[Closed] IT Contractors: How do you find contracts?

Recruitment companies
Linked in

Or mostly someone you know

Been a contract PM for 20 odd years. Linked In, jobserve, jobsite, CWjobs, totaljobs are my go to places when I start looking for a new contract.
I get email alerts which is where I notice most opportunities.
Without wishing to sound negative, just be aware that it’s already a saturated market. Lots more unemployed PM’s than jobs. Pay has generally gone down due to Covid and lots of companies are making us move to Umbrella contracts.

As above, but include the "usual" places like indeed.

Most employers of any size wo get contractors via an agency, so make contact with as many recruiters as you can find - most seem to do almost everything over linked in.

Even try doing an FOI to local health trusts to see who they use, some of them contract out a lot of PM and upgrade work or use interim staff because it takes so long to go through the recruitment process

I've always found jobsite, indeed and linked in not good for contract vacancies, they're fine for permie, but I've never had success with them for contracts.

I suspect that jobserve is still king for contracts, make sure you upload your cv and make it searchable, and re upload it every week. That's not to say you shouldn't also look at indeed, jobsite etc, I've just found them a bit crap for contracts.

Having said all that, for the last 10 years or so every contract I've had has been found via my own network of contacts, and the job I end up getting never even hits the job boards.

Pm contracts seem to be very thin on the ground these day, with the advent of devops, Ci, etc, companies seem to think they don't need pm's anymore. I think they're wrong, and I'm not a pm.

Google "IR35".

When I was contracting as a BA, I always found Indeed pretty good, plus contacts at previous contracts.

You're picking a very odd time to think about contracting though, what with

Google “IR35”.

and

Pm contracts seem to be very thin on the ground these day, with the advent of devops, Ci, etc, companies seem to think they don’t need pm’s anymore. I think they’re wrong, and I’m not a pm.

and many companies laying off contractors due to/ahead of the impending Covid/Brexit based recession.

What IHN said - and to put some perspective on that about 1/2 of our applicants for perm roles in the last 3 months have come from contractors who have been seeking work for a few months and now reluctantly decided they'd consider employment rather than raking it in as a contractor. You may want to keep in mind that there's a mistrust of contractors in the industry because they parachute in, get paid more than the staff who have been working on it for months, make a load of changes (which must be right because they are paid so much), then frequently **** off before the work is complete, only to be replaced by someone who comes in and repeats the process. We treat people going from contract to perm with a degree of suspicion as a result of this - worth considering if you are thinking of doing this for a year or two then going back.

as an aside - I keep an eye on the number of vacancies on the front page of jobserve, before the first lockdown last march, there were ~18000 vacancies, within a couple of weeks of the lockdown starting this had dropped hugely down to ~2500 vacancies.

I've been watching this number since then, and it bumped along at ~2500 vacancies for months, and now its slowly increased up to ~7600 vacancies, still miles off the 'highs' (which werent actually very high due to the impending ir35) of last feb.

I'd say that now is not the ideal time to get into contracting - but if you can make it work now you can probably make it work in any scenario.

Hey guys - thanks for the info on this.
Been plugging away at it - the tips on the sites to look on (especially re-uploading your CV every week) , the recruiters on LinkedIn - have all been very helpful.

I think I've zero'd in a contract that is well suited (Good skills and experience match, recruiter is very keen and putting my CV forward and pushing the client).

I have a few questions:

How do you actually "get" the contract? Is it a similar interview to a permanent role?

What sort of notice period (both ways) is normal? The contract is for 6 months, but there is a small possibility I may wish to leave early (to go travelling - though it's a bit dependent on COVID and the weather). How is leaving a contract early viewed?

What's the deal with LTD company, sole trader, umbrella company? I've done a little bit of short term, low paid, more informal contract work before (building websites part time) and just did it as self-employed and was registered with HMRC and did self-assessment. This contract is a bit longer term/higher paid - £200 a day for 6 months which would be £24k. I'm not sure if I'll work more in the tax year or not... What's the best way to go about it financially/legally?

short term - umbrella.
self employed - no medium or bigger company would touch you (tax liability for them)
higher paid £200 per day? for a PM? I think you have missed off a zero!
notice period - week to month - depends. just make sure it is symmetrical.
Walking early means you burn your bridges (most of the time).

As mentioned, if it’s short term then go with a decent umbrella company. Much less hassle.

There is work out there, but make sure to tailor your CV to a specific PM role - either technology or industry based. Sounds obvious but my other half is in IT recruitment and doesn’t bother with generic PM’s as there’s so many of them.

Be mindful of leaving early - not so much with the company but more so with the agency. Whilst they can be a fickle bunch, if you drop out of a role before seeing it through, it’ll lose them revenue and will put a black mark against your name. You’ll still get calls from them about jobs, but you’ll be submitted on the basis that you’re filling a quota of CV submissions rather than ideal for a job. It’s a small world and not worth getting a reputation for splitting early .

Oh and sod working for £200 a day on contract. All you’ll do there is pad out an agency’s margin as you can guarantee they’ll have you out at £650+

Lots of bigger companies still allow for Ltd companies but most are
moving towards Umbrella.
The recruitment process is pretty standard, normally via an agency. Agency submit your CV, if selected phone interview and then fade to face. Possibly a third face to face with team members and other management folk.
Again if selected the agency notify you and draw up a contract. You pass this to your umbrella company and they will deal directly with the agency.
For sake of ease I would go Umbrella. But they will take a good chunk from you, not just in normal taxes but there is additional costs you will incur (statutory charges). If you’re a PM you are massively underselling yourself. Normally closer to the £500 a day mark.
Walking away early is really not a good idea. As a contractor your expected to complete your contract. I’ve done it once before, but not for holiday purposes.
If you think about it, the company will expect you to come in and deliver a project, not come in, earn cash and go on holiday mid way through. Means they will have to go through the recruitment process and training up all over again.
Interviews are normally a mix of competency and how will you fit in with the team. As a PM they may be interested in how you deal with managing risk, communication skills, what tools and techniques do you us for managing the teams/project.
What’s your experience of managing projects which have hit issues and how have you navigated around it? You’ll need to give examples so make sure you take the time to plan out your examples before the interview. Normally lasts for approx an hour each interview.

To the OP:

Don’t worry about notice periods. The reality is that even if a contract is 1 month notice the contractor can get the bullet and marched off the premises the same day.

Contracting requires some pretty strong financial discipline so think and plan carefully before you jump - the rule of thumb is spend a third, save a third and put a third aside for corporation tax etc. Most of the contractors that I’ve worked with who kind up with money problems ignore the last part of that guidance and always get surprised when it’s time to pay HMRC.

For anything outside of IR35 i.e. Ltd Company I would personally recommend Aardvark Accounting. They do a FreeAgent based service with all the standard insurances included for £132 a month and I’ve found their service to consistently be really good.

I agree that £200 a day is pretty low in comparison to some of the other contracts, however I'm on the dole right now and have been since summer 2020, and I'm not hearing anything back from the higher paid contracts I've applied for. Also, the permanent jobs out there are paying less... They're a public sector place too - not sure if that makes much difference? Oh yeah, it's outside of IR35 too.
I also don't have a very expensive lifestyle FWIW.

The recruitment process seems OK - similar to what I've done for permanent roles.

Leaving early seems like a no-no, fair enough!

Oh and sod working for £200 a day on contract. All you’ll do there is pad out an agency’s margin as you can guarantee they’ll have you out at £650+

There is no way in the world an agency that’s paying £200 per day is charging £650, no way. It’s not 1999 anymore I’m afraid.
They’ll be charging 25% ish, 30% tops. And if they’re supplying into a big form with a strict supplier list it’ll be less than that.

They’re a public sector place too – not sure if that makes much difference? Oh yeah, it’s outside of IR35 too.

Public Sector = low rates plus they're not bothered by an HMRC investigation.

Yep, rates are s**t at the moment it seems.

FWIW both my OH and I were contractors and both of us took perm roles a few years ago. One of our better decisions with IR35, lack of decent expenses & rates and then Covid.

But as you say, if you're not earning then take it - although look at using a Umbrella so you've defined costs/income.

Skill up on Agile and DevOps and you'll have no problems finding work