Finding new contracts on the open market

[psychocandy]

WCS

Just make sure you update your CV every week by changing one word on it and re-uploading it.

I've noticed that agents will view your details on Monster but you will have to send your CV to them.

Interesting tactic. You just talking about monster here or jobserve as well?

[psychocandy]

The advice to upload a minutely different CV every week was given to me by an ex-colleague who was an experienced BA contractor. But I actually never upload my CV to a job site - that is a pure numbers game and it might be complete pot luck that an agent finds my CV through keyword searching. Some of the best job hunting books I used in the past always recommended to carefully target job applications. But that is hard to do in the online world today if you upload your CV in this way.

My tactic is to get the number of the recruiter and phone them first before I even produce a CV to send. Sure, sometimes I get a very junior person who screens calls or an unhelpful agent who won't tell me anything before you send a CV. But when I do get the recruiter on the phone, invariably I have at least a few minutes to sell myself in person and I have a good proven 'elevator pitch' that nearly always gets my foot in the door. I can then choose one of 10-15 variants of my CV that I have to really tailor a CV to send in. Again, you don't have this advantage if you just upload your CV blindly.

The above might not suit everyone but it's worked very well for me.

Hmm. If it works for you. In my experience, no agents are even willing to speak or get remotely interested until they see your CV. Only then when they can smell commision do they get excited.

[psychocandy]

It could be the month before xmas syndrome as well. We have put requirements for 2 BA's on hold until January for no other reason than someone said 'might as well do it in January now'. Can't have been much of a requirement if that works but there you go.

I wouldn't worry about it in Dec. If something comes up it comes up. If not start pushing hard in Jan.

Saying that though it looking purely at the number listed on jobserve it seems fairly static the last few months. Although saying that, before this time, 2 weeks was my longest on the bench - now I'm approaching two months. (dont count first month - I was on hol for 3 weeks so didnt really look).

Fully expect it to go quiet any day now though. Hopefully, things will pick up in Jan? Never been on bench in Jan - someone please tell me Jan is OK and I don't have to wait until new budgets in April LOL?

[edison]

Hmm. If it works for you. In my experience, no agents are even willing to speak or get remotely interested until they see your CV. Only then when they can smell commision do they get excited.

It does work for me but that might be partly due to the fact my skillset seems to be in high demand at the moment. Granted, you might be right if I was in a more commoditised type of role.

Still it might be worh trying for some people, you might strike lucky.

[edison]

I can identify with everything you have written and I feel the same way - its not worth putting in 7 hours a day on this when 2 hours a day is achieving the same result and then have time to go and enjoy other things.

I do feel the climate has got worse for senior roles most of the roles I see advertised are bog standard PM roles or "team manager" roles which they have labelled as Project Manager (why????!) and then down at £300 pd or lower.

Worrying though that even with financial services on your CV that you are finding the climate like this - most of the roles are banking, finance, insurance, government or pharma - I have none of those so I am even more limited to what I can apply for.

I'm working in pharma - I had never worked in the industry before I got this contract, so don't always think that an industry is practically a closed shop (with the exception of FS.)

@ you and Damon,

Have you thought about broadening your industry experience to make you more marketable in the long term? Companies and recruiters often make a big deal about how their industry/company is unique or special but 80% of the crap you come across is the same in any industry! Again, with the notable exception of FS, it's not impossible to get into a lot of industries. Granted if you have 8 years in presumably high paying FS, it's difficult to look elsewhere.

As well as pharma, in recent years I have worked in the leisure/travel industry and my nearest main experience for these two roles has been local government and FMCG. I've also worked in automotive, fashion, manufacturing and retail to name just a few industries that I have experienced as an employee or consultant. I think that breadth of experience has helped me almost as much as the depth of my functional skills.

[Zzap]

@edison
I agree, my first contract was working in pharma, been back 3 times over 5-6 years in compliance as a dev before they outsourced their systems and not worked in pharma since, so it's good to know there's still positions out there.

I'm working in pharma - I had never worked in the industry before I got this contract, so don't always think that an industry is practically a closed shop (with the exception of FS.)

[MPwannadecentincome]

I'm working in pharma - I had never worked in the industry before I got this contract, so don't always think that an industry is practically a closed shop (with the exception of FS.)

@ you and Damon,

Have you thought about broadening your industry experience to make you more marketable in the long term? Companies and recruiters often make a big deal about how their industry/company is unique or special but 80% of the crap you come across is the same in any industry! Again, with the notable exception of FS, it's not impossible to get into a lot of industries. Granted if you have 8 years in presumably high paying FS, it's difficult to look elsewhere.

As well as pharma, in recent years I have worked in the leisure/travel industry and my nearest main experience for these two roles has been local government and FMCG. I've also worked in automotive, fashion, manufacturing and retail to name just a few industries that I have experienced as an employee or consultant. I think that breadth of experience has helped me almost as much as the depth of my functional skills.

I have been trying to get experience outside my own industry (travel/leisure) since 2008 and since the credit crunch have found it impossible.

[SueEllen]

Interesting tactic. You just talking about monster here or jobserve as well?

Very few look at JobServe.

They do look at the other sites like Jobsite.

[DirtyDog]

Interesting tactic. You just talking about monster here or jobserve as well?

Everywhere. It's one of the recommendations from RichardCranium's dressing gown thread, when he had his CV reviewed.

[Damon]

That concurs with my experience too.

I often get calls when I upload to Jobsite but not from Jobserve. I have asked agent's and they confirm Jobserve's CV search is not as good as Jobsite's.