Want gig in the South West - how to go about finding it?

[bobspud]

Time was, you wanted work in Bristol you'd talk to Sandersons. these days they've been taken over tby the bean coutners, all the good guys have scattered and the ones that are left fulfil your every expectation of agent's abilities to know their market and their contractors. So Jobserve is your friend.

I've lived in Bristol for all the 16 years I've been freelance. I've had two gigs here, and one of those was in Bath. However, the catchment area for clients is as big as Greater London but with much better motorways, it depends how far you want to drive each day.

+1

Down here 10 years next month and the only time I have worked in the same part of england is when I work from home. Lots of people in Bristol and property is quite expensive. There must be freelance jobs somewhere...

[wurzel]

I've been working in the South West for 25 months now and cant seem to get anything near home- in the North West
The joys of contracting eh?

Swindon? The South West? How dare you!

[ribble]

I live in Plymouth and have been contracting for 4 years. Closest role I have had is Exeter which I managed to wangle £350 for which was lucky cause it was at the beginning of 2009. To be honest though now I come to London and have a nice apartment and travel first class and I'm still far better off than taking a role locally.

Good luck with the hunt - I think I got a mail the other day from PeopleSource (Bristol) regard a SSIS role in the SW. You might want to tap them up.

[theroyale]

I live in Plymouth and have been contracting for 4 years. Closest role I have had is Exeter which I managed to wangle £350 for which was lucky cause it was at the beginning of 2009. To be honest though now I come to London and have a nice apartment and travel first class and I'm still far better off than taking a role locally.

Good luck with the hunt - I think I got a mail the other day from PeopleSource (Bristol) regard a SSIS role in the SW. You might want to tap them up.

Thanks - I'm looking at PeopleSource's website just now

[gingerjedi]

I wouldn't look further than Bristol, Gloucester, Cheltenham or Cardiff, once you head west of Bristol the rates fall off a cliff.

There are some jokers who try to get contractors in down in Taunton but they want to pay comparative permy rates, avoid.

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

Saw a couple of SQL/BI roles in the SW on jobserver today paying up to 425/day which is pretty good going...

[bobspud]

I wouldn't look further than Bristol, Gloucester, Cheltenham or Cardiff, once you head west of Bristol the rates fall off a cliff.

There are some jokers who try to get contractors in down in Taunton but they want to pay comparative permy rates, avoid.

That will be those wags from the MET Office then

Thats a can of worms that needs opening. They regularly pop up in the news wanting the next and biggest compute arrays. However last year they wanted an Architect to review Amazon and other cloud strategies with serious enterprise knowledge and wouldn't pay more than £275 a day wonder who gave up 500 a day to do that then? and if they did I wonder how much enterprise experience they had...

[theroyale]

Saw a couple of SQL/BI roles in the SW on jobserver today paying up to 425/day which is pretty good going...

Those would be in Taunton and they're the only "South West" job ads that I've followed up that are actually anywhere near the SW. Responded to one today - this South West turned out to be Reading :O

[SimonMac]

That will be those wags from the MET Office then

Thats a can of worms that needs opening. They regularly pop up in the news wanting the next and biggest compute arrays. However last year they wanted an Architect to review Amazon and other cloud strategies with serious enterprise knowledge and wouldn't pay more than £275 a day wonder who gave up 500 a day to do that then? and if they did I wonder how much enterprise experience they had...

Met Office is Exeter, Taunton is UK Hydrographics Office, and I know from first hand experience the rates the MO are very good.

[malvolio]

And don't forget both Liverpool Victoria and Freinds Provident are in Exeter.

that said there are huge number of major comapnies and organisations in Bristol, ranging form all the major banks and finance houses, several HMG sites that aren't the MOD, three major telecoms companies and a host of smaller but still significant people. Hiring has always been quite strong on the word-of-mouth element though...