Born again contractor

[Bill]

Hello all,

been reading your posts of the last few days and thought why not become a member, so here I am.
I am a born again contractor after many years, and have been off work since April. I took some time off(my choice) and have been looking for a contract since Septemeber and have not had anything come through, not even had my CV put forward.
Not sure what I am doing wrong, my CV isn't bad, I've got plenty of experience, and pretty good at what I do.
Is it me, or is the market really that competitive at the moment. I know there is a credit crunch, but wreckon thats an excuse recruiters are using.
Any advice from the more experience contractors would be much appreciated.
BTW I am a PM, mainly Wintel, Infrastructure stuff.

Sorry if the post is a bit long, just really bored!!!

[chicane]

my CV isn't bad

You don't state exactly how far you're getting in the application process. Are you getting no calls in response to posting your CV, or do you get calls that never materialise into interviews? You can normally work out your weaknesses from where in the process you seem to get stuck every time.

I put my CV up on Jobserve a month ago and got 5 calls a day for a couple of weeks, of which at least some must have related to genuine roles. Maybe you should strip out all of the personal info from your CV and make it available to the panel for feedback?

[Bill]

Chicane,

thanks for the info. I have had very few calls, some of them saying not suitable as the position requires a certain industry knowledge which i don't have, even though it wasn't stated in the ad. Some calls are just to get more info so they can add me to their databases to send me jobs for something I did in my last lifetime.
I'm happy to post my CV, can I just ad it into a post??

[XLMonkey]

The market isn't that bad - I was given notice on my current project last week - two interviews due this week and two more in the pipeline.

There are 4 stages to getting a contract.
1. Applying for an opportunity that you think you're a good match for
2. Agent calls/emails to qualify your availability & rate (ie. they think you're a good match too)
3. Client requests interview (client agrees with you and agent)
4. Contract offer

You need to track your progress through this sales pipeline to understand why you haven't got a contract yet. There is no reason why you shouldn't have one by now.

Stops at step 1. Either
- you're applying for roles that you are unqualified for. Action: Be realistic
- your CV is rubbish. Action: improve it, or get someone else to.
- you applied too late (generally you need to apply on the day a contract is posted to be at the top of the agent's queue). Action: set up an RSS feed so you get notified as soon as a qualifying contract is posted.

Stops at step 2. Either
- your rate expectations are too high. Action: be realistic (ouch!)
- you didn't convince the agent on the phone that you were a real human being. Action: do a bit of interview practice with a friendly friend.
- the role never existed in the first place and the agent was just fishing for leads. Action: curse them and all their kind
- the client pulls out (happens pretty frequently). Action: shrug and go for the next one.

Stops at step 3
- your interview technique wasn't up to scratch. Action: do a bit of interview practice.
- the client pulls out
- someone else was just better suited to the role.


To use the management speak - you can only manage what you measure. How many applications have you put in, and how many have failed at each step in the sales process? If you can answer those questions, then you should be able to work out what to do to fix the situation.

[YHB]

Hello all,

been reading your posts of the last few days and thought why not become a member, so here I am.
I am a born again contractor after many years, and have been off work since April. I took some time off(my choice) and have been looking for a contract since Septemeber and have not had anything come through, not even had my CV put forward.
Not sure what I am doing wrong, my CV isn't bad, I've got plenty of experience, and pretty good at what I do.
Is it me, or is the market really that competitive at the moment. I know there is a credit crunch, but wreckon thats an excuse recruiters are using.
Any advice from the more experience contractors would be much appreciated.
BTW I am a PM, mainly Wintel, Infrastructure stuff.

Sorry if the post is a bit long, just really bored!!!

Youre not a contractor- just unemployed

[max]

Hello all,

been reading your posts of the last few days and thought why not become a member, so here I am.
I am a born again contractor after many years, and have been off work since April. I took some time off(my choice) and have been looking for a contract since Septemeber and have not had anything come through, not even had my CV put forward.
Not sure what I am doing wrong, my CV isn't bad, I've got plenty of experience, and pretty good at what I do.
Is it me, or is the market really that competitive at the moment. I know there is a credit crunch, but wreckon thats an excuse recruiters are using.
Any advice from the more experience contractors would be much appreciated.
BTW I am a PM, mainly Wintel, Infrastructure stuff.

Sorry if the post is a bit long, just really bored!!!

Any particaluar industry?...Presumably not finance which (any genius can see) is having a small blip(once in a century event).

[TheBigYinJames]

Also useful to note that a CV you might write for a Permie job application is different from one you will need as a contractor. Agencies are keyword driven, and won't read long dense passages about your work experience. So summarise your separate projects as if they were different jobs, laying out (a) the skills you used (2) the products you created (3) goals and gongs (4) any money you may have saved/brought in. Keep it simple and short for each one.

Have a profile at the start listing your skills and strengths.

[Bill]

Thanks YHB, to true, I am unemployed at the moment.
Just to add some more info, I am applying to up to 4 roles per night. I go through all the usual Jobserve, Monster, etc and look at what is around. I do not look at the rate, more the job content, and I am not applying above my skills. As for industry, I did my previous perm role working on a government contract, and I am not looking at a specific industry to go into. All my previous roles that are on my CV worth looing at were perm, and I have been a perm for 8, 9 years now. I have tried to tailor my CV, but I don't have the means to pay some company £500 to write a cv for me, which may be no better than the one i have.
Could it also be that as far as the agencies are concerned, I am new to contracting as its been so long?? And the fact that only 1 agency has asked why I have been off for so long??

[SueEllen]

Thanks YHB, to true, I am unemployed at the moment.
Just to add some more info, I am applying to up to 4 roles per night. I go through all the usual Jobserve, Monster, etc and look at what is around. I do not look at the rate, more the job content, and I am not applying above my skills. As for industry, I did my previous perm role working on a government contract, and I am not looking at a specific industry to go into. All my previous roles that are on my CV worth looing at were perm, and I have been a perm for 8, 9 years now. I have tried to tailor my CV, but I don't have the means to pay some company £500 to write a cv for me, which may be no better than the one i have.
Could it also be that as far as the agencies are concerned, I am new to contracting as its been so long?? And the fact that only 1 agency has asked why I have been off for so long??

1. You can write your CV yourself. Get someone to review it. Even people on here will review it for you. (There was a poster who did that this year and managed to get a contract within 3 weeks of the sites major peer review.) Up load a word copy to a website and make sure you strip out your real name, address and other contact details.

2. Tell the agencies you are a contractor. and have been for the last x years. Divide your jobs up on your CV into separate projects. Don't admit to being permanent.

3. Agencies talk tulip to see how much they can screw you by. As far as you are concerned you took the summer off to do xxxxxx and now are ready to for a new contract.

[Bill]

Sue,

thanks for the reply. 2 questions.
1. Call me stupid, but if i split up my roles and put them down as contracts, isn't that lying? I'm not bothered about the agencies, but the company taking me on may question it.
2. I can't post my cv anywhere. I can't add attachments yet as i'm a newbie, and don't have access to a website to upload. You don't by any chance now the name of the poster who reviewed CV's do you.