First contract advice

[Bunk]

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

It's a public service. We're toughening you up to help you deal with the world of contracting and recruitment agents. You'll thank us in the long term.

[Wanderer]

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...

Check out IT Jobs Watch to see how much they think your skills are worth but I would say that £300 is minimum for someone with 8 years experience. It does depend on how good a fit you are for the job. If you get a live one then keep your poker face on, don't blink and drop your rate too quickly.

Good luck!

[rapid]

Make sure you list the technologies you're experienced in, under each role I list tech I was involved with, yes its not pretty, yes there's a lot of repeated words (e.g. every job has Win 2008 R2 etc) but modern recruiters don't waste time reading sentences really, I'm sure they just mash it through a machine to see what comes out the other end..



I wasted time applying for jobs.. never got responses.. the moment I put my CV on jobsite I was getting between 2-6 calls a day, within a week and a half had 2 interviews and started first gig yesterday..

Imagine it from a recruiters point of view.. do you waste time advertising and then having to go through CVs or do you just tap in to a massive database and contact them? I know what I would do.. why wait overnight for applications etc..

[Testing123]

Thanks to all who have contributed

I knew getting the first contract would be difficult, and I thought I had my CV down to a T, had a few contractors at work ok it, and also my LinkedIn account...

Would it be a contractor uk forum faux pais to see if anyone on here would be willing to take a look at my linkedin account and give me their opinion?

I used 'their' in the right context, so I do have something about me keyboard warriors! (Joke)

Cheers all, have a good weekend

[TheFaQQer]

Would it be a contractor uk forum faux pais to see if anyone on here would be willing to take a look at my linkedin account and give me their opinion?

faux pas

Some people have done reviews before - DodgyAgent has offered in the past, and it might be worth pinging him a PM. The issue with getting someone else to look at it on here is that you really need someone in a similar industry to you to have a look as they might be able to spot keywords etc that someone not in that area would miss.

[Testing123]

[QUOTE=TheFaQQer;1957802] faux pas

I spelt it the french way...

I shall do that, much appreciated

sometimes, you just need to get the gig and prove your worth when you get there, true?

[TheFaQQer]

sometimes, you just need to get the gig and prove your worth when you get there, true?

Yes.

Whether it would work or not, but you could offer a zero days notice period in the contract - ie. if they find you are rubbish, they can get rid of you immediately. Tell the agent that you are so confident that you can do the work and the client will be pleased, that they can walk you off site straight away if they find otherwise.

In reality it's no different from the rights the client will have anyway, but it might convince the agent that you do know what you are on about.

[Testing123]

Much appreciated for all the help guys.

I keep you posted of any updates I may receive!

Cheers

[darrylmg]

[QUOTE=Testing123;1957804]

sometimes, you just need to get the gig and prove your worth when you get there, true?

It's all about the keywords.
If you don't have them, then you won't get seen by the agents.
If they see you, you need to have the experience.
If you have the experience then your rate needs to comply with their expectations.
If your rate complies, then you might get an interview, which is finally where you can work your magic.

Read through the PCG cv template and other guides.
Break out all the keywords/buzzwords into a skills matrix on your cv and ensure you try and work them into the cv text too.
Finally, fill in as much as possible on the jobserve profile key skills section, and set the profile as searchable (in jobserve settings).

Hth

[oscarose]

OK

Okay