Help getting into Contracting - Mechanical Engineer

[Wing Commander]

Hi all,

I have spent quite a bit of my career within mechanical engineering, always permanent work. I have experience with mechanical for about 10 years, some electronic (4 years). I have spent personal time on projects in the past - designing and having built small projects for friends in business etc. I am extremely proficient with CAD (Solidworks for 4 years and Inventor for 5 years and have certificates for completing the courses)

What I need to do is work out how best to land some contract work - quite a bit of the advice is geared towards the IT sector.

I am more than happy with the forming of a Ltd company and the accounts side of things. I run my own business in a separate sector already.

So, how is best to go about getting my first contract? What I was thinking was, put together a portfolio of some of my better, more technical projects. I can then approach companies directly. Do companies hire contractors directly or is it all done through agents? If I get friendly with some of the local agents, what is the best way to get results? Again, provide them with my porfolio (I am reluctant to send my CV as contracting isn't really about that)

So, thoughts please.

[knitware]

Becoming a contractor is easy, I became one, albeit a few years ago, without trying. I lost my job, I put my CV online and I had a call about a contract which I started the same week. You don't have to be ltd but you'll be better off if you do, lots of websites will produce a company for you and provide accounts etc. you will need to search to find one suitable for your needs but you may already know this. Pick yourself a cool name, I have a friend who’s company title is BJ Engineering, that’s unfortunate.


Getting a foot in a company as a contractor is quite straight forward but usually requires the use of an agency. Try placing your CV into "justengineers" or "jobsite" and you will inundate with calls and emails and within those you will find a job. Engineering is healthy at the moment.


You may need to attend an interview, a portfolio is good but I just take examples of my work with previous companies and chat through my C.V. Ensure you don’t disclose intellectual property.

I’m full time now, it’s good for a mortgage, but I earned quite good money contracting.

Top tip, always negotiate your rate. I don’t know what your previous salary was and what you expect but contractors command an hourly rate. You need to offset holidays, sick pay and pension.

Engineering contractors I work with get paid between £27 -£65 an hour and the difference in rate as far as I can tell is down to perceived experience, bull st and negotiation!

[Wing Commander]

knitware said:

Becoming a contractor is easy, I became one, albeit a few years ago, without trying. I lost my job, I put my CV online and I had a call about a contract which I started the same week. You don't have to be ltd but you'll be better off if you do, lots of websites will produce a company for you and provide accounts etc. you will need to search to find one suitable for your needs but you may already know this. Pick yourself a cool name, I have a friend who’s company title is BJ Engineering, that’s unfortunate.


Getting a foot in a company as a contractor is quite straight forward but usually requires the use of an agency. Try placing your CV into "justengineers" or "jobsite" and you will inundate with calls and emails and within those you will find a job. Engineering is healthy at the moment.


You may need to attend an interview, a portfolio is good but I just take examples of my work with previous companies and chat through my C.V. Ensure you don’t disclose intellectual property.

I’m full time now, it’s good for a mortgage, but I earned quite good money contracting.

Top tip, always negotiate your rate. I don’t know what your previous salary was and what you expect but contractors command an hourly rate. You need to offset holidays, sick pay and pension.

Engineering contractors I work with get paid between £27 -£65 an hour and the difference in rate as far as I can tell is down to perceived experience, bull st and negotiation!

Hi Knitware,

Thanks for the post - sounds good.

As I say, I am happy with the idea of setting up a Ltd company (definitely want to go this way for this) and the accounts side of things. No issues there. Again, I have a business name lined up.

Glad to hear that you feel Engineering is healthy at the moment - I have noticed the same, but my view has only been from a perm position.

Happy with interviews - without sounding cocky, once I get to an interview, I have only ever not got the job once. Again, its slightly different with contract work, hence the questions. As I picture it, I would take in enough information about previous projects to be able to talk happily about them and show what I have done. Typically, none of the stuff I have worked on has high IP issues.

Not worried about mortgage situation - we rent, for various reasons, and are very happy to continue doing this for the foreseeable future. I have enough money coming in from my other business to smooth out earning ripples, but that is not to say that I could go long periods without engineering income - this is my main area, so I really should monetise it.

Again, happy with the concept of hourly rates for contract work. I know what I should be asking for, so would be happy to negotiate the rate if required. Again, sick and holiday - no problem. I will factor that all in.

Good to hear your experience of hourly rates though - I think that my first contract will be a bit lower than I would want to eventually go for, just so that I can get in the door, and contract experience. Once that is under my belt, I would be much happier asking for a rate more in line with my experience.

Thanks again

[Olivera]

If you are a well qualified, experienced and in-demand engineer then don't sell yourself short when negotiating a rate. Go in high and negotiate down if necessary.

Regarding the rates mentioned in the above post, I think £27 sounds very low. Even the lowliest IT contracting bum is probably making more than £27 p/h. Aim for at least the upper half of the aforementioned scale.

[knitware]

Hello OP,

Let us know how you get on, it could help others!

Good luck!

[Wing Commander]

Olivera said:

If you are a well qualified, experienced and in-demand engineer then don't sell yourself short when negotiating a rate. Go in high and negotiate down if necessary.

Regarding the rates mentioned in the above post, I think £27 sounds very low. Even the lowliest IT contracting bum is probably making more than £27 p/h. Aim for at least the upper half of the aforementioned scale.

I am industry experience but I don’t have a huge number of qualifications to my name. Typically the mechanical discipline doesn’t seem to have too much of that sort of thing. I have a degree in Aerospace Engineering, approximately 10 years of experience in mechanical, electro-mechanical, aero/military, and a small amount of fluid. Throughout this, I have used CAD continuously and do have qualifications in this. I certainly don’t want to sell myself short, however I often get the impression that the market informally links age against pay/daily rate. At age 30, I guess to many hirers, I am still seen as wet behind the ears. My portfolio should hopefully dispense with this, in my case, but it never hurts to be “aware of your surroundings”.

doogz said:

OP, you mention CAD qualifications. Are you an engineer?

Matchtech, Morson, EKES are the 3 that pop into my head. EKES are smaller than the other 2, but it's who I'm with which is why I mention them. Send them a CV and have a look about their websites, see if they have anything on offer that interests you or is local.

Certainly am. Engineer through and through. Always wanted to be in this discipline, right from the start. I will fire off some emails to those 3 places once I get my house in order. For personal reasons, I am not ready to move yet. It will be something that I will be wanting to enact in the new year with haste, but 2014 is not the right time.

knitware said:

Hello OP,

Let us know how you get on, it could help others!

Good luck!

Certainly will! As above, it might be a few months before I am able to provide any interesting updates.
I like to think of myself as a very rounded engineer. I often come across others in my field who are technically very competent, but lack any finesse or feel or common sense for what they are doing. Very much theorists but don’t know /want to get their hands dirty. I feel quite “old school” in that way, and enjoy nothing more than fixing/designing/building oily bits.

Thanks all – will keep you posted. If anyone else wants to piggy back the thread, feel free. Will be good to get some sort of balance of information for contracting in the engineering world, compared to IT.

[Pit Pony]

So my story is that I was made redundant in 2001, and was lucky enough to get underpaid permanent work within 3 weeks. For the next 3 months I was getting contacted about contract roles, but was too scared to do anything about it.

In 2009, I was made redundant, and there were no permanent jobs to apply for, and within 4 weeks I'd started a contract, formed a Ltd company, applied to be flat rate vat registered and will NEVER go back to permanent work.

At a recent contract I was asked if I'd consider a permanent role, and so gave them a figure that was double my 2009 salary. If they could meet it, I'd commit to a year (probably).

Lots of contracts out there. Interviews are usually much shorter. Can you do the job? Are you available? When could you start?

Currently waiting for security clearance to go through for next contract, I have 4 weeks left with another company, and they've asked me, if I'd do another 3 months doing something related. Security Clearance could take another 1 to 9 weeks, so probably I'll start the contract extension, and as soon as clearance comes through I'll give them a weeks notice.