Reply to: Long and winding road to contracting

[Bluebird]

I was on a months notice prior to getting my first contract. Told agencies I was available immediatley and got an offer. Funny how I was 'sick' for my one months notice period.

a great professional attitude, you'll be a credit to contracting

[PrinceNamor]

What notice period are you on? I guess minimum a month which isn't going to be very much good for contracting.

I was on a months notice prior to getting my first contract. Told agencies I was available immediatley and got an offer. Funny how I was 'sick' for my one months notice period.

[opc]

What notice period are you on? I guess minimum a month which isn't going to be very much good for contracting.

[cykophysh39]

Came back from holiday last weds, interviewed fri and got 2 offers started work monday.

Thats how Ive found the market since i staretd contracting.

I'm not going for 500-600 a day contracts all the time, and I'm really flexible with stuff. Thats how I'm always in work.

thats the art of contracting, Flexibility.
looking for the holy grail of rates will get you no where, every gig you do, you learn something new, and a new contact made.

[TheFaQQer]

What's a FTE?

Full Time Employee

[dotnetter]

Came back from holiday last weds, interviewed fri and got 2 offers started work monday.

Thats how Ive found the market since i staretd contracting.

I'm not going for 500-600 a day contracts all the time, and I'm really flexible with stuff. Thats how I'm always in work.

[Troll]

What's a FTE?

[max]

Hi There,

I just started work in the UK as a FTE in January and am on a salary of 65k a year in IT company. I am getting quiet restless as the work is crap and boring and would like to start contracting. I started applying to positions on jobserve that are paying approx 500-600 per day and talked to a few agencies. I am finding the whole process to be quiet slow, I thought with contracting the market was booming at the moment. After one week looking I have not received any interviews yet.

After one week? Grow some nuts Son! If you want to be a contractor.. it can get ugly.

Also, I have been reading that if I apply via the agencies they can take a cut for managing the contract etc, what’s this all about? I thought the contract was with you and the company that hired you. Why are the agency involved?

Agents will add a cut over the 600/day...so relax..you don't pay.

I thought contracting would be a good choice, because I would have lots of options open to me and ideally could move around after 6 months.

Yes...welcome to our world.

PS:

I just started work in the UK as a FTE in January and am on a salary of 65k

How did you score that? Seems like a good deal for just starting!

[cykophysh39]

what are you telling he agencies?
Have you got your LTD Co sorted?
Have you registered for Vat?
Have you got your umbrella sorted?

If you haven't got any of these yet, you can't be taken seriously yet.

It takes me a total of three days tops to secure my next contract so things are booming, but then I have been doing this for a while.

[oraclesmith]

£500-£600 a day contracts are going to be rare. I don't know what you do, but according to my rate calculator a £65k permie job is equivalent to about £430-450 a day.

[XperTest]

As for agencies being involved, learn to live with it. Reality is that bigger customers that normally hire contractors don't want to deal with hundreds of one person Ltd's, so they hire through a small number of preffered suppliers. Sometimes agencies are PS for a customer, sometimes PS are too lazy and let agencies do the dirty work. Either way, as a starting contractor it will be very difficult to bypass them..

[TheFaQQer]

Apologies for spelling.

I told the agencys that i am on paye contract so havnt told them i am full time to try and avoid that scenario. I guess i will wait and see. I am keen to start contracting and getting a feel for how things are done in other companies.

I have read the start up help on this site, its all good.

fingers crossed.

Tell them that you are on a rolling contract with two weeks notice. They might take a bit more interest in your CV then.

[reddeagle]

If you are a permie at the moment you may well be getting pushed to the bottom of the pile. Lots of permies think abount contracting and then decide it's not for them so agents may disregard permie applicants if they have a lot of contractors who are capable going for the same role.


Aside from that there are always highs and lows in the market.

Apologies for spelling.

I told the agencys that i am on paye contract so havnt told them i am full time to try and avoid that scenario. I guess i will wait and see. I am keen to start contracting and getting a feel for how things are done in other companies.

I have read the start up help on this site, its all good.

fingers crossed.

[Ardesco]

If you are a permie at the moment you may well be getting pushed to the bottom of the pile. Lots of permies think abount contracting and then decide it's not for them so agents may disregard permie applicants if they have a lot of contractors who are capable going for the same role.


Aside from that there are always highs and lows in the market.

[TheFaQQer]

Hi There,

I just started work in the UK as a FTE in January and am on a salary of 65k a year in IT company. I am getting quiet restless as the work is crap and boring and would like to start contracting. I started applying to positions on jobserve that are paying approx 500-600 per day and talked to a few agencies. I am finding the whole process to be quiet slow, I thought with contracting the market was booming at the moment. After one week looking I have not received any interviews yet.

Also, I have been reading that if I apply via the agencies they can take a cut for managing the contract etc, what’s this all about? I thought the contract was with you and the company that hired you. Why are the agency involved?

I thought contracting would be a good choice, because I would have lots of options open to me and ideally could move around after 6 months.

Any thoughts?

Learn the difference between "quiet" and "quite".

Makes quiet(sic) a difference!

Have a look at the getting started guides here, and on SJD.