Born again contractor

[rephlex]

prime example of having skype contacts just happened to me.

contract offer has come up and the client wants an example of previous work (web development)... trouble is the site hasnt launched yet.

got onto my skype - asked a contractor at the shop for a screenshot of the not-yet-launched site...

client now has a visual idea of the work i did in a previous contract.

[pmeswani]

just saying that you might be going for a shop that doesnt use it or have heard of it. i certainly know about it - but even i registered the "minesweeper" word when just having a quick look.

i had to look twice .


now , if some client is in a hurry and just scanning cv's , they MIGHT skip over your one because of this.

(terrible name for product i must admit)

Not all skills will be identifiable by all prospects. What stops anyone thinking that I worked in Pontins because I worked on BlueCoat? Many things can be misinterpreted. If the client doesn't know what the product is, the chances are they won't have it or not savvy enough to understand the technology.

[NickFitz]

1 other thing, how do you know when a new job has been advertised? As there are so many sites, its a pain in the backside trying to go through them all.

JobServe allows you to subscribe to an RSS feed of each of your saved searches. Your feed client will then check the feed at specified intervals (every half-hour is my default) and download any new postings.

If you use any more modern web browser than IE 6 (IE 7, Firefox, Opera or Safari), it will include such a client - check the help file for "RSS" or "feed".

I have several searches ranging from very specific skills in very specific geographical areas, to very general terms anywhere in the country. It only takes a second to glance at the feeds and see if any unread items have turned up since the last time I checked.

(Presumably other sites also offer feeds, although I tend to find that everything always gets posted to JobServe anyway.)

[SueEllen]

Bill you CV content is much better.

As the others have stated you really need to be applying for roles as soon as you see them using RSS feeds. Aim to look around 3 times a day - morning, afternoon and evening.

Also be prepared to be phoned up for roles you have applied for in the evening early the next morning. I've received calls as early as 7.45am. You either have to be awake or learn how to sound like you where awake for a while.

[Bill]

sue, pmeswani, nickfitz et al,

thank you so much for all your help. I think its time to dive back into the water. I will see how many allow me to set up rss feeds and keep my eyes open (nothing else to do anyway, even watching tv gets boring)
and as for getting up in the morning, I'm up that time anyway to get my son ready for school.
I will keep you all updated................watch this space...............

[TheFaQQer]

OK - my review for Bill....

Profile section - why is "blue chip" capitalized? Same for the rest of the sentence - "local government", "private sector". I would put the last paragraph first, so that it begins "A flexible professional who can demonstrate a strong ability to manage projects from conception through to successful completion. With a hands on and logical approach to challenges and the ability to perform effectively within a fast paced working environment." Actually, I;d merge the two bits:

A flexible, PRINCE2 and ITIL qualified professional who can demonstrate a strong ability to manage projects from conception through to successful completion. With over ten years experience of project management etc. etc.

"Skills and Qualifications" rather than "Professional Skills and Qualifications" - unless you are planning on project managing in the Olympics and are holding out for those Amateur qualifications...

Again, I'd consider the capitalization - "Strong people management skills" rather than "People Management Skills". I would also say "Third" instead of "3rd".

Key Achievments - I would put the contract value in the first sentence, e.g. "Delivered a £2.5m project from feasibility study through to service delivery."

I would NOT refer to them as "contracts" in this section, since you only have to have one person ask "but you aren't a contractor?" and it falls apart. Refer to them as separate projects (which is probably / hopefully enough to fool an agent) by all means, but they weren't contracts.

I would also have the date on the left hand side rather than the right for the career history, so that it's a touch easier to work out when you were there / how long the role lasted. You may be better off putting the name of the end client rather than the permie employer (which is what I did when I left Oracle - my CV refers to the clients I was working with, rather than the employer I was working for).

As others have said - search early in the day for roles. I also used to look for those that came in over night, and applied late at night so that they were in the agent in box first thing in the morning.

Best of luck with it all,

FaQ

[rephlex]

"As others have said - search early in the day for roles. I also used to look for those that came in over night, and applied late at night so that they were in the agent in box first thing in the morning."

thats a superb tip. and logical when you think about it.

what do agents do first thing in the morning when they get into the office?

they check their email of course!

[TheBigYinJames]

what do agents do first thing in the morning when they get into the office?

Pot noodle and a wink.

[d000hg]

Is signing up to email notifications as good as RSS, or is there a significant lag there?

By the way if we're doing CV reviews, I'd be interested...

[rephlex]

just got another promising lead via linkedin.com.

i'm on the bench, resting - and i'm not even looking for contracts (taking time off)...

but i'm still getting agents mailing me via my linkedin.com profile.
(so the roles are coming to me, rather than me looking for roles - which is quite nice...)

i really do recommend setting up your profile on that site. well worth it.