My life as a contractor- Day 2

[SimonMac]

Hi everyone

I quit my job on Monday and left on the same day, so as of yesterday I am officially a contractor, although a benched one at the moment

Good luck, although if you could stop that quickly wouldn't have been a better idea to keep the permmie role while you looked for your first contract?

Don't listen to the doom and gloom on the boards, yes the market is slow but if you have the skills and can present yourself well you should be able to find work. It took me 3 months on the bench, but I think that might have been more to do with the time of year as I was looking over Chirstmas than anything else (but then again I am in a quite a niche market). My advice would be not to be put off by location when looking, there is nothing wrong with a bit of travelling (I say that as I am about to start a gig with 160 miles driving each day), don't sign up to every site as you will get a lot of duplication across the sites (I only used jobserve as I found it to be the best to set up alerts etc), and take a rethink about your CV as there are massive differences going for Permmie jobs and Contracts.

Finally don't get too down heartened when your knocked back, its a numbers game, the more interviews you go on, the more experience you get.

[kempc23]

Sounds relatively niche compared to the mainstream areas? Would I be right in saying so?

No not really- maybe I didnt explain it very well. What I mean is that a lot of the pure config roles have now been shipped out to India, or wherever. However, there still seems to be a good market for the people that can config, but also have the client-facing and business skills too. These roles are harder to offshore, by definition.

[kempc23]

Good luck, although if you could stop that quickly wouldn't have been a better idea to keep the permmie role while you looked for your first contract?

Don't listen to the doom and gloom on the boards, yes the market is slow but if you have the skills and can present yourself well you should be able to find work. It took me 3 months on the bench, but I think that might have been more to do with the time of year as I was looking over Chirstmas than anything else (but then again I am in a quite a niche market). My advice would be not to be put off by location when looking, there is nothing wrong with a bit of travelling (I say that as I am about to start a gig with 160 miles driving each day), don't sign up to every site as you will get a lot of duplication across the sites (I only used jobserve as I found it to be the best to set up alerts etc), and take a rethink about your CV as there are massive differences going for Permmie jobs and Contracts.

Finally don't get too down heartened when your knocked back, its a numbers game, the more interviews you go on, the more experience you get.

Thank you for the tips mate

The problem was I would have been very unhappy in the permie role: 3-4 days a week out in the netherlands, on my own. Plus that would have made it very difficult to actually be available for interviews.

The way I saw it was- life is too short to spend it being unhappy, and not having a job gives me all the time I need to commit to getting some work. I have quite a bit of money saved up and low outgoings so things are OK for the moment.

Meeting another agent this afternoon. Its in reference to a role where the description was an almost word for word description of my last project, so fingers crossed

Regarding travel- I am only going for roles based in London, or commutable from London. I understand that may mean that I may not find as much work, but that is one of the main drivers for me going contracting.

[Pondlife]

Regarding travel- I am only going for roles based in London, or commutable from London. I understand that may mean that I may not find as much work, but that is one of the main drivers for me going contracting.

Best of luck to you and I hope it goes to plan.

Regarding the text I've quoted. There are a couple of us on here that pay homage to the church of Waldorf and I'd bet that all of us have ended up working abroad at some point.

You may be lucky and find that since you do FI/CO, the projects you get are for companies with their head office in London. Although I have noticed that having large teams of consultants based out of London is an expensive overhead that many companies would look to avoid, especially if their core business is not finance and the London office is more to show a presence in the city.

[kempc23]

How does the conversation with clients about rates work exactly?

So, an agent calls me and says, for example, I have a role paying between £400-500. I then say, for example "I am looking for £500". Does the agent then send the CVs across, explaining contractor A wants £450 and contractor B wants £500? Or does the agreed rate discussion not happen until AFTER they decide who they want?

The reason I ask is that I seem to be getting my CV put forward for a number of roles (which do seem genuine based on the conversations with agents), but I have had a couple of rejections. For roles that I was extremely confident that I would get an interview, as my skillset was ideal.

I have maybe been a bit cocky with the rates I am asking for. I had an agent call me yesterday with a role he described as "the ideal role for you" but it was paying £X/2 a day, which, quite frankly, is a complete p!ss take.

I told him I was looking for £X per day, or slightly less, and said that I have had no problem having my CV put forward for those roles/rates. He then said that the people with 10-12 years experience would be getting those rates, but not me.

I have 4 ex-colleagues who I have spoken to, and none of them seem to think my rate expectations are unreasonable. However I would rather be working for £X-20% say, rather than my current daily rate of £0.

Any advice gratefully received.

[kempc23]

Sorry, one more question! Currently my CV shows me as finishing permanent work in Feb, but my last project finished in December.

Should I put an explanation on my CV? Explaining that I am a first time contractor? I am wondering if this may be counting against me?

[kempc23]

Oops and another! I took a 6 month career break in September 2009 to travel, should I highlight this on my CV? At the moment it just shows a 6 month gap in between projects.

[Wanderer]

I have maybe been a bit cocky with the rates I am asking for. I had an agent call me yesterday with a role he described as "the ideal role for you" but it was paying £X/2 a day, which, quite frankly, is a complete p!ss take.

If you don't ask you don't get. It's really hard to say how much you are worth without knowing you and your skills/experience but generally I'd say you'd be needing 10 to 15 years in the business to be asking for 400-500/day. As a rough guide, your contract hourly rate should be permie annual salary divided by 1000, maybe less if you are on the bench at the moment.

Sorry, one more question! Currently my CV shows me as finishing permanent work in Feb, but my last project finished in December. Should I put an explanation on my CV? Explaining that I am a first time contractor? I am wondering if this may be counting against me?

No, don't highlight the gaps. Try and explain them away as you were doing some training/study or something. Some agents don't like it, they think you've been in prison, or worse, on holiday and get fiercely jealous. Do a search on this one, it's been discussed a bit with some good opinions and advice given.

DON'T tell them you are a noobie contractor or they will try and take the piss, it's like putting a "kick me" sign on your back. Confidence is key, but you need to find the careful balance so you don't come across as arrogant or deluded.

[VectraMan]

However I would rather be working for £X-20% say, rather than my current daily rate of £0.

That sounds pretty good advice you're giving yourself. You'll probably find with one contract under your belt it'll be a lot easier, so it can be worth accepting any old rubbish rate just to get something on your cv.

[pmeswani]

How does the conversation with clients about rates work exactly?

So, an agent calls me and says, for example, I have a role paying between £400-500. I then say, for example "I am looking for £500". Does the agent then send the CVs across, explaining contractor A wants £450 and contractor B wants £500? Or does the agreed rate discussion not happen until AFTER they decide who they want?

The reason I ask is that I seem to be getting my CV put forward for a number of roles (which do seem genuine based on the conversations with agents), but I have had a couple of rejections. For roles that I was extremely confident that I would get an interview, as my skillset was ideal.

I have maybe been a bit cocky with the rates I am asking for. I had an agent call me yesterday with a role he described as "the ideal role for you" but it was paying £X/2 a day, which, quite frankly, is a complete p!ss take.

I told him I was looking for £X per day, or slightly less, and said that I have had no problem having my CV put forward for those roles/rates. He then said that the people with 10-12 years experience would be getting those rates, but not me.

I have 4 ex-colleagues who I have spoken to, and none of them seem to think my rate expectations are unreasonable. However I would rather be working for £X-20% say, rather than my current daily rate of £0.

Any advice gratefully received.

I know a lot of people will disagree with this, but in my opinion? For your first contract, you should aim low to mid level (or aim for what you require to survive on plus a bit more) of what is being offered. Also, going in at top end won't give you the opportunity to negotiate if you get offered the role.

Also, please note that sometimes you will get phone calls from agents saying that a role exists, when they may not.

So don't be complacent, be flexible in your rate approach (irrespective of what you think you should get).