Hi all, thought I would introduce myself

[John Pegram]

Hi all,
Thought I would introduce myself. I'm an IT professional and aspiring writer who is currently looking for contract
work having been self employed previously a few years back.
I've been working in IT for the past 5 years and have a long history with sales and business development and these are areas
I am doing my best to move away from. I have some project management/ supplier management experience too and project work is
something I am doing my best to get back into.
In my spare time I am a dedicated martial artist having trained in Muay Thai or Thai boxing for nearly 9 years. I also write a weekly
blog called the Little Fighter With a big heart. www.thelittlefighterwithabigheart.com it's read world wide and has over 1200 followers.
Writing is something I love doing and I am working on a bigger project too.
So anyway, just wanted to introduce myself and I hope your all well.

[northernladuk]

Welcome to the forums....

Hope you don't mind but a couple of things struck me in your post...

I've been working in IT for the past 5 years and have a long history with sales and business development and these are areas
I am doing my best to move away from. I have some project management/ supplier management experience too and project work is
something I am doing my best to get back into.

5 years is not a long time. There are many people with 10, 15, 20+ years going for the same roles. This is going to hurt your changes, particularly not having a long history of contracts to boot.

Also with contracting you are brought in because you are a specialist in your area and can start adding value from day one. You are taken on because of your historic skills, not because of what you think your are capable of or what you would like to do I am afraid. There are a lot of experienced PM's around and you have to prove you have more experience than them and can deliver better than they can to even have a hope. That is going to be extremely difficult with little demonstrable skills I am afraid.

Why contracting? Would you not consider going perm to build up the skills you are interested in? I can't help thinking you are going to have a very torrid time on the bench in the short term.

[mudskipper]

You'll be wanting The story thread.

[Scruff]

I am the Real Slim Shady! 🆒

[BrilloPad]

Welcome.

We will try to organize a cage fight between you and Churchill sometime.

[LondonManc]

Welcome.

I agree with NLUK, I only started contracting after 13 years as a perm, now been contracting for over 6 years, with 5 months total bench time (summer Olympics 2012 the main cause!)

[Nowornever]

I agree with the above, however, I got my first contract with no problem after only two years experience (on a good rate) so certain aspects are down to you as an individual and your skill set/experience during that time.

You never know until you try, best decision I have ever made.