Thinking about contracting advise please

[seeker2012]

Hi All

I am newbie to this site, and needs some help. I am a software tester and have 5 years of testing & QA experience. I have been thinking for a while now about moving into the contracting world. I have like most people some questions to ask before making the move. I am based in the north west and to be honest I have probably seen a handful of contract roles on offer. I have sent my cv to a couple recruiters but heard nothing back, after several attempts and hearing the same excuse that the recruiter had just popped out and will call me back shortly,I gave up. I have three kids and dont want to me making a big move from permanent to contracting if it is not worth it. What's the general opinon out there for testing roles are the number of roles available on the rise or is the market pretty much dead?

Is there something that I am doing wrong here? Or is there another approach that is used to deal with recruiters for contracting roles?

Thanks for the help in advance

[cojak]

How much savings have you got? Can you survive 3 months without income?

[ctdctd]

Are you prepared to live away from home to chase the contracts?

[alreadypacked]

Do you have test automation experience, many contract roles require it.

Contracting is a market place. Why would a company pay 500 a day for someone if they can have you full-time for 100 a day?

From the companies point of view, they need someone with a unique skillset they can't find easly.

Where you live is this likely to happen? if not you will have to travel.

From your point of view, do you have a unique skill-set that companies are going to need now and in the future?

Contracting is not just a matter of I do this job full-time, I can contract.
What tools and applications have you used?
You have seen roles, what % fit were you? Less the 80% forget it.

For myself, I am over qualified for most of the contract roles I do, I am sure I'm not the only one on here who would say that.