Need advice: what jobs are there out there for jack of all trades?

**alreadypacked** · 12 December 2010, 09:15

This is a very difficult question to answer; a lot of jobs have gone off-shore, so you need to look at highlighting your skills that are required on-shore.

My route into contracting was 2 years at a consultant. You will get to know the market and try out your skills, see what you like doing. It will give your CV more street cred. with agents. Your CV will have to get past them first. Most of the large companies as preferred agents, when they give a contract to the agents to fill, they will agree the number of CV they want to see for the role. They will also agree a list of must have's for the role, if your CV does not have even one of the 'must have' the agent will not forward your CV for the role (unless it is a very niche and they can't find anyone). Crazy as it sounds its true; I recently had an agent tell me to put Excel on my CV, FFS.

You my want to go contracting but you may have to go permanent first. Also get someone to do your CV for you, someone you can go and see, not internet or email. Proper place that will do ability tests on you etc. You need to build yourself up, have a positive attitude about yourself, they can smell insecure and will not consider you. This is something you have to work on all the time in contracting, you have to be prepared to turn down work that does not benefit you money wise or CV wise. I have told agents “I would not get out of bed for that rate", but then I have a warchest, so first thing you have to do is get a warchest together and don't spend it.

So good luck.

**MarillionFan** · 12 December 2010, 09:45

Take up a plumbing course. Pays more judging by the amount the guy who came to do our radiators just quoted.

**zamzummim** · 12 December 2010, 10:23

My advice is to have several versions of your CV, each version should highlight specific skills and target specific kind of roles, apply on all fronts, so one CV highlighting your sales/business development skills, another one focused on technical skills and target technical roles, one focused on permie roles, one for contracting roles etc etc.. take advice from friends or repurable agents, look on jobsites to see what is required.

MF advice to look outside IT is good too, cover all fronts.

Don't forget to spend a lot of time training and skilling, you can work for certifications yourself at home, and keep an eye for bargain training course.

**nomadd** · 12 December 2010, 10:58

Originally posted by omarm View Post

My first post here!

...I want a contractor job ideally as opposed to a permanent one

...but I don't think running a business is for me - it took me 10 years to come to that realisation

What kind of jobs can I apply and potentially get?

I'm thinking of skilling myself up in CSS + HTML + PHP + Flash and applying for web development jobs.

...So, you've seen the "big numbers" posted on Jobserve and feel you deserve a piece of that pie, eh?

You want to be a contractor, but don't feel that running a business is for you. Ever thought that "contracting" and "running a business" might, in some modest way, be connected?

The only skills you seem to have are those of an HTML Monkey (no offence), and you don't even seem that confident of those. I can't see JQuery/JSON/ExtJS/Flex/Javascript/AJAX (etc., etc., etc.) amongst those you have listed. And yet you want to go out there and compete with other contractors...

You want an honest opinion? Forget contracting. Period.

Yes, you may get lucky, but that's highly unlikely to happen, and even less likely to happen on a continuous basis. There are people - many of them offshore - with 10 times the experience and skills you have listed. And plenty in the UK sat on the bench, or working in permie roles for tulip1e money. As another posted has said already: maybe look outside of IT. From the look of your post, you just don't seem to be cut out for it.

In summary: Stop looking at those big numbers on Jobserve; they are not for you. Still, I wish you all the best, and hope that in 10 years time you can come back here and prove me wrong.

EDIT: Forgot to end on a positive note, so here it is, a big smilie:

**RichardCranium** · 12 December 2010, 11:25

There are no contract jobs for a jack-of-all-trades. None.

I learned that the hard way ten years ago and eventually had to choose a niche.

**zamzummim** · 12 December 2010, 11:44

Originally posted by RichardCranium View Post

There are no contract jobs for a jack-of-all-trades. None.

I learned that the hard way ten years ago and eventually had to choose a niche.

Yes there is, its called a consultant

What alreadypacked said is true, for jack (AKA hack) of all trades consultancy is a good option... then you could perhaps steer into a niche area.

**dang65** · 12 December 2010, 11:53

I would say that front-end web development is a very flexible area to get into. What I mean is, experience and a good CV can get you £350-£400 p/day, or even more in Europe, but there are also a hell of a lot of contracts which offer rates like £150-£200 p/day. Those ones are usually presented as "junior" or "ideal for someone looking to get into a web development career", which just sounds like a con, but get a couple of those under your belt and your experience and CV will start looking a lot better and, if you actually are good, you'll be on your way to the better paying stuff.

I'm not sure that many other contractor skill-level jobs have that kind of flexibility. The fact is that front-end web development does work on many levels. A fair bit of it can be done by people without a huge skill-set, so you can learn on the job and build up over a few years to the big-time web apps and high-profile projects.

Best of luck anyway.

**jmo21** · 12 December 2010, 17:30

Originally posted by nomadd View Post

I can't see JQuery/JSON/ExtJS/Flex/Javascript/AJAX (etc., etc., etc.) amongst those you have listed.

Covered by this part shirley?

Originally posted by omarm View Post

I know Flash Actionscript, PHP, CSS + most other things

**CheeseSlice** · 12 December 2010, 18:24

Originally posted by omarm View Post

I'm stuck and just don't know what to search for

Just to eliminate the obvious here, have you uploaded your latest CV onto the jobsites and enabled them for searching?

Need advice: what jobs are there out there for jack of all trades?