in the field.

Ideally you would want to get a contract that will tide you through the new year over into March. Some believe that Feb/Mar are also quite due to budgets being tight until the new financial year starts.

Largely though it depends on what sector you work in - if you have a prevalent skillset then you will always find contracts out there. If you work in a niche then you could be struggling to fill up your year.

[robnjc]

Dec/Jan are traditionally supposed to be quiet as old budgets run out/new budgets are set, (plus of course the Xmas/New Year break) but my last three contracts started in Nov, Nov & Jan so who knows.

Contracting jobs tend to be quick starting - I've been interviewed on Weds and started the following Monday. By all means start looking during your notice period - if nothing else the interview practice will good. It will help timewasting though by making sure the client is aware of your earliest start date before the interview.

[richard-af]

I kept a tally of Oracle DBA jobs from Sep '06 - Mar '07: Nov - Feb was busiest time. And by a big margin, too.

[jmcdglasgow]

Interesting...

With regard to the whole timing issue: there is a chance that if I finished up at the end of Nov, I could collect a 2.5K bonus. But there's an equal chance that it won't be paid, or that if I hand in my notice on Nov 1st they would refuse to pay it.

But then I'm thinking I could easily earn that 2.5K back in a couple of months of contracting.

Would you guys wait for the chance of a bonus, or just do it now and get into that first contract?

[weemster]

If you have a buffer of cash to last a few months I would do it now - if not It may be a good idea to get some funds together inc. 2.5k first.

[VectraMan]

My previous contract ended in November and I thought I'd be screwed at least until January, but walked straight into another one.

I'd always been told that September was the peak time, and that the summer would be dead. But my impression is that things have evened out over the year.