Having trouble getting a contract.....what am i doing wrong?
Discussion
AndStilliRise said:
I know its the low season for contracting but 8 weeks of looking and 2 failed offers (failed because of the dim witted agencies could not close the job).
Starting to look at the permi jobs....
8 weeks of looking at this time of year is nothing to be worried about. If you got to offer stage twice, then expect to be off the bench in January. It will pick up very quickly as new budgets kick in, and new projects start.Starting to look at the permi jobs....
Both my last contracts were up at the end of the year. In both cases I couldn't even get interviews before christmas, then in January a flurry of interviews and 2 offers made.
What sort of contracting ?
I'm starting a new contract in Manufacturing Engineering in Defence, on Jan 5th.
I was approached in March, Agreed to put my CV forward in April, then it went dead, and I started a 6 month contract with an unrelated company, in May.
I was re-contacted in Sept, got an offer, did the SC forms and stuff, then got the offer of a 3 month extenaion to contract that was about to finish in mid November, but decided to decorate and wait for security clearance to come through .
Waited until end of Nov for Security. Then Waited another 3 weeks for a 12 month PO with a Jan start date.
From what I see lots of contracts in my field, although not at the rate this one is paying.
I'm starting a new contract in Manufacturing Engineering in Defence, on Jan 5th.
I was approached in March, Agreed to put my CV forward in April, then it went dead, and I started a 6 month contract with an unrelated company, in May.
I was re-contacted in Sept, got an offer, did the SC forms and stuff, then got the offer of a 3 month extenaion to contract that was about to finish in mid November, but decided to decorate and wait for security clearance to come through .
Waited until end of Nov for Security. Then Waited another 3 weeks for a 12 month PO with a Jan start date.
From what I see lots of contracts in my field, although not at the rate this one is paying.
Agreed, I am a contract project manager (tend to be IT related projects) - there seemed to be a flurry of activity in the first few days of Jan but things have very much slowed back down.
Although there is a 'demand' for IT PM's, the skills and experience being specified is generally unrealistic - there seems to be a trend to try to combine the role of a PM, technical architect and BA into a single role. Finance, retail, and pharma seem to be the busiest markets at the moment, but unfortunately I don't have experience of these markets so usually don't even get a response to applications.
I often wonder if these sorts of adverts are simply agencies trying to 'harvest' CV's in a slow market which enables them to react quickly when a client has a genuine role.
In the past 8 years of contracting I have always walked from one contract to another without any effort at all. Despite all of the press about things being 'on the up' my experience over the past couple of months has been the polar opposite - another month and I am going to have no choice but look for permy work (which I really don't want to do).....
Although there is a 'demand' for IT PM's, the skills and experience being specified is generally unrealistic - there seems to be a trend to try to combine the role of a PM, technical architect and BA into a single role. Finance, retail, and pharma seem to be the busiest markets at the moment, but unfortunately I don't have experience of these markets so usually don't even get a response to applications.
I often wonder if these sorts of adverts are simply agencies trying to 'harvest' CV's in a slow market which enables them to react quickly when a client has a genuine role.
In the past 8 years of contracting I have always walked from one contract to another without any effort at all. Despite all of the press about things being 'on the up' my experience over the past couple of months has been the polar opposite - another month and I am going to have no choice but look for permy work (which I really don't want to do).....
I'm sure all contractors know the best way of promoting your CV on search engines, but in my experience it was always worthwhile uploading a few different CV's that heavily weight to keywords of your particular skill.
If your do A,B,C and D have 5 CV's. One the really focuses on skill A, repeating that skill many times. One for B, C, D. Finally, have your generic CV covering all of them.
Recruiters rarely have technical expertise and rely on key word searches to bring up a list of CV's. The more key words, the higher you rank. I've often saw contractors have a whole gaps in CV's filled with white text with their skill - for example, "C++ C++ C++ C++ C++ C++" in white text so invisible to the naked eye but a dream for in house CV search software.
Once your CV appears at the top of a recruiters search, make it as easy as possible to have the skills stand out. Put them in bold.
Finally, recruiters usually look within a very small mileage radius of the role first. If you know some large employers you'd like to work for, or a specific area where there seem to be a lot of companies, maybe put your address as a local hotel omitting the hotel name.
If your CV has matching keywords, highlighted in bold, with an address less than a few miles from a job you're a shoe in for an interview.
As I left recruitment about 5 years ago there was talk of sites like Monster becoming clever to the white text trick and removing CV's although I am not sure if that ever happened - I've been out of the game for a while now.
If your do A,B,C and D have 5 CV's. One the really focuses on skill A, repeating that skill many times. One for B, C, D. Finally, have your generic CV covering all of them.
Recruiters rarely have technical expertise and rely on key word searches to bring up a list of CV's. The more key words, the higher you rank. I've often saw contractors have a whole gaps in CV's filled with white text with their skill - for example, "C++ C++ C++ C++ C++ C++" in white text so invisible to the naked eye but a dream for in house CV search software.
Once your CV appears at the top of a recruiters search, make it as easy as possible to have the skills stand out. Put them in bold.
Finally, recruiters usually look within a very small mileage radius of the role first. If you know some large employers you'd like to work for, or a specific area where there seem to be a lot of companies, maybe put your address as a local hotel omitting the hotel name.
If your CV has matching keywords, highlighted in bold, with an address less than a few miles from a job you're a shoe in for an interview.
As I left recruitment about 5 years ago there was talk of sites like Monster becoming clever to the white text trick and removing CV's although I am not sure if that ever happened - I've been out of the game for a while now.
Thanks for the tip's - I have to admit that I only have 2 CV's (long and short), I tend to update them with role specific skills/experience when I respond to a specific ad.
I tried putting 'invisible' text into a couple of the job-sites just before Christmas but my CV's kept throwing errors on upload, so I assume some of them have implemented some sort of technology to prevent uploading the invisible text. Other sites have gone down a much more basic route and have removed the ability to upload CV's, so candidates have to input plain text into text boxes provided on the candidate profile page (the text boxes don't allow you to adjust the size or colour of the text so I guess the industry became wise to this trick a while ago).
As an aside, when is it realistic to expect things to start to pickup again? I have never had to look for work this time of year, my contracts always seem to have come to an end mid-summer in the past.
I tried putting 'invisible' text into a couple of the job-sites just before Christmas but my CV's kept throwing errors on upload, so I assume some of them have implemented some sort of technology to prevent uploading the invisible text. Other sites have gone down a much more basic route and have removed the ability to upload CV's, so candidates have to input plain text into text boxes provided on the candidate profile page (the text boxes don't allow you to adjust the size or colour of the text so I guess the industry became wise to this trick a while ago).
As an aside, when is it realistic to expect things to start to pickup again? I have never had to look for work this time of year, my contracts always seem to have come to an end mid-summer in the past.
I have 2 logins for jobsite and job serve, one for BA and one SA. Thinking of a third with cost engineering/cost consulting/excel type focus too.
Had a phone call off an agency today who had picked my CV up off the capita database, which was a couple of years old - so fired of a updated SA one there too.
When I was contracting first time round I spent 10 years with only 1 major gap of about 7 months due to contract ending just before DEC 1999. The rest of the time I just bounced from open ended contract to open ended contract (well BAU roles will 6 month extensions), so much so I didn't bother having a war chest! This time round I have a family etc so aim to keep about 6 months money put aside.
Had a phone call off an agency today who had picked my CV up off the capita database, which was a couple of years old - so fired of a updated SA one there too.
When I was contracting first time round I spent 10 years with only 1 major gap of about 7 months due to contract ending just before DEC 1999. The rest of the time I just bounced from open ended contract to open ended contract (well BAU roles will 6 month extensions), so much so I didn't bother having a war chest! This time round I have a family etc so aim to keep about 6 months money put aside.
MadDad said:
Thanks for the tip's - I have to admit that I only have 2 CV's (long and short), I tend to update them with role specific skills/experience when I respond to a specific ad.
I tried putting 'invisible' text into a couple of the job-sites just before Christmas but my CV's kept throwing errors on upload, so I assume some of them have implemented some sort of technology to prevent uploading the invisible text. Other sites have gone down a much more basic route and have removed the ability to upload CV's, so candidates have to input plain text into text boxes provided on the candidate profile page (the text boxes don't allow you to adjust the size or colour of the text so I guess the industry became wise to this trick a while ago).
As an aside, when is it realistic to expect things to start to pickup again? I have never had to look for work this time of year, my contracts always seem to have come to an end mid-summer in the past.
As others alluded to, December and January were always very quiet and I seem to remember it picking up quite substantially in Feb/March and carrying on through for the year (summer holidays aside). I tried putting 'invisible' text into a couple of the job-sites just before Christmas but my CV's kept throwing errors on upload, so I assume some of them have implemented some sort of technology to prevent uploading the invisible text. Other sites have gone down a much more basic route and have removed the ability to upload CV's, so candidates have to input plain text into text boxes provided on the candidate profile page (the text boxes don't allow you to adjust the size or colour of the text so I guess the industry became wise to this trick a while ago).
As an aside, when is it realistic to expect things to start to pickup again? I have never had to look for work this time of year, my contracts always seem to have come to an end mid-summer in the past.
Others who work in senior roles may tell you more accurately but very often we had contractors employed to finish projects running up to April, or just so a PM spent his full annual budget for the year and protected his budget allocation for the next financial year. Also, a lot of projects kick off immediately after budgets are awarded which can be end of Jan or beginning of April.
If you're a good guy, with a good CV and willing to be flexible for the right role then I don't imagine you'll be out of a job for long.
FrankAbagnale said:
MadDad said:
Thanks for the tip's - I have to admit that I only have 2 CV's (long and short), I tend to update them with role specific skills/experience when I respond to a specific ad.
I tried putting 'invisible' text into a couple of the job-sites just before Christmas but my CV's kept throwing errors on upload, so I assume some of them have implemented some sort of technology to prevent uploading the invisible text. Other sites have gone down a much more basic route and have removed the ability to upload CV's, so candidates have to input plain text into text boxes provided on the candidate profile page (the text boxes don't allow you to adjust the size or colour of the text so I guess the industry became wise to this trick a while ago).
As an aside, when is it realistic to expect things to start to pickup again? I have never had to look for work this time of year, my contracts always seem to have come to an end mid-summer in the past.
As others alluded to, December and January were always very quiet and I seem to remember it picking up quite substantially in Feb/March and carrying on through for the year (summer holidays aside). I tried putting 'invisible' text into a couple of the job-sites just before Christmas but my CV's kept throwing errors on upload, so I assume some of them have implemented some sort of technology to prevent uploading the invisible text. Other sites have gone down a much more basic route and have removed the ability to upload CV's, so candidates have to input plain text into text boxes provided on the candidate profile page (the text boxes don't allow you to adjust the size or colour of the text so I guess the industry became wise to this trick a while ago).
As an aside, when is it realistic to expect things to start to pickup again? I have never had to look for work this time of year, my contracts always seem to have come to an end mid-summer in the past.
Others who work in senior roles may tell you more accurately but very often we had contractors employed to finish projects running up to April, or just so a PM spent his full annual budget for the year and protected his budget allocation for the next financial year. Also, a lot of projects kick off immediately after budgets are awarded which can be end of Jan or beginning of April.
If you're a good guy, with a good CV and willing to be flexible for the right role then I don't imagine you'll be out of a job for long.
I have never had any complaints, if anything all of my contracts have been extended by fairly significant periods of time - the main challenge is a foot in the door of a company who don't know you from anyone else who rocks up on their doorstep. I have always managed to find work through my network but this time around things seem much slower than the past couple of years! Fingers crossed something will come up soon.....
I love contracting.
Started 5th Jan, and am yet to be given a desk or a computer, or a computer log in, or a proper security pass.
Because of sensitivity, I can't bring my own laptop (or camera or phone or memory stick) onto site, and have to be escorted anywhere that I need to go.
Yesterday I got a temporary parking pass, which required the exact same information providing to get a permanent one.
It's been pointed out by another contractor in the same position, that "well, we get paid for attendance so no need to worry".
Yeah, but I like to achieve something for every hour I am paid.
Started 5th Jan, and am yet to be given a desk or a computer, or a computer log in, or a proper security pass.
Because of sensitivity, I can't bring my own laptop (or camera or phone or memory stick) onto site, and have to be escorted anywhere that I need to go.
Yesterday I got a temporary parking pass, which required the exact same information providing to get a permanent one.
It's been pointed out by another contractor in the same position, that "well, we get paid for attendance so no need to worry".
Yeah, but I like to achieve something for every hour I am paid.
Pit Pony said:
I love contracting.
Started 5th Jan, and am yet to be given a desk or a computer, or a computer log in, or a proper security pass.
Because of sensitivity, I can't bring my own laptop (or camera or phone or memory stick) onto site, and have to be escorted anywhere that I need to go.
Yesterday I got a temporary parking pass, which required the exact same information providing to get a permanent one.
It's been pointed out by another contractor in the same position, that "well, we get paid for attendance so no need to worry".
Yeah, but I like to achieve something for every hour I am paid.
noughts and crosses or battleships?Started 5th Jan, and am yet to be given a desk or a computer, or a computer log in, or a proper security pass.
Because of sensitivity, I can't bring my own laptop (or camera or phone or memory stick) onto site, and have to be escorted anywhere that I need to go.
Yesterday I got a temporary parking pass, which required the exact same information providing to get a permanent one.
It's been pointed out by another contractor in the same position, that "well, we get paid for attendance so no need to worry".
Yeah, but I like to achieve something for every hour I am paid.
I had a similar situation a couple of years ago when my laptop crapped its HDD on my desk! Support was outsourced to an Indian service desk with a response SLA of 4 days, and a call to fix of 2 weeks! To save money there were no spare laptops kept on site so I ended up spending 2 1/2 weeks on site watching the Olympics in the canteen and reading cycling mags! My boss was quite happy as he used it as a case against the outsourcing company to beat the crap out of their UK service delivery manager (they worked to the SLA, not within it!)....
Allanv said:
I picked one up in December but it was not as billed and changed constantly, great company but I didn't feel comfortable.
Left it on Tuesday and landed another today.
Bristol seems to be vibrant at the moment and also Swindon / Reading. actually Gloucester and any MOD site.
What line of business are you in? I am not far from Reading and aside from some quite specialist roles (finance, pharma) things seem quite slow. I am beginning to wonder if it's the way I am using the job boards as I am really not throwing up many new jobs each day!Left it on Tuesday and landed another today.
Bristol seems to be vibrant at the moment and also Swindon / Reading. actually Gloucester and any MOD site.
Gassing Station | Jobs & Employment Matters | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff