New (ish) contractor, any advice on the search / or leads

[zorgi]

I am also relatively new to contracting and have to agree it’s not great time for contracts. Left comfortable perm position to start contracting and was very lucky to land good contract within first week of my search. Been back on the market 3 weeks now and all I get are agents fishing for leads. My phone is busy, I talk to 7 different agents on average daily but I can’t even get an interview. I am even trying to approach clients directly but nothing works and agents are mostly just fishing in the muddy waters. Does anyone know of any job board where agencies are not permitted?

[BlasterBates]

There are quite a few contractors I know going permie, I would strongly recommend you look at permie as well as contracts. If you´re not getting the interviews it´s unlikely you´ll get something soon.

If the agencies are fishing in muddy waters so will you. On the whole clients don´t look directly for contractors. Having said that, recently I have seen the odd client advertising on jobserve eg Barclays, so working direct if it´s possible will probably be through the usual websites such as jobserve.

If you want to go direct you could also ring companies up and try to get hold of a Project Manager. No harm in trying. If they are interested in direct contracting I´m sure they´d put you through, i.e. you´d be put in contact with HR.

[PrimulConsulting]

Does anyone know of any job board where agencies are not permitted?

Not a jobboard - but there is an online community of contractors that try to get each other their next contract - ContractorClub. You will be "vetted" if you don't know a current member (not too painful!). Contractors that hear of contracts tell other members. Neither companies themselves nor Agencies are members.

[SueEllen]

The problem is when you are a new contractor unless you have a network of leads already, then agencies will see you as green so will try the tricks in asking you for leads.

You will quickly learn how to deal with these people.

Once you have been going a while even when you are in a contract you will get emails from agents and people you have networked with offering you contracts that aren't advertised.

The only thing I suggest is to make sure you have an email address that you can store emails in for a few years and only use for getting contracts. Then everytime you are out of a contract contact some of the people and agencies who have contacted you in the past using that email address. Make sure that email address is the only one you give out on your CV.

Also network as much as possible in your specific area. Even if it doesn't pay of this time lots of people including agents keep details for a couple of years.

[zorgi]

Still no interview

Thanks for the advice. I also know contractor or tewo gone perm lately but I am not quite ready for that yet. In fact great number of phone calls I get are about permanent roles and frankly I'll rather wait few more weeks than go perm.

[NibblyPig]

Not a jobboard - but there is an online community of contractors that try to get each other their next contract - ContractorClub. You will be "vetted" if you don't know a current member (not too painful!). Contractors that hear of contracts tell other members. Neither companies themselves nor Agencies are members.

While this is a great idea, I recently signed up and got accepted, I did a search for all jobs in the entire of the UK and there was only one result, which wasn't even IT.

I'm also struggling, I've been trying for about a month, had one face-to-face interview and two telephone interviews, face-to-face one was good but their technical test was beyond bizarre (mostly obscure trivia) and didn't match any of the skills they wanted (I wrote all the questions on the back of my CV and then asked everyone I knew their opinion to check it wasn't just me). Telephone one was weak, the spec they originally sent was a big catch-all and they wanted me to do something which wasn't one of my primary skills and ended up going for someone else.

I've put my CV on literally every single jobboard, and it does make a difference - you'd have thought the recruiters would just hit up the main ones but after trying a bunch of others I got a lot of calls. I've been talking to recruiters daily non-stop, browsing boards, submitting applications etc. and it's almost a full time job in itself. Unfortunately, I think the market just isn't that great. I'm in a good position now in that I am permenantly employed with almost no notice period so I am getting paid to look, but if I did find a contract, I can see myself out of work for a good while afterwards unpaid and for that reason I am about to give up and continue into a new perm job.

There are ridiculous numbers of perm jobs at the moment around here (I live in Bristol) so I'm going to take my time with those until I find one that pays really well and is exactly what I want, a small consolation for the difference in salary.

[cojak]

Be prepared for months on the bench in this climate rather than weeks.

Experienced contractors are.

[northernladuk]

Be prepared for months on the bench in this climate rather than weeks.

Experienced contractors are.

+1

Now more than ever the warchest is absolutely essential and for new contractors should be the first thing to be filled up before the car, house and flash lifestyle. 6 months hard saving could be the difference between a long healthy contracting career and it all falling around your feet in less than a year.

There are no hard and fast rules about where it should sit and how much it should be but I wouldn't be comfortable with anything less than 6 months worth at the moment and I am talking 6 months of equivalent living, not kidding yourself you could survive on 50% less etc.

....and don't kid yourself that taking it out of the company and putting in your mortgage or your savings that could easily be used for something else, is enough. It has to be untouchable and ready to be used to prop up bench time and nothing else.

[kevpuk]

Have to say that my current 6-month gig is all about building up such a warchest.
Left permie-dom for this gig, and it is exactly what I was looking for - the driving financial reasoning, having not much of a chest behind me to start with, was that providing making full 6 months, nett. income will be roughly what annual income had been in previous permie-life
This means I will have approx. 6 months 'warchest' .....and a good foundation for the future

[nomadd]

+1

++1;

There are no hard and fast rules about where it should sit and how much it should be but I wouldn't be comfortable with anything less than 6 months worth at the moment and I am talking 6 months of equivalent living, not kidding yourself you could survive on 50% less etc.

I'd make that 6 months at least a year in the current economic environment.