My life as a contractor- Day 2

[kempc23]

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

It has been a busy couple of days- Ive set up a limited company, registered for VAT and PAYE, found an accountant, bought a laptop, subscribed for sandbox access to a system so I can go in and sharpen up some of my skills and downloaded lots of reading materials!

I just wanted to share some of my observations-

I have had around 15 phone calls over the last two days. Only about 3 of those had any merit in them whatsoever. I have been reading this forum daily for the last six months to get myself ready, so I was well prepared for some of the calls. Most of them consisted of "so who else have you applied to then" and so on, as soon as I heard that question, I cut the call short.

I have a rehearsed response to most of their silly questions. When I tell them I am new to the market, they assume I am naive and stupid and try and either drum up some leads, or try and get me to agree to work for peanuts. My standard response is- "My standard daily rate is £x, however this of course can be flexible up or down depending on the role, contract, client and location". Thanks Contractoruk Some of them have been quite suprised when I have responded like that!

On the positive side, I have had my CV put forward for three different roles, all of which sound like genuine roles, as I talked at length with the agent about them. Fingers crossed I can land one of these roles

So for now, my days are going to be filled with job-hunting and brushing up my skills. And hopefully successful interviews!

[perplexed]

Good luck.

[escapeUK]

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

You sound officially out of work to me!

[kempc23]

Is the glass half full or half empty

Well, one thing that is changed is my mindset. I have absolutely no desire whatsoever to go back into permanent work doing what I was doing. I am 100% focused now on winning that first contract role.

[mudskipper]

My standard daily rate is £x

It's probably going to confuse them if you give your rate in Roman Numerals.

Good luck with the job hunting!

[kempc23]

I had 8 months without a sniff of a gig after contracting since 1992 with scarcely a break so good luck with that...

I've gone permie to ride out the storm, but to be honest the Bob's have killed it, the money's not there or if it is, there's not much of it.

I'm off to a more racial country ASAP where the Bob's are hated. Germany sounds nice - that nice Mr Hitler was doing stirling work there, what's he up to nowadays in Paraguay?

What type of work is it you do? It seems that there is quite a bit of work in what I do, based on jobserve ads and the phonecalls I have been getting (the genuine ones).

I left a very well paid permanent job, so will probably get slightly less money contracting, however, my main motivation was not money. It was being able to have more control over what I do and where I work.

[stek]

What type of work is it you do? It seems that there is quite a bit of work in what I do, based on jobserve ads and the phonecalls I have been getting (the genuine ones).

I left a very well paid permanent job, so will probably get slightly less money contracting, however, my main motivation was not money. It was being able to have more control over what I do and where I work.

I do Solaris and AIX virtualisation, LDOM/LPAR, zones/WPAR, I see lots of roles, lots of interest but no interview - and my interview to job ratio is 100% - I never realised till there was a recent thread about it - but even now I apply for loads that I'm 100% suited for and hear nowt unless I chase up.

Whereas 2002 and before when I finished a contract the phone never stopped - literally, put it down it rang again.

Contracting as a career is on it's arse.

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

kempc23: whats your line of work?

[kempc23]

I work in SAP Finance, not just FI/CO config, my skillset is more around advisory type stuff, so architecture, process design, stream lead type stuff.

Over the last few years the rates for FI/CO config seem to have dropped considerably, but hopefully as the roles I do are more client facing, they are not as easy to offshore!

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

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