Hi - another permie considering the move with a couple of questions

[cojak]

Welcome ajg!

You'll find a lot of answers to your questions within the CUK website.

On the right you'll find CUK Navigation. >>>>>>>>>

Look down and you'll come to the First Timers section. Have a read through there.

Basic expenses questions answered here: Contractor Expenses - How to claim Travel and other expenses via Limited Company or Umbrella

Then pay particular attention to IR35.

If you go into the Accounting/Legal forum you'll discover the thread Basic advice when running your own contractor business.

Guide to Contracts also has some good articles.

And finally - accountant recommendations - Ta-da!

Happy reading!

[ajg]

Hi,

I'm a software developer with over 15 years experience, currently considering the move to contracting. I've been reading through the excellent guides on this site for the last few days, and am getting a basic understanding of all that's required (still plenty to learn) and have been enjoying the decent amounts of sarcasm throughout the forums too .

My background is I came from C / C++, and moved into C# which I've been doing for the last 8-9 years. I've been working as dev team lead for the last 5 years in three different jobs. Getting a bit sick of my current permie job (tiny company / little investment / incredibly disorganised management) so am ready to jump. Also due to end of long term relationship last year I've very little tying me to where I live now, and am feeling ready for a change of location too (at least for a start I would not be against being away during the week).

I'm financially sorted, have a decent amount of savings, and could take the plunge and hand my notice in to remove the notice period problem. All sounds doable so far right?

So my questions...

What is the best way to find a first contract? I've searched the site for this and found conflicting info (probably because there is no one answer). Is it best to upload my CV to the main job sites, respond to job ads, contact recruiters? Suspect all three. Any other advice on how to best get started? I don't currently have many industry contacts outside of where I live so not much hope there.

This one may be more aimed at .NET contractors. My skill set is more back end systems (WCF / SQL / databases / system design etc) with good skills in desktop dev so WPF, and before that WinForms. My team produces plenty of modern MS web stuff (MVC) and I do myself know MVC, but I usually get my devs to do this (as all the next gen coming through these days seem to have good web skills) so in that area I'm lacking in knowledge of javascript / jquery etc which the majority of ads seem to want. Looking at C# ads the vast majority are web, with few for basic C# or WPF outside of London finance (which I know I wouldn't be able to get on first contract). Is this the case in the real world? should I go for it with my current skill set, or spend a few months getting my MVC / JS etc up to speed first? If this would be better asked in one of the other forums please let me know.

Sorry its turned into a wall of text! Thanks in advance for reading through it! Cheers.