Market for VC++ first timer

Re: .

Thank you, those ranges gives me a better idea of what to aim for.

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It's all down to price. At 20 quid an hour you'll be the only CV on the desk. At 60 quid there will be a lot of CV's, and a lot of rejections by the client.

Try for between 30 quid and 40 (averagely decent rate), and see what happens. If the agents swallow you're at least in there.

Ah, forgot to mention that. No banking experience, plenty of experience in Pharmaceutical Automation, but doubt that that would help much.

I've looked at Jobserve, jobsite etc, but even if all the ads were genuine there's the problem that I don't know how many contractors there are with my skillset, so it's still difficult to get a good picture of the market.

Try jobserve. The rate depends on your business exp. i.e. banking can be very well paid.

Could anyone give me some idea what the market is like right now for a first timer with 8 years VC++ (MFC and ATL), a year of VB6, quite a bit of SQL Server and Oracle development?

Would be looking for something around the London, Oxford and Reading area.

What kind of rates could I expect, and how easy is it to get a contract fairly quickly?