First contract advice

[Testing123]

Hi All

finding my first contract is proving harder than I first thought, and I am not limiting myself by trying to find one local, Im prepared to travel.

im sending my cv over to recruiters, but not hearing anything back, well not all the time at least.

Ive been told finding your first one is the hardest, then the next one after that they become easier, can anyone confirm?

even my day rate im prepared to cut. one recruiter says they can get me £300 per day (he asked me how much I wanted, ive 8 years experience in my field, and didn't want to undervalue myself) whereas another recruiter suggested I should go lower - which I am prepared to do!

what a headache!

[reformation]

Hi All

finding my first contract is proving harder than I first thought, and I am not limiting myself by trying to find one local, Im prepared to travel.

im sending my cv over to recruiters, but not hearing anything back, well not all the time at least.

Ive been told finding your first one is the hardest, then the next one after that they become easier, can anyone confirm?

even my day rate im prepared to cut. one recruiter says they can get me £300 per day (he asked me how much I wanted, ive 8 years experience in my field, and didn't want to undervalue myself) whereas another recruiter suggested I should go lower - which I am prepared to do!

what a headache!

What did you do as a permie for work? I.E Project Manager, Windows 1st Line Support etc.

[speling bee]

Hi All

finding my first contract is proving harder than I first thought, and I am not limiting myself by trying to find one local, Im prepared to travel.

im sending my cv over to recruiters, but not hearing anything back, well not all the time at least.

Ive been told finding your first one is the hardest, then the next one after that they become easier, can anyone confirm?

even my day rate im prepared to cut. one recruiter says they can get me £300 per day (he asked me how much I wanted, ive 8 years experience in my field, and didn't want to undervalue myself) whereas another recruiter suggested I should go lower - which I am prepared to do!

what a headache!

Finding your second contract is hardest. Sorry.

I find LinkedIn very good. Better to tap up your contacts that reply to ads IMO (but do both).

[MojoDog]

Hi All

finding my first contract is proving harder than I first thought, and I am not limiting myself by trying to find one local, Im prepared to travel.

im sending my cv over to recruiters, but not hearing anything back, well not all the time at least.

Ive been told finding your first one is the hardest, then the next one after that they become easier, can anyone confirm?

even my day rate im prepared to cut. one recruiter says they can get me £300 per day (he asked me how much I wanted, ive 8 years experience in my field, and didn't want to undervalue myself) whereas another recruiter suggested I should go lower - which I am prepared to do!

what a headache!

Are you applying for specific roles or just sending speculative CVs to agents?

If you're applying for roles and not getting interviews then your CV isn't up to scratch.
If you're applying for roles, getting the interview but not getting the role then you're not up to scratch :-)
If you're sending speculative CVs to agents then they probably don't have any roles on their books.

As for your rates, 'most' agents will always try to get you a reasonable amount - you'll get to learn to recognise the one's that are full of tulip. I certainly wouldn't advocate slashing rates purely to get a contract…but that's up to you of course.

Keep at it and check your CV and/or interview technique

Good luck

[TheFaQQer]

im sending my cv over to recruiters, but not hearing anything back, well not all the time at least.

If you are expecting a 100% response rate from agencies, then you are in for a big disappointment.

Ive been told finding your first one is the hardest, then the next one after that they become easier, can anyone confirm?

Nope. Second is harder than the first.

even my day rate im prepared to cut. one recruiter says they can get me £300 per day (he asked me how much I wanted, ive 8 years experience in my field, and didn't want to undervalue myself) whereas another recruiter suggested I should go lower - which I am prepared to do!

How did you derive your market rate? Is £300 competitive, too high, too low...

If you aren't getting anywhere, then the problem is either with the CV, the rate, the location, the agent, the application method, the competition, the marketplace, or you. Now you just need to work out which of those it is, and what you can do to deal with it / them.

[northernladuk]

Hope your grammar in your CV and correspondence with agents is better than in your post!!

You are TF's wet dream!!

[TheFaQQer]

Hope your grammar in your CV and correspondence with agents is better than in your post!!

You are TF's wet dream!!

Sometimes, it's too easy. I reckon even you could correct this one

[Testing123]

I do enjoy the banter and keyboard warriors, sitting there all smug, pulling apart peoples posts!

Thank you to everyone who has responded in a positive way.

to answer a few questions...

Im in software testing, covers a wide spectrum, mainly working on the AS-400 which I know is an old system, but ideal for financial institutions, so I'm told. Suits my 'Simples' firm I work for down to a T.

My CV - I can only ask for feedback from recruiters, and so far as been positive, or basically they can't be bothered to answer and fob me off, although I have been in touch with other contractors at work, and they say my CV is fine. they have advised me it has to be explicit, so go into details on projects you've worked on etc, rather than the one liners of which you would expand on in an interview scenario.

Cant figure out why the 2nd gig would be the hardest though?

I've emailed about 20 recruiters, majority of them tonight, so will be chasing them up next week to have a few discussions etc.

I got the figure of £300 a day off a recruiter (crimson) who says he would put me forward for company x and is confident he could get that rate as he has for a previous applicant with less skills than me...

Im learning, this is all learning to me, and we all had to start somewhere right!

[TheFaQQer]

I got the figure of £300 a day off a recruiter (crimson) who says he would put me forward for company x and is confident he could get that rate as he has for a previous applicant with less skills than me...

If he can get that rate for a contractor with fewer skills, why can't he get you more than that?

Also, just because one agent tells you one thing doesn't mean that they are telling you the truth. You might want to have a look at your skillset and what the market is actually paying - bear in mind that advertised rates and actual rates don't always correlate.

[northernladuk]

Sometimes, it's too easy. I reckon even you could correct this one

I was going to have a go but I was afraid I would miss half of it and you would publically shame me again so thought it better to stay quietly ignorant