Monday start of another without contract ....

[nicofars]

Not sure what is happening, I have had lots of pimps calling me 2 weeks ago and telling me interview to happen Monday after, then when I chased them last week the lead went dead or client takes time to delay, we all know that... sometimes it can take weeks.
But last week and apparently today (ok, it's 11:30am yet but am not very confident if pimp don't call me at 9 like they do on a good day) may be another dead day for me and therefore no contract this week still.

I am a SharePoint specialist and know my technology pretty well including latest so I don't know what is happening.
I hear from recruiters that "most SharePoint guys are contractors" when they try to get me names of other good guys, so why not me ...!
OK, yes I know I have refused a few gig because outside London, true ... ! For now I just want to understand why there are thousands of companies in London and I would have to go in Durham or the like .. ;-)

BTW: I read in the forum some worse case than me, so I am not just crying loud since I am still ok for a while using my previous gig income from my Ltd co but actually .. it's good to let it out !
thanks for reading, have a good day/week and be happy you have a gig even when you are bored in it !

[psychocandy]

Patience dude. Things move slowly then all of a sudden something will come up.

Some people on here been on bench for months BTW. I just went 3 months before this gig.

[Bellona]

Some people on here been on bench for months BTW. I just went 3 months before this gig.

Yup, 3 months plus
And am subscribing to the "blue monday" statement accordingly: apparently today is "officially" the most depressing day of the year, though im sure i've seen this asserted for other days !

Just keep at it - 11 roles applied for last week, no follow ups, only 2 within an hour from home.

Only keeping sane at the mo through trying to achieve something positive every day and some cuk banter to break the cycle of role hunting

[aoxomoxoa]

I had a five month bench stint before landing a gig in October. Mrs Aoxomoxoa found it more stressful than I did. Patience...

[psychocandy]

I had a five month bench stint before landing a gig in October. Mrs Aoxomoxoa found it more stressful than I did. Patience...

My wife also finds it stressful when I tell she can't spend money like water! lol

[nicofars]

thanks all.
Is interesting to see that we are all experiencing same thing (partner can't spend lol !)

So .. ok, I've been back into contracts from July 2013 only and previously (years ago) I was in rolling contracts for 4 years so never really knew down time until I decided myself to stop the contract.

But question is: - what's the point of being contractor and making sh** lots more than perm when we actually.. make the same as them, if we have - like 4 months Benchtime in a year (?)
Am doing rhetorical question since I know that once we get a good gig then hopefully we keep it a while and may be lucky to avoid too much bench, so may be we do like 2 months bench avg. a year...

[TwoWolves]

thanks all.
Is interesting to see that we are all experiencing same thing (partner can't spend lol !)

So .. ok, I've been back into contracts from July 2013 only and previously (years ago) I was in rolling contracts for 4 years so never really knew down time until I decided myself to stop the contract.

But question is: - what's the point of being contractor and making sh** lots more than perm when we actually.. make the same as them, if we have - like 4 months Benchtime in a year (?)
Am doing rhetorical question since I know that once we get a good gig then hopefully we keep it a while and may be lucky to avoid too much bench, so may be we do like 2 months bench avg. a year...

Starting to wonder about this myself lately. I've been contracting for 20 years but now that so much has been outsourced and rates have stagnated with gaps between contracts its not looking as viable as it used to as a lifestyle.

[DirtyDog]

But question is: - what's the point of being contractor and making sh** lots more than perm when we actually.. make the same as them, if we have - like 4 months Benchtime in a year (?)

Because you only work 8 months of the year?

Because you don't have a boss telling you what to do?

Because you like the variety that a permanent job wouldn't give you?

[BlasterBates]

I went perm last year.

If you can easily get gigs locally it's still worth contracting, but if not I think these days you're better off with a permie job.

The positive side is that you have several months off between contracts, but if that means you have to travel 200 miles to get a gig for the other nine months of the year, I don't really feel that it compensates.

Then there's hassle with tax.

[VectraMan]

WBBS. I don't miss arsing about with IR35 and invoicing a bit, and yes you earn less but with gaps it could very easily work out the same as has been said. The people who are successful contractors only have bench time when they choose to, and are mostly getting their next roles within a few weeks of seriously looking. If you've been out for 3 months then maybe there just isn't the demand you think there is, and even though you'll probably get something sooner or later, long term you're going to have more and more of this crap.