hello guys! Interested in becoming a contractor in IB! need advice please

[Spacecadet]

Personally I think Linked In is a waste of time on the whole. Assuming I am wrong (again) and it did work for the masses it would tend to only work for people to share experience and keep in touch with other useful people. Unless you have anything to give the other people you are linking to it wouldn't really work either. There are better things to waste your time on.

I got my last contract through linkedin.
Had a few other positive leads out of it as well, all direct too!

I don't use the social aspect of linked in much, just use it more as a public CV

[kaiser78]

I got my last contract through linkedin. Had a few other positive leads out of it as well, all direct too!

I don't use the social aspect of linked in much, just use it more as a public CV

How, out of interest, if you don't mind me asking ?

[redgiant]

Hello all,

Im knew to this forum and joined mainly because it looked interesting and usefull and had some good guides on it. But to the point, I am starting university at either Warwick or Nottingham to do computer science (or computer and business at warwick) in September, I know it is early but is there anything i should know going in to uni which could help me get into IT contracting within Investment banking, apart from the culture (which i actually like the sound of!) is there anything about this career area that i should know? thank-you all.

Welcome to the forum ... it's is never too early to be interested.

IMO I think contracting is a better choice once you have several years of experience behind you. I only recently made the jump from being a perm in a consultancy to a contractor after 7 years out of university. However there are contracts for junior support roles in the IBs that come up occasionally so there are options available.

One of the things that you will hear about at either of those universities is the milk round where the big 4 consultancies, banks (and other firms) come and drum up interest from the students and get them to apply for their grad scheme roles. I managed to get onto one of these and although the pay wasn't great (although some grad schemes do pay well) they did put me back to uni for a weekend delivered MSc. course and moved me every three months from department to department so I got to see the whole business.

[Alfie1993]

Welcome to the forum ... it's is never too early to be interested.

IMO I think contracting is a better choice once you have several years of experience behind you. I only recently made the jump from being a perm in a consultancy to a contractor after 7 years out of university. However there are contracts for junior support roles in the IBs that come up occasionally so there are options available.

One of the things that you will hear about at either of those universities is the milk round where the big 4 consultancies, banks (and other firms) come and drum up interest from the students and get them to apply for their grad scheme roles. I managed to get onto one of these and although the pay wasn't great (although some grad schemes do pay well) they did put me back to uni for a weekend delivered MSc. course and moved me every three months from department to department so I got to see the whole business.

Thank you very much, very usefull. I am currently looking at becoming a Front office developer or a technology consultant straight after university before moving to contracting as you suggested. Which one would be the more lucrative career area in your opinion? (They both seem like pretty awesome jobs and I dont think there is a world of difference between them (correct me if Im wrong)).

[redgiant]

Thank you very much, very usefull. I am currently looking at becoming a Front office developer or a technology consultant straight after university before moving to contracting as you suggested. Which one would be the more lucrative career area in your opinion? (They both seem like pretty awesome jobs and I dont think there is a world of difference between them (correct me if Im wrong)).

No problem

It's hard to say which would be more lucrative as being a contractor is also about the lifestyle and not just the role and the invoicing (when you have a contract of course!). Also job roles are for permies and not for contractors ... I have had many job titles since I started work (as a consultant and now as a contractor) which nearly always doesn’t reflect the job I do at all.

Consultants tend to be experienced staff brought in by a company to either fill a role they can't fit with permies or they need advice on an area they have no experience with. Contractors tend to be experienced so fit into that category however some of the larger consultancies (KPMG, Deloitte, E&Y etc.) have junior/graduate staff come in as consultants as well but under the guidance of senior consultants. It's a good way to learn the ropes I think and you can usually move across several sectors (financial services, retail etc.) if you spend a few years working for them. The down side for going into one of these consultancies is that you tend to do whatever work they have a need for at the time so there isn't as much flexibility as you might like.

[Spacecadet]

How, out of interest, if you don't mind me asking ?

client co found me on it.
Maybe I should have worded it "my last client got a contractor through linkedin"