Looking for 1st Contract - help

[NewBoy]

After months of deliberation I finally decided to jump off the political corporate ladder and move to the dark side...otherwise known as contracting.

I am from a retail background rather than the more normal contractor background (i.e. IT, HR etc) so am not too sure how much work there is out there yet...

I have a few interviews lined up thanks to word of mouth but was wondering if there is any advice you more experienced pro's can give me in terms of securing that first contract.

Also, please take a look at my website 'www.retailagility.com' and provide critical feedback if you get a chance...I have never designed or built a web-site before so it is my first attempt.

Thanks guys

[Xerxes]

The rather obvious redirect to "moonfruit.com" might put some people off.

The text on the first page appears blurred because it isn't text (part of your flash thingy I think).

[NoddY]

Sainsbury's has an apostrophe.

Left hand navigation is not legible

[Cowboy Bob]

Also, please take a look at my website 'www.retailagility.com' and provide critical feedback if you get a chance...I have never designed or built a web-site before so it is my first attempt.

Thanks guys

I use FlashBlock in my browser (FireFox) so all I see is a blank box (no I'm not clicking it to start it up as I don't know who you are). So, where's the "click here" link to go to the plain text version?

You also realise the the search engines won't index Flash only sites?

[thunderlizard]

Are you after things like interim management, supply chain analysis etc? It might be worth hooking up with some of the established consulting firms like Bain, BCG etc. They staff most of their projects with juvenile cannon fodder, but occasionally hire people with sector experience so they can say "we've got somebody with 10 years retail experience" to their clients, and so they've got somebody who can speak the clients' language.

[mcquiggd]

There is a real distinction between websites intended for a mass audience that may serve a useful commercial purpose (perhaps actually selling something), and sites that are designed to protray an image - architects, designers, website developers!

The former follow some pretty standard rules - easy navigation that is familiar to a user who hits it for the first time, some form of breadcrumb trail, clear subdivision of content according to typical usage patters, monitoring users common routes through the site so you can optimise it, personalisation and tailored content. Clean, crisp, common layout and dont be afraid of white space - its easy on the eye and the layout shouldnt distract people from the content. No scrolling message boxes, no animations, definitely no naff page transitions or music!

The latter tends to make heavy use of Flash and out of the ordinary layout and navigation, which is a real pain, often only those who also develop in Flash even bother to wait for it to load and figure out how to use it.

Personally I use a registry hack to prevent Flash from installing or even prompting me to install and block as many ads as I can.

[Fleetwood]

Someone please tell me WTF "Moonfruit" is, and why it's dodgy.

F in "Punched cards" mode

[NewBoy]

Sounds like I need to go back to the drawing board and start again...thanks for all your advice guys, really appreciate your honest feedback.

[Perhentian]

Retail position

What sort of retail position are you looking for? In IT at all? I'm placed at one at the mo....

[VectraMan]

FWIW I think that's a very nicely done site, and I don't understand the resistance to Flash. Well I do, because Flash generally means marketing waffle rather than actual facts, but more often than not that's what you see on company websites anyway.

Only bad thing I'd say is where you click on the list of services, it redraws the whole page each time, which isn't nice.

Of course I'm biased being a multimedia person, whereas I suspect everybody else who's posted is biased because they're HTML types.