Reply to: CV problems

[Euro-commuter]

Interesting this though how the agencies view you only as good as your last contract. As Denny rightly says you should be able to use different skills as and when required, and sometimes personal circumstances might mean taking a job nearer home that maybe involves un-boxing PCs, so what if it's what you are willing to do.

Indeed and a grade 1 pain, especially for someone whose value lies in the skills he can bring together.

Happy as I usually am to condemn agencies, I'm not sure this one is their fault. I suspect a lot of "recent xxxxx experience" is slipped in by the client, who thinks that last year nobody had the problems they're having now. Another case of "the ideal candidate is someone who has just finished doing exactly the same thing for the competition".

And the contrast with tradesmen rings true too: I would really like to do some work nearer home for a contract or two, but I'd be scared to drop to a more generic title for fear of never climbing back up to Specialist again.

Will muse on the Bluebird strategy.

[twice_nightly]

Did you see my post earlier on about how to address this ?

Sorry, yes I did thanks. Interesting and something I hadn't thought of, I'm going to amend my CV along similar lines.

Thanks for the tip...

[lukemg]

Seen this before - chap next to me hates the service delivery job he is doing, objectives, dealing with moaners, documentation blah blah. He was happy as, doing 2nd line support, get a problem, fix a problem.
If you like doing that - sod the money, stay doing it if you can find work.
BUT - do you want to be humping kit around at 40/will you be able to get a job ?
There should not be job titles set in stone to the contract roles. These can easily be turned into Project + Support Analyst when it hits your CV. When questioned you were responsible for the introduction of new equipment/upgrades etc etc using your project knowledge and then initial support through to handover of the system. Easy to defend etc
I wouldn't advise you to leave an unexplained gap longer than a couple of months. If there is a big gap, you could have gone travelling after working constantly for years and are now recharged and ready to get stuck in.
Have to tell the truth because you have to be able to back it up but no harm in a bit of 'spin' - when you get a sales brochure, do you believe every thing they claim ?

[Bluebird]

Interesting this though how the agencies view you only as good as your last contract. As Denny rightly says you should be able to use different skills as and when required, and sometimes personal circumstances might mean taking a job nearer home that maybe involves un-boxing PCs, so what if it's what you are willing to do.

Did you see my post earlier on about how to address this ?

[twice_nightly]

going back to the mrs, "twice nightly" perhaps thrice nightly will leave her with less complaints

Now that would be stretching it...

Interesting this though how the agencies view you only as good as your last contract. As Denny rightly says you should be able to use different skills as and when required, and sometimes personal circumstances might mean taking a job nearer home that maybe involves un-boxing PCs, so what if it's what you are willing to do.

A friend of mine recently took some exams and is now a Corgi registered gas fitter, but people still ask him to fix leaky taps, if he's low on work he'll gladly do so, but that doesn't mean he'll never get a gas fitting job again.

I have to agree I think it's the agencies that are at fault, after all if you were to get an interview it would be easier to explain how you came to do 'job x' and then to show them what else you can do.

[Denny]

Surely though this is just the client being concerned that they are not going to get someone who is rusty for the undoubtably high daily rate (relative to a permie salary) that we are all charging.

Rusty at what though. Not all of us need to keep up with software upgrades and latest programming developments.

I mainly write and think for a living. I also spend my time keeping up with the latest project management advances. So unless I forget how to speak or write English or develop Alzheimers, it's unlikely I wouldn't be able to do my job.

[Robwg]

I find that EBs do pressurise me about what I've been doing when I've been on the bench for a while. It's as if they are expecting a continuous work history like a permie. It really annoys me, because I did well this year and don't feel the need to constantly slave away contracting. Apparently, the clients want to see a continuous work history (or justification for gaps). I thought contracting was about flexibility and choice?

Surely though this is just the client being concerned that they are not going to get someone who is rusty for the undoubtably high daily rate (relative to a permie salary) that we are all charging.

[Denny]

Which is why MOD can't ever recruit the best contractors, only those they already have.

Even Paul Weller couldn't do a gig there then?

[churkus]

going back to the mrs, "twice nightly" perhaps thrice nightly will leave her with less complaints

[pickle]

lie

Why dont you just lie? Everybody else does.

[malvolio]

I

The only problem with the 'classified HMG' client is that the EBs will expect this contractor to be security cleared (probably at a highish level too). So what if he isn't? How would he justify this as he probably won't be, if he's been on the bench so long?

No, clearance at that level laspes as soon as you leave the site. Even DV drops off within a year. Which is why MOD can't ever recruit the best contractors, only those they already have.

[Denny]

Just had that conversation with a couple of agencies. CV stops at last June, since when I've been variously working on the house, doing some unpaid non-IT work, attending to a family illness (now resolved, thankfully) and taking a month off to visit NZ. Nobody seems to bat an eyelid.

Friend of mine had a two-year gap on his CV - he was working for HMG on something that doesn't exist in a place that doesn't exist (nudge nudge). He now has a line on the CV headed MMYY to MMYY - Classified HMG client.

Another one took a year out to try and write a book.

Be open about it. It is not a crime to work when you want to, or to have a discontinuous history. You're suposed to be hired for your skills, not your work rate.

I find that EBs do pressurise me about what I've been doing when I've been on the bench for a while. It's as if they are expecting a continuous work history like a permie. It really annoys me, because I did well this year and don't feel the need to constantly slave away contracting. Apparently, the clients want to see a continuous work history (or justification for gaps). I thought contracting was about flexibility and choice?

There again, I suppose I could have been put away for robbery or gone into drug rehab.

I might need to invent the odd assignment to pad out the last three months, if things don't buck up soon.

The only problem with the 'classified HMG' client is that the EBs will expect this contractor to be security cleared (probably at a highish level too). So what if he isn't? How would he justify this as he probably won't be, if he's been on the bench so long?

[malvolio]

Just had that conversation with a couple of agencies. CV stops at last June, since when I've been variously working on the house, doing some unpaid non-IT work, attending to a family illness (now resolved, thankfully) and taking a month off to visit NZ. Nobody seems to bat an eyelid.

Friend of mine had a two-year gap on his CV - he was working for HMG on something that doesn't exist in a place that doesn't exist (nudge nudge). He now has a line on the CV headed MMYY to MMYY - Classified HMG client.

Another one took a year out to try and write a book.

Be open about it. It is not a crime to work when you want to, or to have a discontinuous history. You're suposed to be hired for your skills, not your work rate.

[Bluebird]

What I do on the CV is "list" the activities I've undertaken for the client - I never state the "role" I was originally engaged for - this is because a lot of roles are multi functional.


Client 1
Project Management
--- Managed a successful HR Project for a team of 6 to time and budget.

Business Analysis
--- Undertook analysis in area X, and produced requirements etc

Programme Planning
--- Produced & Maintained a Programme Plan for a number of HR projects.


When a role gets advertsied I then re-order the activities so all the BA or PM stuff comes first depending on what the client is looking for.

[Denny]

Bit of a long story but basically I was a Project Manager for a global company albeit under the job title of 'Ops manager' until I was made redundant last year. The redundancy hit me harder than I thought it would and I soon became depressed when looking for work, anyway one evening last year I saw a job on jobserve for support work and I applied, it's something I had done for years before my Ops manager role so I guess I felt comfortable about this. I got the contract and I loved it, it lifted my spirits and brought some money in, plus I enjoyed the crack being 'one of the boys again.' When this finished I applied for another support job because I was enjoying it and got another contract, which is where the problem begins....

My wife thinks I'm lazy because I could be earning more doing PM contracts and I have to agree with her. I like desktop support work and the guys I work with but I really could do with earning a bit more money and planning some security for the future. Trouble is my CV now reads a little odd, it goes desktop support, team leader, Ops manager then desktop support, desktop support etc..added to this I can't convince agencies that I can manage projects as my CV doesn't say 'Project Manager' although I do have a Prince2 practitioners cert.

If I omit my last two contracts from my CV I have a 12 month gap, but I can't really lie about a full year can I ?!?!?

This is a classic dilemma faced by all contractors - including me.

Most EB recruiters see a contractor business profile as a regular CV and view the contract history you've listed in the same light as they would a permie job seeking career history. They are mentally trying to ascertain whether you are 'progressing in your career' and are 'senior' or 'junior' for the rates being offered for the role (job). I'm not sure if this is the clients' fault or the recruiters.

Clearly, recruiters don't see contractor business profiles as a series of skills set which can be offered in part or in full for different fee rates, depending on the client needs at that time which convert a spec into a SoW. They prefer to categorise us as perma temps acting as potential employees for a role as per spec, for a six month contract permie bum on seat job - and we mustn't get bored now, must we!

No wonder IR35 was introduced.

I get the same problem. As soon as I ask about rates on my last few jobs, most recruiters then say I am too senior to be considered for some I was prepared to apply for. The fact that I have no fee income being generated seems to escape them; the fact that I demonstrated an interest in the role clearly alerts them to my complete non-interest in the role which is why I love to spend my time on the phone ringing them to alert them about my availability for work I'm not remotely interested in!!!

Regarding your wife. I think you need to educate her to the ways of contracting as being a flexible way to work and it's not about career progression linked to job status anymore, and that any status you now derive from contracting comes strictly from being in business on your own account (at the bottom - as you are not Richard Branson or Sir Alan Sugar but a exploited one man band which Gordo the bully loves to give a good kicking to when it suits) not where you sit in the project org chart (which I wouldn't recommend you are visible on) but I think most of your efforts should go into schooling the ignorant EBs you are so reliant on for finding you work.

I could certainly use the moral support....