In Desperation

[nomnom69]

Ok, I wouldnt normally post a whinge or what seems like a drastic act of desperation but here goes ...

I have been trying to get a new contract for months now, previously having been made redundant (I contracted 12 years before taking a permie role .. to which I was mad redundant) then took a 6 month contract on a .Gov project which has been canned. I must apply for around 20-30 jobs a day, and manage to get an interview for around every 250 applications, most of these are quite a good fit, others a perfect in terms of role, location, rate etc ... but heres the problem, I cannot get offered any of these jobs. I am 50, normal (I think), smartly presented and reasonably well spoken, I dont antagonise or argue in interviews and do honestly try my best .... I try to get feedback, but in this litigious age all I ever get is 'that someone was more suitable' so I cant even correct what I am doing wrong.
I dont know where to turn, or what to try next ... my finances are heading for oblivion, my house is a possible repo and the stress is starting to build.

Any, absolutely any words of helpful advice would be gratefully received.

Thks.

[kaiser78]

Ok, I wouldnt normally post a whinge or what seems like a drastic act of desperation but here goes ...

I have been trying to get a new contract for months now, previously having been made redundant (I contracted 12 years before taking a permie role .. to which I was mad redundant) then took a 6 month contract on a .Gov project which has been canned. I must apply for around 20-30 jobs a day, and manage to get an interview for around every 250 applications, most of these are quite a good fit, others a perfect in terms of role, location, rate etc ... but heres the problem, I cannot get offered any of these jobs. I am 50, normal (I think), smartly presented and reasonably well spoken, I dont antagonise or argue in interviews and do honestly try my best .... I try to get feedback, but in this litigious age all I ever get is 'that someone was more suitable' so I cant even correct what I am doing wrong.
I dont know where to turn, or what to try next ... my finances are heading for oblivion, my house is a possible repo and the stress is starting to build.

Any, absolutely any words of helpful advice would be gratefully received.

Thks.

Well, welcome to the real world and I am sure you are aware that you are not the only one in this position, depressing as it is becoming for you.

The market is still pretty dire, especially in the public sector given what is going on at the moment.

You haven't said what type roles your experiences fit into to. Are you generic (PM, BA, dev etc) ?Do you have a tailored CV or generic ? Are you willing to move sideways?

All you can do is keep trying, keep applying, keep hounding and something will come up.

[cojak]

Check out your CV, it might be a bit ropey for today's tough market, look up 'CV writing' on CUK (but use Google to search for it).

If you ask nicely, admin will give you PM rights and one or 2 of the regulars will look at your CV for you. Heck, even I'll look at it (but after I'm back from holiday the week after next).


Have you trained yourself, done any training in the last 12 months? If the answer's 'no' then look up the latest innovation in your specialism (what are adverts asking for in Jobserve?), buy a book, get on a course or anything else that you can put on your CV as 'XXXX aware'.

Sign up for LinkedIn and join the groups of your specialism, offer help and advice to those serious people asking for help (I don't mean newbies asking you to write their code for them).

Write a blog putting your thoughts, opinions and products (which are not serious intellectual capital) on it.

If you're a member of the BCS/itSMF etc. look up their free events and network at them.

If you're a developer go through Open Source projects and offer to help - they really appreciate it, particularly documentation (great if you're a technical author). Again you can put this down on your CV.

As for interviewing, this may seem counter-intuitive, but get less desperate. Interviewing is the business side of dating, and desperate neediness is not an attractive quality for either type of hook-up.

And you can get less desperate by spending less time on your PC. Spend the morning looking for jobs, doing your acounts, training, mindlessly surfing the internet. During the afternoon get out of the house. Gardening, or walking or exercising - anything in the fresh air that doesn't cost money. You can still look for the odd job while you're out if you have an iPhone. This forced relaxation will begin to show when you interview.

And I know the warchest is dwindling, but in the words of Kwai Chang Kane - worrying does not change things. So be positive, persistant and proactive.

[cojak]

Well, welcome to the real world and I am sure you are aware that you are not the only one in this position, depressing as it is becoming for you.

The market is still pretty dire, especially in the public sector given what is going on at the moment.

You haven't said what type roles your experiences fit into to. Are you generic (PM, BA, dev etc) ?Do you have a tailored CV or generic ? Are you willing to move sideways?

All you can do is keep trying, keep applying, keep hounding and something will come up.

Definately agree with kaiser78, not only might you need to go sideways, you might even need to go backwards and go for rates that you wouldn't have sniffed at when you were last contracting.

So my last piece of advice is one I wished I'd listened to earlier in the year:

Don't be too proud.

[MarillionFan]

Applying for 20-30 roles a day seems madness.

Firstly How many Cvs do you have? You need to have multiple CVs these days. You need to tailor those to types of roles and if you need to, match the role.

Secondly. How do you follow up applications. You must phone for roles. Get in early and speak to the agent. Try three times then put it to one side.

Thirdly. Set up a number of RSS feeds for job searches to the criteria u need. This why the roles will be stored n your inbox and you can manage who u contact.

Scatter gun, multiple applications is dangerous. With the quantity you have sent 250 a week for a year you must have applied for every agency. Saturation with the wrong Cv is lethal.

Good luck

[SizeZero]

"most of these are quite a good fit, others a perfect in terms of role, location, rate etc ... but heres the problem, I cannot get offered any of these jobs."

When faced with repoman, most of the above pales into insignificance. I dont know your personal situation but are you being too picky? You aren't going to get rates now which are 'suitable', you are getting rates which mean you survive.

So look further afield. Look to mainland Europe where, despite British press reports about how EU is broke, many countries still do better than UK and have an IT staff shortage and are OK accepting English-speaking only staff. If you have a missus, I'm sure she'd cope with weekend visits for a while, if it meant you could keep your home. Lower your expectations. Apply for 50% fit, or 'would have fitted 5 or more years ago'.

Get your CV checked as Marillion said - seriously, there are hundreds of agents you can abuse for advice (your placement is their income). And follow Cojak's advice (especially LinkedIn because old contacts that you seeks out and add can sometimes turn up valuable info about their current employer's needs).

[nomadd]

Ok, I wouldnt normally post a whinge or what seems like a drastic act of desperation but here goes ...

I have been trying to get a new contract for months now...

I am 50, normal (I think), smartly presented and reasonably well spoken, I dont antagonise or argue in interviews and do honestly try my best....

I dont know where to turn, or what to try next ... my finances are heading for oblivion, my house is a possible repo and the stress is starting to build.

Any, absolutely any words of helpful advice would be gratefully received.

Thks.

Why contract? As other's have said: it's a very tough market. I've been contract going on 22 years, and I've spent the last 3-4 years retraining myself, even so, last year was the toughest I could remember. Look strongly at the permie option, I'd say.

Seriously, unless you have specialist skills and are located in the right place - probably London - you'll find yourself better off as a permie than a contractor.

The numbers of cv's you are sending out, to me at least, sounds insane. You've don't seem to be focussed. Wishful, yes. But focussed - and realistic - no. Remember, for every role you apply for on contract, the agencies - and there will be multiple - will probably get at least a couple of hundred cv's. Just adding yours to every pile isn't going to get you anywhere. Unless you can see jobs for which you will honestly stand out well above most of the other candidates - or you are going to seriously undercut on rate - then I'd say just don't bother with most of what you are applying for...

It doesn't sound to me that you have either highly specialised technical skills (or you would have mentioned them) or currently 'hot' contract business skills (i.e. Investment Banking). In other words, you can't stand out from the crowd. Period. So, unless you are lucky - and sometimes people are - then I think you could be screwed on the contract market. I'm not trying to be negative - as I say, you may be lucky - but I just don't want to see you lose everything by following some misguided idea that there is a contract just waiting for you out there. There probably isn't...

I'd say:

1) Work ALL prior contacts you have. Take a few of them - all of them - out for a beer.
2) Look long and hard - and realistically - at your skillset. Consider retraining.
3) Look at permie roles.
4) Look at roles outside of IT, or roles where your IT skills are a secondary factor.
5) Take any job, just to get some cashflow. And help keep you sane.
6) Consider starting up another business. Web shop. Man-with-a-van. Etc.
7) Consider some voluntary work. You never know, it might lead to something. (My uncle did this for a local hospital and ended up landing a job for which he had no prior experience. He then got his head down, worked hard, and worked his way back up over the years).
8) Consider open-source contributions - as others have suggested. Anything to keep your mind sharp and get you new skills.

And finally, as others have said: get out of the damn house and go for LONG walks. I did this for the 7 months I was on the bench last year and found it a great help. Oh, and contrary to the advice of others - don't take a damn mobile phone with you. Just let go and enjoy the peace of being away from it all.

[HairyArsedBloke]

I’m not in the contracting game anymore; I haven’t for some time. There are other possibilities outside contracting/employment. Create your own business. For example (not that this is in anyway related to how I got started ), think about the business activities of your last few contracts – could any of them be done by you in your own business and for more than one customer? Like , a database about certain items in the industry, maintain the content, and provide reports and analysis.

And finally, as others have said: get out of the damn house and go for LONG walks. I did this for the 7 months I was on the bench last year and found it a great help. Oh, and contrary to the advice of others - don't take a damn mobile phone with you. Just let go and enjoy the peace of being away from it all.

This is very true.

I have other 'issues' to deal with, but I am stuck with working from home and I hate it. It is vital that you get out. Establish a daily/weekly schedule too. Look at some of my posts to see just how fracked up I am.

[SueEllen]

Just to add to all the good advice from above:
1. If you are not claiming contribution based job seekers allowance start a claim asap. Start your claim via this link - Apply for Jobseeker's Allowance online : Directgov - Do it online

If you wife isn't working then make sure you apply for council tax benefit and mortgage interest payments. You cannot claim back payments hence you need to claim asap.

2. Once you have done the above talk to your mortgage company.

3. Stop applying for roles until you have done your CV up. However there is nothing wrong with contacting your previous contracts and asking them for work as it's cheaper for them to use you then advertise roles.

4. Remember August is a quiet month because people are on holiday.

[kaiser78]

Just to add to all the good advice from above:

If you wife isn't working then make sure you apply for council tax benefit and mortgage interest payments. You cannot claim back payments hence you need to claim asap.

My impression from previous discussion threads was that due to the nature and ethicity of IT contracting, claiming unempl ben, council tax ben and mortgage interest payments is not the done thing ? Not sure I would be comfortable doing this, no matter of how desperate I am.