Advice for new contractor

[MrSpeedy]

Hi,

I've just taken the leap into contracting after 18 years as a full time developer.

So far i've had loads of calls by the recruitment agents but after 15 calls and promises to send through the job specs by email i have only received 1 job spec. To make matters even worse when i call them back it seems that some of them don't even exist at the companies. Fake names!

What is going on???

Any tips on surviving these sharks and getting to the better agents???

Also what time frames should i be expecting a first interview?

For reference my skillset is C# (13 yrs), SQL (15 yrs), MVC (2 yrs), AngularJS (6 mnths), Entity Framework (2 years), etc

Thanks for your help

[TheFaQQer]

What is going on???

Agents lie. Or they are just after your CV to find out where there is now a vacancy since you're leaving. Or they found someone better and so talking to you any more is a waste of their time

Any tips on surviving these sharks and getting to the better agents???

Expect agents to lie to you. Expect agents to be trying to harvest leads from your CV. Expect that when they find someone better suited, they will drop you like a hot potato and won't speak to you again until they have another role.

Also what time frames should i be expecting a first interview?

Couple of days at the most. Unless it's a really useless client and then in two months they might come back and expect you to be available for an interview that afternoon.

[unixman]

I started contracting in 2006 after 16 years as a software engineer/unix systems administrator. Took 3 months to find my first contract.

[northernladuk]

Everything TF is true and it's a game of cat and mouse with agents but don't fall in to the trap of hating them and treating them like scum. That attitude will come over to the one guy that does have the potential to get you a gig and ruin the relationship.

Be aware of what they do, play them at their own game and just deal with it as part of the job. They don't give feedback, deal with it, you got the feedback you need. They put fake jobs up, annoying but it happens, deal with it. They will ask for references to gather leads before you have even been to interview, politely decline and put him in his place etc etc.

Contracting is about finding work, that is our skill. The bit at the client that you get paid for is the result of being a good contractor. Anyone can do that bit. A good contractor builds networks, handles people and knows what he is doing. A bad one just responds to job adds and moans like stink about agents and the process.

[quackhandle]

+ 1 to the above and try to spend about a week reading threads and the help guides on here. Then you might get an angle of what type of wibbly wobbly new world you have entered into.

I think I should add some thing about the film Gladiator and bleeding radiators but I'll leave that to the veterans on here.

Good luck.

qh