Finding a contract in London via Jobserve - Am I missing something?

[Project Monkey]

Hi

I'm new to the forum but I've been a contractor for 8 years.

I'm looking for a contract in London for around £400/day. I've done many years of Oracle and VB6 etc., moved into .NET and SQL Server a few years ago. Last contract was C# Webforms and SQL Server, LINQ, jQuery.

I've been applying for posts that I think are suitable on Jobserve for about a week or so. I reckon I've applied for about 20 contracts. I've had not a single call back.

I've found my last 2 contracts myself via connections so it's been about 4 years since I last used Jobserve. But I don't remember previously applying for so many jobs without a call back.

My thoughts are that -

- My CV says 'blah blah with over 20 years experience blah blah' - they read 'old git'
- Agencies are doing obsessive word-matching exercises looking for very specific skills, software versions etc.
- I should be trying for £300 to £350/day

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks

There's your problem. You call them, don't wait for them to call you.

[radish2008]

I'm just about to join you. Was in London for 3 years and then had 2 months on the bench and 4 months up t'north. Now want to get back down to London, CV done and Ok, here goes ....

[kingcook]

There's your problem. You call them, don't wait for them to call you.

Pretty pointless IMO. Agents are on you like a fly on sh1t if your CV looks good enough.

[cojak]

Pretty pointless IMO. Agents are on you like a fly on sh1t if your CV looks good enough.

WKCS.

Not only that, they'll contact you if it's close enough to the contract and you've niche skills.

[Jubber]

VB.net is easy anyways

Everything is once you know it.

The roles I apply for, lots of people can do, so I would guess the agents that put these jobs up get lots of responses. Sometimes I get a call within seconds of replying to an ad. Other times, nothing. Maybe it's the luck of the draw with the agent opening my response first. I'll always follow up a very good match with a call.

If I was an agent and had 3 good candidates from the first 3 of 100 responses, I doubt if I'd spend the rest of the day going through the other 97.

[eek]

WKCS.

Not only that, they'll contact you if it's close enough to the contract and you've niche skills.

There are two different issues here:-

1) is jobserve sending out your CV in a contactable state (I've known it to lose all contact details in the past). Ringing an agent will confirm its been sent and getting it out.
2) is your CV good enough. Ringing an agent may give you a vague clue.

I wonder if the problem is supply and demand. With supply in London being high and demand..... Its seems that outside London rates are now the same if not better than inside London bar banking which I don't do as its boring as.....

[evilagent]

jobserve is too generic.
chances are your CV is being looked at by generic recruiters, with little or no industry knowledge.
and cannot interpret your skills, or indeed, fails the word-matching tests they apply
(at this point, I will anticipate CUKers saying we have NO knowledge whatsoever)

try the specialist agencies.
whatever skill you have, try to find an agency that is rated or known for your skills area, and see if anyone can help see whats up with the CV.

if you haven't already, join LinkedIn specialist groups and get some help from like-minded people.

[jmo21]

If I was an agent and had 3 good candidates from the first 3 of 100 responses, I doubt if I'd spend the rest of the day going through the other 97.

I was saying the exact same to a fellow contractor yesterday

It's just not physically possible for an agent to go through 100's of new CV's.

So you have to be quick to apply, and try and get a hold of the agent by phone soon after to try and get your CV higher up the pile.

[Mephisto]

Recent conversation with an agent who had posted a role on Jobserve only 10 minutes earlier - 'Oh I'm ringing people as the CVs come and will just stop when I've got enough that fit the bill'.

I've always spent the day refreshing Jobserve when searching for another role and it seems even more important nowadays. There's a lot of competition out there a LOT

[SuPaStA]

If I'm job hunting I only search jobs that were posted the same day on Jobserve and I normally get call-backs.