Any tips for how to find PM roles at this time of year? Only a few weeks of warchest are left. I have reduced my daily rate requirements by more than £150 per day and have to play down my seniority just to get CV in front of agents. I have been networking but if anyone has tips about how to network and offer my skills at a lower rate without appearing desperate that would be much appreciated, thanks!
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This default font is sooooooooooooo boring and so are short usernames -
Finding exactly the same challenge.
I haven't had to go to the open market for a few years and never found it this hard to get leads.
I have been tempted to start a thread here recently as I was beginning to worry my approach is wrong. I'll write it up and post on here shortly so we can compare and analyse. -
Look for work in London first, if you're that desperate be prepared to work away from home. We've all done it
Also post about your availability on linked in, increasingly a lot of roles seem not to get advertised leaving more fake adverts on the jobs boards (even jobserver
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Keep reuploading your cv to jobsboards, it triggers all the bots to think you're fresh meat on the contract market
Not sure if dropping your rate is a good thing, better to ask for what you want and let the agent knock you down, at least you won't put them off by looking desperate and you can rely on their greed overlooking anything elseSocialism is inseparably interwoven with totalitarianism and the abject worship of the state.
No Socialist Government conducting the entire life and industry of the country could afford to allow free, sharp, or violently-worded expressions of public discontent.Comment
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My field isn't PM, but you could try all the local tech parks in your area, I managed to get two days consultancy (better than nowt!) t'other week.
Warchest not dipped into (yet!) but need something really soon, so now having to look further afield.
Good luck.
qhHe had a negative bluety on a quackhandle and was quadraspazzed on a lifeglug.
I look forward to your all knowing and likely sarcastic and unhelpful reply.
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linkedin
Definitely linkedin - I get quite a lot of approaches through there when I post my contract is about to end.
Its also got a jobs tab now which is probably worth having a look atComment
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Say in Linked in you're available.
Make sure that others can see that you visited their profile. Look at as many agents profiles as possible. As they are a curious bunch they will look at you back and you never know there might be one who has something.Comment
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I'm not a PM but my market can get very quiet at times, and when it is quiet I make sure to tune my CV with the most relevant keywords to make sure I'm picked up by boolean CV searches.
Have a look on ITJobsWatch: Project Manager Contracts, Contractor Rates for a Project Manager
scroll down to the ranked related skills, technologies, etc. Check the ones ranked highest, and the ones with the most occurances in job ads, and make sure if you have it you've got it somewhere on your CV.Comment
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Thanks for the quick tips guys! That ITjobswatch page is useful.
I am close enough to London already so I am looking there. I use linked in to some extent already but can increase activity as outlined in the tips.
Regarding rate the huge discrepancy between the rate I want and the rate on offer is putting agents off, that is why I have had to lower it.
There are a couple of keywords I can add into my CV though I am reluctant to go overboard with the technical ones as I get flooded with emails from agents offering developer roles.
OK I'm off to refresh on job boards now!This default font is sooooooooooooo boring and so are short usernamesComment
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Good link that.Originally posted by CheeseSlice View Post
Out of the top 28 keywords 18 are on my CV.Comment
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A nice long train journey ahead with my Kindle left on my bedside table so time to type this properly!
1. CV
Is your CV good enough? Are you sure? Who told you so? Is "good enough" enough to get your CV noticed in a tough market? Ask your trusted friends to review it and not pull their punches with their commentary, preferably those who do the same work as you.
Consider dating the title of your CV file, e.g. "Craig1 CV 21 Nov 2013.docx" so that agents know how old it is and they're not looking at a legacy CV of someone who is off working elsewhere. It also works as version control, if an agent calls and says "I have an old copy of your CV that matches a role we have", you ask them for the date in the title and you can see which one they have; many agents try to save money by not downloading new versions of CVs from job boards for people they have in their systems.
As a rule of thumb, paying for a CV revision is a waste of money, it's a templated CV that has your details bodged into it. A CV is your sales brochure, if you can't sell yourself then you're getting put into the reject bin. On one day every month, revise your CV, put a new date on it and repost it to the job boards, some boards have agent search criteria that allows agents to ignore CVs dated, say, older than 30 days to avoid them having to waste money on outdated candidates.
Is every CV you send tailored to an advert? If not, you're inviting an early bin as generic CVs often miss the target. I have a 4 page generic (summary sheet and 3 detail sheets) and an 8 page tailored CV. The generic one is tightly written to the type of work I want and has the less appealing stuff hidden away while the tailored one starts with everything I've ever done. When I send in a tailored one I cut it down to the same 4 pages as my generic one but matching the summary as closely as I can for the type of role, location and market. That works for me as I'm not having to type new text on short notice to tailor it, it also doesn't half cut down on the time it takes to turn around a tailored CV.
If you're a project manager, have you bullet-pointed all the projects you've done? My summary page is a short paragraph about me, a second paragraph with my relevant qualifications then a one line bullet for every project I've done that I want to get over to the target audience, finished with a line at the bottom about this being just a sample of the total projects I've done in order to keep the summary to one page! The detail pages can give more detail on the big or relevant ones. This performs two purposes, first it catches recruiter searches, second it's a hammer blow of just how experienced and good you are. I added this a few years ago to my CV and it's gone down well in every interview since. If you're not telling people what you've done you either invite them to think you've done not a lot, be psychic or you're going into too little detail on your detail pages in an effort to show breadth. Keep it SIMPLE and one line per project regardless of how big. e.g. Multinational £20m project merging four blue-chip companies' IT infrastructures into one after merger
On the detail of your CV, have you made it clear just how good you are? This is the depth bit of your CV that you need to get right, the summary page is your breadth meaning you can ignore breadth issues for the main part. If you've built a reputation of coming in on time and on budget every time, like I have, then you need to smack that into heads. Each project should have a summary of Budget, Staff (FT/matrix), Duration and Complex Factors. Did you come in on time? Ahead of time? On budget? What value did you add? Each bit should be "I led", "I managed", "I completed" rather than the passive "my team" or "we". As mentioned, this is your sales brochure, how many good sales brochures undersell the product's key features?
2. Positioning yourself and networking
You're not conning anyone by reducing your seniority on your CV, most agents will spot it and bin you automatically. Even if they don't then the client will. Unfortunately, they've probably been bitten by giving someone a chance just for them to walk to a better role when the market improves. Pitch for your strengths and if you do apply for roles that are junior for you then sell in your cover note why they should consider you and why they'd be daft not to.
Don't be shy about asking people to keep an eye out for work for you, if they don't know you're looking then they won't pay attention to a perfect role for you.
Have you sent an email to everyone you've ever worked FOR, not with, including named agents, telling them you're now available having finished a bit of work. A quick bit about how you loved working with them last time, name the work, and that you enjoyed it so much that you're hoping they have something available for you. Include a copy of your CV tailored just for them.
Don't forget that you've never been benched if you have your own company, you're always employed even if you're on holiday, you are telling the truth after all and you avoid being ignored by idiot agents who think a 3-week holiday means you've been out of the market for too long or there's something suspicious going on. Just ambiguously word your CV to avoid dates on your projects and group them under the master heading of your company's name, this takes clever writing but isn't that hard.
3. General tips
Be careful about how the impact of your details on job boards like Monster. I went for years not getting a sniff from my CV on Monster but when I changed my home postcode to a random one in central London, the calls started coming in the same day. Apparently telling an agent you've worked most of your career in London but live in Ipswich translates to "he lives outside of commuter land so I won't bother contacting him".
November is one of the worst months for getting a contract PM gig. No-one wants a PM starting in the month of December. The prime months for contract PM recruitment are: December/January (excluding the holidays), April and August. February and March are slow, May and June are OK, July is dead, September is OK, October is slow, November is dead.
What are you doing bar worrying about getting a new role? Expanding your skills? Even if you don't want to expand your skills in your strengths then why not have a browse of iTunes U for something you've always wanted to do? For example, if you're benched and fancy yourself as a literary genius then there are plenty of free courses on creative writing. Don't get caught in a negative trap, keep the positive stuff in your brain churning by doing something you've never had time to do before, you do now!
4. Oh, tulip, I'm screwed, help!
Have you made the decision on when enough's enough and you'll take anything, including permie? If not, do that tonight. When do your finances get to the point you'll look at the roles, places and companies you'd normally ignore, e.g. a six month stay-away contract in Edinburgh if you normally work in London. Again, if you haven't done that then do so tonight. Look at new alternatives that might be uncomfortable, yes being away from your family 5 days out of 7 might be an abhorrent thought to you but what's worse, that or bankruptcy? Just one suggestion among many: Get your address and home phone number off your CV and get hunting nationwide. Invite your family to give you options as well, they won't have your experience of the market but they know you and may give you an off-the-wall suggestion that helps you. It also includes them in the issue and will help you release stress by simply being able to share the problem.
Have you ensured you have enough money or spare limit on an emergency credit card for an absolute minimum of two months worth of commuting? You can often not pay bills for a couple of months and take the hit on your credit record but if you can't pay for your train fares then you're not going to earn any more money. Consider getting a new credit card with enough of a balance just for your commuting then put it somewhere awkward, not your wallet, that you can't just use while you're out shopping.
What about an emergency plan B? If you're approaching financial ruin then what else have you done in your life that you can do for a year or so that'll at least cover your bare-bones bills?
If you're really in the hole with an empty war chest, speak to your creditors immediately. Ask them nicely to freeze the interest for a few months. Ask your mortgage company for a mortgage holiday for 3 or 6 months, most big banks/building societies will do this and some have guaranteed payment holidays on request in the mortgage terms. Never miss a bill without telling your creditors. Please believe me that they will help where they can, it's a very, very rare company these days that'll be a complete nightmare and demand full and instant repayment. Be careful with your bank though, especially if it's one of the not-so-nice ones and you have a large overdraft. Your priority should be mortgage, utilities and food, council tax then everything else.
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p.s. my contract expires this Friday if anyone's got any work going on for a top-end programme/project manager!Comment
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