How much experience do you need to have a decent chance of a contract

[NickNick]

Damn straight. I've only ever "won" one contract.

Same as me. I landed a contract the normal route just the once 4 years ago, been trading off the back of the quality of that work and the contacts made then ever since.

NN

[tim123]

Confidence is the key and the ability to talk. To be truthful technical skills(dependent on role) can be secondary.

Having met realityhack for example, you come to realise you dont actually need to have any IT knowledge as long as you can act like a noddytail party host!

And if you can't.

Such comments always annoy me.

If I was the super sharpe sales and marketing man, wouldn't I be working in the sales and/or marketing department by now?

Most techies are techies because there aren't super sharpe saleman types. Telling them that they need to be, isn't helpful IMHO

tim