my IT Contracts Blog

by Ruadhri McGarry, www.mynewcv.ie

You are back on the market, your contract has not been renewed or has been terminated or you’re unhappy in your current one.

Whatever the reason, how can you make sure that you secure the best IT role that you can?

If you are sending your CV to an IT Recruiter, or to a busy Human Resources Department, or indeed you’re posting your CV to a jobsite or even uploading to your own site, you need to make sure that you’ll be found.

You cannot guarantee that the person viewing your CV will recognise what’s second nature to you, sometimes your CV will be in front of someone who’s empowered but not qualified to say yes or no. So be careful with abbreviations. Remember, the first look may well be from a non technical person.

Keywords

To get around this you must be aware of keywords, in the same way that search engines rate webpages, you must play this game to win.

Ensure you have all keywords on your CV. The best way around this is to have a skills matrix at the end of your CV, including all training you’ve done in any technology.

Irrespective of whether the searcher is an experienced Recruiter, a junior Human Resources Administrator, or the IT Director of a small company searching online, applying keyword techniques to your document will get it found.

Value Adds

If you can think like the hiring manager, you’ll have to ensure that once your CV is found, it stands out. Can you demonstrate all “value adds” that you’ve brought to all of your positions? If you just list facts of what you have done and where, it can be boring. If you can say that your work enabled a quicker time to launch for a given product, you finished the job of work on time and under budget, that’s value and ultimately a cost saving.

Also recommended is that you use a Word document rather than an Adobe PDF. PDFs print better but it’s an image and tricky to search. Most recruitment machinery, agency or inhouse is based on keyword searching using Word. Also use Rich Text Formatting as this will help with keeping any formatting you’ve done.

Mirroring your potential employer’s ad or company typeface can be a small but useful trick too.

Who to send it to?

Ask around? Who is employing contractors in this market? Use your personal network or professional networking sites to establish who the hiring managers are. Do you know who the best IT Contract recruiters are? Who’s placed you in the past? Are they working with the same company now they were then? Whatever process you use…track everything. If you’re not sure where your CV has gone, then you’ll be in trouble, you’ll double apply (or agents will on your behalf), potentially develop a poor reputation, because Contract employers move jobs too, you may be making a rod for your own back. Again, post your details online where anyone who’s looking could find it, be it a free ad site or your own or a friend’s site. Use hiring manager’s phraseology so when they type - Java Contract Developer Dublin into a search engine, they’ll find you, and importantly for them at present, they’ll find you for free!

Potential Negatives

Spellcheck is good to an extent, however, I recommend that you type “IT Manger” into a search engine, and you’ll be amazed how often this type escapes conventional spellchecking technology. Read your CV and better still have a third party read it for you!

Don’t use photographs of yourself, don’t use logos of companies you’ve worked for or courses you’ve done. It takes up processing space and can lead to formatting nightmares.

Finally, as social networking takes off more and more, I strongly suggest you run a “vanity search” online. Type your name into a search engine and ensure that nothing embarrassing comes up on a networking site. Almost every candidate being offered a role will be “googled” so make sure that there’s no reason online for you not to be hired.

In conclusion;

* Use a skills matrix with keywords
* Demonstrate Value
* CVs should be in Word (Rich Text Formats)
* Don’t use Logos/Photos
* Register with online databases (let employers find you) or free sites
* If possible, create your own website and upload your CV
* Track everything
* Have someone else read your CV, don’t just press F7
* Vanity Search

To learn more about CV and Jobsearching advice visit www.mynewcv.ie or contact sales@mynewcv.ie.

As we approach the Christmas period at an alarming rate, a few of you may well be coming to the natural end of your contract. Now is the time to strike for your next IT contract for the New Year. Many companies recruit in now for New Year projects, going through the interview process in the run up to Christmas with a start date for January.
Start browsing the IT Job Boards and capture your 2009 contract now because before you know it, it will be Christmas!

The IT Contracting world can be an unusual one, and very unpredictable. It is very easy to narrow your sights when seeking a new IT contract. Finding the ideal IT Contract on the job board and pinning all your hopes to one post. You have the interview but are left waiting days for feedback and then sometimes waiting for the budget to be approved, it could take weeks. A clever IT Contractor will pursue 3 or 4 IT contracts at once. Attending a number of interviews a week and keeping as many irons in the fire as possible! Of course it can become a good bargaining tool if you have two or more IT Contract offers on the table, keep this is mind when IT Contract hunting.

We have already mentioned the UK IT Contract market dip. Although IT Contracting work is still out there why not look further afield? Europe offers some great opportunities still and with cheap flights a plenty and easy access it has never been easier and cost effective. Also having a Europe gig on your CV it will open other doors for you and will give you a chance to taste a different working environment.

Finding the right IT Job to suit you can be hard, finding the right IT Contract Job that has all you want can sometimes be even harder. It’s important to have in mind what direction you wish to take in respect to expsure to new technologies and new sectors. Your mind needs to decided before you start seeking the holy grail of IT Contracts. Being an IT Contractor, its often hard to turn down those short term contracts, because it brings in the money, however how does that impact your CV and work history? Although an IT Contractor is expected to have a number of previous employers, eyebrows do raise when a candidates CV shows a number of short term IT Contracts across a short timescale. Plus if you have contracted across a number of different sectors, this can also have a negative effect.

Lets take banking for example, a sector which is currently very much in the public eye at the moment. Its a well known fact that banks look for candidates who have a previous and current banking environment experience, especially with IT Contractors. They will always hire a contractor who has the banking experience over someone who hasn’t, even if their skills are not quite as good as the guy without the banking sector background. Again we come back to niche marketing when selling your IT Contracting skills to clients. So think before you apply, think how it will impact your future contracting path and try and stay within your target areas.

A few years ago Fixed Term Contracts had a slight stigma about them. They were neither one nor the other and the pro rata salaries turned off a lot of IT Contractors, because it just didn’t add up. A below average salary would be on offer which would be spread over a 6 - 12 month period. It seemed no more than a low paid contract role. Now however we are seeing a number of fixed term contracts being offered that are worth a good look at. Not forgetting when taking on a FTC you will get all the benefits of being a permanent employee. True it will never be a £500 a day gig but sometimes they are good stepping stones for perm employees looking for that transition into the IT Contracting world.

It seems most IT Contractors will at some point operate through an Umbrella Company when IT Contracting, most only ever use this service. An Umbrella will take care of all your ‘ messy stuff ‘ ( paper work/taxes ) and will leave you free to contract. There are many on the market and you should always shop around to see who is offering the deals. Here are a few suggestions, we have no affiliation to these companies but they have stood the test of time and have a proven service to IT Contracting:

JSA: WWW.JSAGROUP.CO.UK              Parasol: www.parasolgroup.co.uk           Danbro: www.danbro.co.uk

Feel free to suggest others 

A CV gets you an interview. That’s it’s sole purpose in life and with that in mind how does your CV stand up in the cold light of day? Someone who probably hasn’t met you before will read about your skills and work history and come to a decision based on the facts in front of them. Its your selling tool that sells you to a potential employer. Many people fall into the trap of cramming every single bit of information into their CV but recent studies prove that a clear concise CV which projects an overview of employment history comes out top. Check your dates and facts on your CV and then check them again. 

* Use bullet points to highlight your experience or key skills

Don’t be afraid to bold a few words if you think they are relevant. If people are happy to reference you, say so. Ideally get references from each contract you do, and put them on your CV after each job listed.

Don’t try and be clever with fonts, keep fonts consistent in your CV, slight changes on sizes for heading etc. Look at your CV, is it easy on the eye, is it easy to take in the information I am trying to get across to the reader. If you have linkage to work online, include it, make sure the URL is live. Even better have a central site set up of all your work, an extension of your CV.

I’m not going to lie to you, the UK market is in a dip, fact. So let’s build a bridge and get over it and move forward. Wherever there is a dip you will find in the distance a peak, law of averages they tell me.

But take this on board. Opportunity sits deep in the dip, you just have to locate it, that’s the trick.

If you are a client seeking a Contractor, you will have a bigger pool of talent to select from and more often than not can work on those freelance rates. If you are Mrs Contractor, most of your competition will fall to the wayside, because quality rules OK in good times and bad.

If you have thought ahead and added strings to your bow, you can take on that chameleon guise and adapt. Or if you have burrowed a niche in the industry, you will always be wanted and loved.

Ride the storm as ahead is blue skies - May the wind always be at your back and the sunshine on your face.

So how many strings do you have on your bow?

As an IT Contractor, clients expect their Freelance guys to walk through the door with a few tricks in their back pocket. Being a Web Designer who has some Development skills like PHP up their sleeve could be the difference to securing that contract ahead of others. A Project Manager who has taken time to get a Prince or ITIL Qualification will help her stand out above the rest. The IT Contracting world can be a very rewarding one but at the same time a very competitive one. Getting into a comfort zone whilst contracting is not recommended, keeping ahead of the game and adding strings to your bow is most definitely encouraged.

Now, go and have a close look at your CV ?