Hard to find contracts?

**malvolio** · 5 July 2010, 13:04

Originally posted by ITContractorUK View Post

I am thinking about leaving my permanent position as a .NET developer in London to become a contractor.
I have read a lot of good contractor websites which lists both pros and cons being a contractor.

My biggest concern however is that I won't get any contracts!
I have searched job websites and it seems to be quite a few of contracts around but that doesn't tell me anything since I don't know how many applicants there are per contract.

Is it hard to get developer contracts around the London/Cambridge area?

Put it this way. Any job advert will attract around 100 applications in the first 30 minutes or so. Agenices are not bothering to apply intelligence to the search any more, they simply send over the first 3-4 CVs that contain the relevant key words. Doesn't matter how good you are, if you don't make the cut all you can do is try again with the next one. Unless you are selling something either fairly senior or work in a particualr niche, in which case the agents will have to dig a little deeper, it's purely a numbers game. Make sure your CV is a precise match for the requirement or you're going nowhere.

And if you can't hack that uncertainty, stay permie.

**ITContractorUK** · 5 July 2010, 13:49

Really? Doesn't look very promising then.
I thought it was the other way around that it was hard to find good contractors.
I have recruitment people emailing/phoning me constantly about various contract positions..

**Fred Bloggs** · 5 July 2010, 13:57

My biggest concern however is that I won't get any contracts!

And you're thinking of being a contractor? I think you need to seriously think about this again until (if) things pick up. You may have a very long spell on the bench.

**ITContractorUK** · 5 July 2010, 14:05

Originally posted by Fred Bloggs View Post

And you're thinking of being a contractor? I think you need to seriously think about this again until (if) things pick up. You may have a very long spell on the bench.

Well, there are a number of jobs advertised and I have been contacted by recruitment people but I am not sure what the demand is for contract programmers..
My initial guess was that it was really hard for companies to find good IT contractors in London and that was why I started this thread.

However, it looks like people (as above) struggle to find new contracts. That is useful information for someone who wants to be a contractor to find out before they decide what to do.

**mavster07** · 5 July 2010, 14:09

It should be noted that this is the system in the UK. Its so rubbish and 99% of agencies so hopeless in their vetting of CV's etc, that the more contacts you can make outside of the agencies the better off you'll be in the long term. Then it becomes more about quality and less about it being a numbers game.

My advice, always play the 'true professional' game and stick to quality, produce quality outcomes and good things will come to you. Try to play the numbers game along with everyone else and it will be a hard slog....

**thunderlizard** · 5 July 2010, 14:12

Our Mal is roughly right but that's a pessimistic way of looking at it (Monday bench blues). Of the 100 that get looked at, 80 will be no-hopers. 15 will be people able to do the job but who get ruled out for reasons you'll never know (e.g. their last contractor was from Kettering and he ran off with the till, so they have an unofficial ban on people from Kettering. 5 will be interviewed and 1 will get the contract because he shares the boss's humorous gripe about Visual SourceSafe. All it means is you need to fire off 20 plausible replies to ads before you get a contract.

**northernladuk** · 5 July 2010, 14:38

Originally posted by ITContractorUK View Post

Is it hard to get developer contracts around the London/Cambridge area?

You will have to drop this idea as well IMO. If you are serious about staying in work and avoiding the bench I don't think you can afford to be fussy about your area. If you can't travel you are, at some point, going to look at playing a waiting game for work. Many of us work all over the country (and out of country) putting up with some pretty miserable conditions at times (away from family etc as work rules.
It is certainly not a cushy life being a contractor with his back against the wall. To look at a smallish geographical area isn't the best way to start looking for work IMO (cue a load of people that haven't worked outside a 20 mile radius in 20 years etc etc)

All it means is you need to fire off 20 plausible replies to ads before you get a contract.

I would say this is even rougher than mals advice. There are so many factors, particularly that the OP isn't currently a countracter that could greatly inflate this 20 plausible replies. I think this is a little misleading, espcially to wide eyed fluffy newbies sorry,

**thunderlizard** · 5 July 2010, 14:46

That might be true for a northern lad, but "the Cambridge/London area" is huge and bustling, as it also includes the many business and science parks that have sprung up along that railway line. I'd guess it covers about half the contracts in the country.

**northernladuk** · 5 July 2010, 14:53

Originally posted by thunderlizard View Post

That might be true for a northern lad, but "the Cambridge/London area" is huge and bustling, as it also includes the many business and science parks that have sprung up along that railway line. I'd guess it covers about half the contracts in the country.

Ah okies point taken.

Hard to find contracts?