Bad time of year for new contracts?

[MyUserName]

Or Judge Dredd... ;-)

A strangely appropriate name for NLUK ....

[alreadypacked]

Snap, I didn't do a face-to-face for my last contract but clients seem to insist on it now (or at least agents do). As far as that goes prior to this I'd not done that for years.

You may end up with a F2F, but first contact should be phone. I usually spin a story that I am doing a tool evaluation for a client, so I can only do a phone first. If they say no, I don't back down, I think they are not that interested in me, so why waste my time. I could be on a beach somewhere, come to think of it I usually am. Sometime they will come back once the others have failed.

When they ask the rate I give a range rather than a fixed price. I say it depends on travel and how bad the project is. Sometimes the projects are so bad I have to charge 1K a day

[Erebus]

You may end up with a F2F, but first contact should be phone. I usually spin a story that I am doing a tool evaluation for a client, so I can only do a phone first. If they say no, I don't back down, I think they are not that interested in me, so why waste my time. I could be on a beach somewhere, come to think of it I usually am. Sometime they will come back once the others have failed.

When they ask the rate I give a range rather than a fixed price. I say it depends on travel and how bad the project is. Sometimes the projects are so bad I have to charge 1K a day

You are right, it will wheedle out the time wasters. If they can't spend 10 minutes running through the basics on the phone to see if you are both on the same page then they are probably not that keen!

[fazzans]

Hi Everyone,

I just want to say that I finished up on 30th January. I was working for almost 2 years at quite a large Bank, have not yet found work despite agency calls and jobs perfectly matching my skillset

I can only think that it might be to do with the new financial year as I have been working in IT for almost 15 years now (contracting for about 8 of those with only 1 month on bench)

I work as a System Admin / Analyst and have skills on Windows, Unix, Linux and Midrange.

That being said I have looked almost daily on the sites, and the jobswatch engine and noticed a few things

1) Rates are quite low for some of the roles. Normally see around £400-450+ for this type of role but appears to be £250-300 (still ok really)

2) Agencies calling about potential roles comming up, they get your CV promise to call you back, then..... Silence

3) Agencies calling and asking for refrences before any interview has taken place (nasty!) but I have noticed this pickup and appears to happen also with some of the larger agencies also which suprised me

I also even tried to get my CV remastered using one of those CV services... Even that hasnt helped yet...

Anyways that was my 2 cents on the matter, market might be booming in other areas, and maybe my/those skills are fading out. I am seeing a lot more DevOps roles but when I speak to recruiters about that they tend to pass it off still as a very new role that isnt quite mature yet...


Take Care

[Erebus]

Hi Everyone,

I just want to say that I finished up on 30th January. I was working for almost 2 years at quite a large Bank, have not yet found work despite agency calls and jobs perfectly matching my skillset

I can only think that it might be to do with the new financial year as I have been working in IT for almost 15 years now (contracting for about 8 of those with only 1 month on bench)

I work as a System Admin / Analyst and have skills on Windows, Unix, Linux and Midrange.

That being said I have looked almost daily on the sites, and the jobswatch engine and noticed a few things

1) Rates are quite low for some of the roles. Normally see around £400-450+ for this type of role but appears to be £250-300 (still ok really)

2) Agencies calling about potential roles comming up, they get your CV promise to call you back, then..... Silence

3) Agencies calling and asking for refrences before any interview has taken place (nasty!) but I have noticed this pickup and appears to happen also with some of the larger agencies also which suprised me

I also even tried to get my CV remastered using one of those CV services... Even that hasnt helped yet...

Anyways that was my 2 cents on the matter, market might be booming in other areas, and maybe my/those skills are fading out. I am seeing a lot more DevOps roles but when I speak to recruiters about that they tend to pass it off still as a very new role that isnt quite mature yet...


Take Care

Thanks for commenting back :-) Yep, I hear you re rates. As a relative newbie my rates are on the low side anyway but I've seriously seen £75pd and £160pd going up occasionally (on the web and visual side). I can only imagine them getting a student for that TBH, if at all. I've seen around £200 for pure Dev roles too. Crazy!!! Perhaps companies are extremely budget limited ATM pre year end and pushing their luck.

[northernladuk]

Thanks for commenting back :-) Yep, I hear you re rates. As a relative newbie my rates are on the low side anyway but I've seriously seen £75pd and £160pd going up occasionally (on the web and visual side). I can only imagine them getting a student for that TBH, if at all. I've seen around £200 for pure Dev roles too. Crazy!!! Perhaps companies are extremely budget limited ATM pre year end and pushing their luck.

This country is ****ed. Vote UKIP.

[Erebus]

Just to add a modicum of positivity after a thread of doom and gloom. I 'have' passed over freelance pieces this year while waiting for a contract and indeed passed over a contract I didn't feel was suitable after all was said and done. Posssssibly not the best strategy :-D #rookiemistakes

[doodab]

It could be totally worth it on the other hand but what is the average win/fail ratio per 'x' interviews, does anybody know?

It'll be related to average number of candidates for a role, plus a bit for roles that fall through, so around 5 or 6 to 1 would be my estimate.

[alreadypacked]

Just to add a modicum of positivity after a thread of doom and gloom. I 'have' passed over freelance pieces this year while waiting for a contract and indeed passed over a contract I didn't feel was suitable after all was said and done. Posssssibly not the best strategy :-D #rookiemistakes

What are the new things comming into your area, what software etc. Not having an overview of your sector of the industry #rookiemistakes

Many people are surprised when rates in their area drop. But it does not happen over night, there are signs to the people in the industry, you just need to be looking for them and also looking where you should be moving next. Always be ahead.

[Erebus]

What are the new things comming into your area, what software etc. Not having an overview of your sector of the industry #rookiemistakes

Many people are surprised when rates in their area drop. But it does not happen over night, there are signs to the people in the industry, you just need to be looking for them and also looking where you should be moving next. Always be ahead.

Area is London, so my oyster really.