Permie wants advice before switching

[NewBoy]

Contracting takes a certain mentality, not a certain skill...

I left permie and went contracting 12 months ago...resigned first, too some time off (4 months of Garden Leave which was nice), set up my Ltd and then went looking...

WIthin 3 days I received a call from someone who had seen my CV on Monster and 2 days later I was working for them on a 2 month gig overseas.

Ended up extending and spent 9 months there...fairly lucrative and a lot of fun...even got to come back to the Uk for holidays...

Got back to the UK and took a couple of months off...then started looking again...this time not so good.

Went to first interview...got the gig but two days later was informed that they had canned the project as there had been a mistake with the budget.

Went to second interview...got the gig to start two weeks later...a phone call three days before I was due to start and I read that the company was being investigated by the fraud office...shortly after got a call from the agent to say contract had been cancelled.

Went to third interview...got a second interview a week later. Went to second interview and was told I would be starting the following week. Next day instead of a contract I got told the project had not yet been fully authorised and needed to wait another week. Finally got the gig and start next week.

But you hopefully will see that sometimes things don't run too smooth...and you may be able to survive three months without working...but its not the this, its the pressure 2 months in, of 'tulip' I only have a month left, am I good enough, is there a market out there, should I start looking at permie jobs again...should I accept a lower rate just this once, if I do that will I ever be able to raise my rate...blah blah

Being a contractor is a great life if you have the right mentality, if not I can imagine it would be hell...and more importantly, your significant other must also have the right mentality...

Spend six months saving money, preparing your CV, setting up a website, making early contact with agencies, networking and stealing as much useful material from your current employer as possible...then you are in prime position to make a decision...

Go into contracting for the life, not the money...sometimes the money will run dry, but the life will never change.

[cojak]

Excellent post, that man.

Particularly like

Being a contractor is a great life if you have the right mentality, if not I can imagine it would be hell...and more importantly, your significant other must also have the right mentality

Never a truer word...

[Diestl]

I think you have a good skill-set (.NET), I found it no problem getting my first contract, hopefully the second will be as easy. I would say "Just Do It" if you worry about all the things that can go wrong you'll never make the jump. If you're good then you'll be fine.

[MartinF]

Thanks all for the great advice.

And for the pedants out there...

Thanks for all the great advice.

The ball is rolling...

Regards

M.

[lukemg]

Good advice has been given, if you are serious you need to start bouncing a carefully aligned CV at jobs for which you are a good match, forget the sending to agencies 'on-spec' if they haven't got a role they won't care.
Key thing to remember - IF you get a call back from an agent you have to convince them of a few things
1- You are absolutely committed to leaving the permie job, say they are downsizing/outsourcing and you need out etc, don't slag the place off.
2- You need to play down the notice period, tell them you are on 4 weeks but have holidays spare to reduce that to 2, or that because of (1) your boss has informally said he wouldn't keep you to 4. Some roles will wait but why take the risk.
3- You must be keen on the job/company and sound like you would interview ok.
Agents have been d1cked around by permies who want to test the water then mess their breaks when offered a 3 monther and turn it down. So they are wary of putting them forward, although this is countered by knowing they can skim a huge percentage off the rate and the newbie will still thank them for it.