All quite on the Contract Front

[suityou01]

Funny. I was told you came whining, which does rather fit the profile.

[suityou01]

But you've got a nice, shiny, new avatar that's much better than eek's.

It was drawn by angels on the thighs of virgins in the Himalayas. Apparently.

[MaryPoppins]

Keeping eek on ignore didn't quite work out then?

[eek]

Funny. I was told you came whining, which does rather fit the profile.

Please provide proof. As I'm sure both myself and that particular mod would love to see your fabricated evidence.

[d000hg]

It was drawn by angels on the thighs of virgins in the Himalayas. Apparently.

What kind of virgin gets their thighs out in the mountains?

[MaryPoppins]

What kind of virgin gets their thighs out in the mountains?

Keen ones?

[kaiser78]

I'm an IT project and have been working in IT/IS for a long time coming onto 17 years.

Am i being paranoid or as you hit your 40s do the IT contract roles just dry up. I have never been out of work more than 3 weeks in the past 10 years.

However over the last year at has taken me close to 3 months to secure a new role. For the life of me I don't know what is going on.

I did have one bad contract which for the only time in my career lasted 4 weeks, I quit as the digital director was an absolute Psycho who had sacked a PM before me, when I pointed out delivering the project in 3 months had become an issue as his suppliers where 6 months behind, he took it very badly and started to throw his weight about.

Is it possible to get black listed? is the IT job market just very quite now. Any advise anyone could give would be massively appreciated.

Hello - below is part of a posting that I Need To Test It posted a couple of weeks ago when I hit the 3 month bench time and found to a very useful reminder of how to tackle extended time on the bench;

"An agent once said to me, sensing my apprehension about a new role circa 1988, "Fear is the mindkiller". At the time I didn't really get it, but now I do.

I have had several spells out of contract lasting many months (the longest being eleven). And I spent that same number of months being fearful. Every day was lost to poring over jobserve, fretting, moping, chasing agents. I felt guilty at my inability to provide for my family, I felt jealous of my contractor mates who seemed to effortlessly pick up roles ahead of me.

I can't help with your contract hunt, though I'd encourage you, in the event you're not, to compartmentalise it. Ensure you do something for yourself for at least two hours a day. Time out of contract is a blessing, despite your angst. Paint a room. Take an hour-long walk. Go to the gym. One surefire way of getting an agent to ring you is by going into a library (it invariably works for me).

Surprisingly I've heard from agents a number of times that November is one of their busiest months. I'd have thought the opposite, but hey.

Good luck. I've walked the path you're on and I get how morale-sapping it can be. Keep doing what you are doing while enjoying the time off work. Your next role will come eventually "

In my view of the last couple of months, the IT M market has been very quiet and clients/agents are being very specific in matching candidates against job spec skills etc, more so than previously it feels.

Good luck anyway...

[alreadypacked]

Keeping eek on ignore didn't quite work out then?

[Shackattack]

Overwhelmed with thre response.

Guys first of all thanks for your responses, some really good advise from all off you and honestly it's really made a difference, Kaiser yours stands out as it really hits the nail on the head. Also the one about going to a library strangely seems to resonate to name but a few.

Everyone thanks for your great advice, I think you are right look on the bright side, I think I've made the most of my time, I recently did a MSP and Scrum master course, ordered all the books which i still need to read through. I've hit the gym hard and even my brother who visited recently said I had gone through delardification, (Cheecky bugger, only brothers can get away that).

You can get a bit down especially when your fielding calls from recruiters who just seem to be professionals at wasting your time, you know the type, "Hello Mr Smith, I've just matched your CV with a couple of keywords like "the" and "and" and think you would be perfect for a job flower arranging in Plymouth for £1.50 an hour.."

Also I reckon I have sounded a bit desperate sometimes which I'm sure probably doesn't help, so top of my to do list is get to the library. Anyway seriously peeps thanks.

[FatLazyContractor]

through. I've hit the gym hard and even my brother who visited recently said I had gone through delardification, (Cheecky bugger, only brothers can get away that).

Share a tip or two on that, will ya?

Also I reckon I have sounded a bit desperate sometimes which I'm sure probably doesn't help, so top of my to do list is get to the library. Anyway seriously peeps thanks.

And this came at the cost of Suity getting bullied and battered !