Reply to: Just overheard two permies

[OwlHoot]

I heard a couple of permies discussing contractor CVs, only yesterday by coincidence.

"Mark, you were at Megacorp Industries. Did you know this guy Bill Bloggs?"

"Um, doesn't sound familiar. Oh wait, I seem to recall hearing that someone called Bill had threatened to punch his manager."

"Well we don't want someone like that. Right, what about this next CV."

"Actually, it may have been someone else."

"This next CV looks interesting. Let's invite them in for an interview." ...

[Bluenose]

Ahh yes. The permies at this company are looking for Norman. We all know him, That's the contract test manager on the floor in every ftse 250 company. Norman is in his early 50s who has been there for 4 years on a crap rate because he isn't good enough to be offered anything better elsewhere.

[Roger Mellie]

Going through contractor cvs for a test position. Binning anyone who doesn't have consistent contracts of over 12 months per client.

They then interview 'the best' but the best actually turn out to be crap during the interview and/or lied on their CVs.

They then go back to the bin and retrieve the CVs they binned.

Ahh...what would us contractors do without dumb permies?

[SlipTheJab]

If you think being a disguised permie is being a real business you are doing it wrong

+1 my first contract role was a 3 month troubleshooting one. If it got extended it would have meant I had failed in my first 3 months (job done btw and no extension!)

[SueEllen]

I got my first contract because the hiring manager assumed that the two permie jobs I'd had just before, which lasted less than a year each, must have been contracts, so I must be a seasoned contractor.

+2

[SpontaneousOrder]

I got my first contract because the hiring manager assumed that the two permie jobs I'd had just before, which lasted less than a year each, must have been contracts, so I must be a seasoned contractor.

Me too. I was at a small-ish consultancy and everyone thought I'd been doing it for years.

[Ticktock]

If you can't spin a 3 monther into a year you are doing it wrong

If you think being a disguised permie is being a real business you are doing it wrong

[Unix]

What's staying over 12 months got to do with being extended?

If you can't spin a 3 monther into a year you are doing it wrong

[NotAllThere]

I got my first contract because the hiring manager assumed that the two permie jobs I'd had just before, which lasted less than a year each, must have been contracts, so I must be a seasoned contractor.

[vwdan]

My current client are very suspicious of lots of shot contracts like this, and I agree with you that it's not a good measure.

My current client also doesn't really indertsnad the difference between a contractor & permie. They don't undertsand why someone wouldn't want to stay indefinitely.

With that being said - you do get contractors that manage to survuce because they just keep moving on after doing a tulip job. How do you filter these out?

Million dollar question, I guess. For exactly this reason, when I turned my CV into a project-focussed one I wound up having to squeeze in:

[End Client] ([Systems Integrator] via [Small Consultancy])

Because if I left out the "Via" bit, it looks like I'm never asked back and if I miss out the Systems Integrator I have to leave off big names in the industry.

I also wound up simply leaving off some of the smaller projects, or the ones I managed to interleave together. I tried explaining I'd been working on two projects at once to an agent and he thought I meant doing one on the weekend and couldn't really grasp that sometimes you don't need to be on-site for 40 hours a week.

[SpontaneousOrder]

Buyers market or not, it doesn't make it a good idea. Selecting contractors based on a completely arbitrary metric like that adds absolutely no value to the process. Taking it to a sort of logical conclusion - how many of the superstar freelancers in your industry (The people who are invited to talk at vendor conferences, the people who always appear in search results, the people whose scripts/utilities you may use) will hang around at a client indefinitely?

My current client are very suspicious of lots of shot contracts like this, and I agree with you that it's not a good measure.

My current client also doesn't really indertsnad the difference between a contractor & permie. They don't undertsand why someone wouldn't want to stay indefinitely.

With that being said - you do get contractors that manage to survuce because they just keep moving on after doing a tulip job. How do you filter these out?

[rootsnall]

Aren't renewals at the same client more significant than outright time.? If a client renewed you, it proves they were satisfied. I mention renewals on the old CV, eg 18 months (4 renewals).

That's how I have got round lots of short contracts on my CV, I get the words such as 'returning', 'for the 3rd time', etc in as quick as possible. Pretty sure it does put some clients off ( and a killer if you ever contemplate Perm ).

[vwdan]

it's a buyers market so the can

Buyers market or not, it doesn't make it a good idea. Selecting contractors based on a completely arbitrary metric like that adds absolutely no value to the process. Taking it to a sort of logical conclusion - how many of the superstar freelancers in your industry (The people who are invited to talk at vendor conferences, the people who always appear in search results, the people whose scripts/utilities you may use) will hang around at a client indefinitely?

[eek]

it's a buyers market so the can

Is it? That's not the case in my field....

[BlasterBates]

it's a buyers market so the can