Computer Jobs Blog

Becoming a freelance IT contractor involves a lot more than just being on top of your game. Of course striving to perform to the very best of your abilities is something everyone should be doing regardless of their work situation. But going freelance forces you to think in a different way about what you do and how you do it.

When faced with the prospect of being without work after your contract runs out you find yourself thinking up ways to either get it extended or ensure that you don't have trouble finding a new one.

What it boils down to is how useful and productive you can be. Of course it's great to be hugely knowledgeable and adaptable but productivity is the real name of the game.

I measure my performance not by how much I know about computers and networks but by how many support tickets I can close in a day or how much of a project I can complete. That's what managers are really looking for and that's what I focus on delivering - getting the job done. If I were a coder I'd focus on how many or much of a task I can complete in an allotted amount of time.

Does that mean working twice as hard as the next guy and busting a gut? To some extent yes but largely it's about working smart and managing your time. Working smart is everything to the forward thinker who wants to get ahead (and either still have a job or at least a new one in a couple of months time).

There are people out there who can get staggering amounts of work done in much less time than the 'average' worker. Is it some genetic skill that they just have? Is it that they have more time and energy than everyone else?

No it's none of those things it's just that they know how to manage and organise their work to get more done in less time. The magic word here is leverage, getting more for less and applying the 80/20 principal to everything you do.

Becoming super-efficient does not mean making yourself super-tired. It's a simple shift in how you apply yourself to a task or set of tasks without distraction or procrastination. The ability to channel your focus on a task until it is completed and then move onto the next one in a pre-planned sequence.

Well qualified and certified candidates are dime a dozen - highly productive and forward thinking ones aren't. Earn yourself a reputation as someone 'who gets things done' and you'll never be out of work for long.

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April 5, 2007 07:17 - Learning Project Management By Doing Boring Admin Tasks

So far I've been seeing all this company formation admin stuff as a real pain in the rear. Nothing could be more boring and when I've got so much else to be getting on with nothing could be more irrelevant - or could it?

Building a business is no small task and to make it a success you have to think ahead, plan for cash flow, tax and getting through the rough times. These are essential skills to master if the business is to stand any chance at all.

I see my company as different to that of many other IT contractors. I am not using it as a vehicle just to operate as a freelance techie and my mid to long term business model does not involve contracting in desktop/server/network support - although that is what I'm doing right now and very much pays the bills.

I want to consult in internet marketing and operate income generating websites - some of which are generating income now - just not enough to live off yet.

What I need is a business plan. This is something your everyday contractor doesn't have - even though they run an incorporated company - and this is why the government is getting so heavy on trying to close down various 'tax loopholes' on us - but that's another story I won't get started on here.

So is a business plan just more admin? Is all this other company formation, accounting, tax planning and other stuff just boring tedious grind that takes me away from what I'd rather be doing?

Actually no - I'm learning about business. The knowledge and skills I'm picking up here can develop my short term activities to the next level. I'm becoming a project manager whether I like it or not - and technical project managers can name their price so I don't see that as a bad thing.

It's becoming more of a well known fact that business savvy/aware techs are in huge demand in today's job market so what's the best way to learn about business?......

Build and run your own.

I better get on with my business plan!

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April 9, 2007 10:45 - How to Write a Contractors CV to Win Highly Paid Work

Looking for contract work every few months in a competitive market involves having a pretty good CV/resume.

The contractor CV is a different animal to that of the candidate looking for a new permanent job. The recruiter will be looking for different criteria and won't be so concerned about "will this person fit in with my team and organisation over a long term?" and "Does this candidate look like a good investment for the company to develop?"

They want cold hard facts up front and relevance. They want someone who can come in and hit the ground running with little to no training and a higher degree of ability and productivity.

What Makes You Special Enough to Fit This Role?

If you're in business for yourself as a freelancer and don't have the stability of a regular pay check, sick pay, holiday pay and all that you have to play that to your advantage.

For example I have put some mention in my CV to the experience I've gained from setting up and running my own company. Those admin tasks, financial planning and all the other rigmarole that comes with setting up have raised my business acumen - so that's now on my CV.

How About Fitting in Everything You Need to Get Done?

I still want to spend time on my websites, study for certification exams, learn about stock market investing and have a balanced life all outside of 9-5. Fitting all that around learning how to run the business and avoid common start up pitfalls involves developing some serious time management.

I've been forced to learn to manage and prioritise my time so I can fit in everything and it all gets done - and that's now on my CV.

You Are Your Current Employer

If you're out of work but contract under your own company then you're not actually out of employment. Even if you're in employment your current employer is not the client you're working for at the time but your company.

I've changed this on my CV so my current employer is my company - my role? Company director - that's what's on my CV

It's All in the Mind

Back in October 2005 when I got my CCNA qualification I started enquiring about getting into contracting now that as far as I was concerned I had proved to myself that I was worthy of the lucrative amounts contractors get paid.

Someone I spoke to told me that a lot of it is 'in the mind'. The ability to go and get highly paid roles was a result of confidence more than anything else. And that confidence has to show in your CV.

The fact that you've set up your own company and put so much on the line should give you the confidence to go out and win contracts - especially when your livelihood depends on it.

All the stuff in resume template products about marketing yourself becomes easy when you're representing yourself as a business instead of an individual. The more businesslike you are the more you'll be taken seriously.

You're not Joe_IT_Tech looking for a job - you're a professional service provider available for hire.

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April 13, 2007 07:11 - How Long Term Career Planning Helps You Ace the Short Term

It's a well known fact that people with clear long term career plans have very little trouble getting ahead in the short term as opposed to those who just turn up for work, do their bit with no real sense of long term purpose.

If you want the very best out of the time you spend at work then you need a bigger goal to work toward. Let's face it - we all have to go to work so why not get that time to work for you as hard as it can?

The difference here is between time spent and time invested:

Time spent - this is time you'll never get back. If you turn up for work and just do what's required of you in order to get paid with no real sense of purpose or urgency you're literally just trading your time and effort for money.

Time invested - this is time you are using to build up a pre-defined future you have in mind for yourself. It does involve putting in more effort, being proactive, sometimes putting in a bit more time, spending time out of hours reading and learning about your field and generally doing what you have to do to get ahead.

The key to investing your time at work instead of just spending it is to know where you want to be in 2-5-10 years time - and see the present as a means of getting you there.

The clearer your vision the more purpose you have and the more proactive you'll be toward building your career.

This vision and sense of purpose shows on your CV, in interviews and when you communicate - it's what employers look for.

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April 15, 2007 19:45 - I've Boinc'd My Computer in the Name of Science

Today had been a very hot day in West London and in the whole of the UK for that matter. Too hot for this time of year - dare I say....alarmingly hot?

Even though I found time to fall asleep in the sun on a lounger with a good computer book I couldn't enjoy the weather. I couldn't help thinking to myself - this isn't right, it's too hot - if it's like this now what do we have in store?

So I took it upon myself to see what I could do about it to make a difference. I found some great articles on how to save energy and money at home (UK version - US version), how to drive more economically and some typical hysterical doom-mongery which I decided not to entertain.

While I was reading my very interesting book (The long Tail by Chris Anderson - I thoroughly recommend it) I came across quite an interesting part about SETI@home which is the utilisation of idles computers around the world to process collected data from SETI thus increasing the research potential.

In short - you download the BOINC software, choose which projects you want to contribute your CPU/disk space/RAM power to when your machine is idle and get more involved in the projects if you want.

I chose climate prediction as my one because I want to get involved in raising awareness of CO2 emissions, but there are a host of projects you can donate your computing power to - the most popular being SETI - the search for extra terrestrial intelligence.

Then I thought to myself - how can leaving my computer on help reduce CO2 emissions? Gone are the days when I left it on for weeks on end without even a reboot and being all energy conscious now I tend to switch it off when it's not in use.

There are still times however when I'll be working on something and take a break for dinner, or to watch a film or do something else and it stays idle for a couple of hours.

So the egg heads at Oxford can have my processing power for that and I get a screensaver that shows the planet with some real time temperature heatmaps and things like that.

It may not be much but it's something!

BOINC Your Computer for Science Today!

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April 18, 2007 07:13 - Does MCSE Certification Help You Get Job?

There is some debate on the effectiveness of IT certification. Theoretically it's a good thing but in reality however it can be a bit of a different story.

When I started working in IT everyone wanted to be an MCSE. It was a goal a lot of people worked towards and pretty much a sure fire way of getting a highly paid job.

Now you can 'get an MCSE' (according to many training advertisers) in as little as 2 weeks - some claim less. In fact you can buy an MCSE by paying for exam answers and cheating the exams.

It seems the demand for certified candidates has created a sub industry of get rich quick training providers and cheating material purveyors - and that's not good for the rest of us.

What should be considered as a landmark achievement is now regarded as easy because so many people have got it. The once hailed MCSE has been devalued considerably because of this.

I've worked with some very good people who don't have any certifications and won't ever do any - but they know their stuff and they'll always have work.

The fact is though that if you want more call backs from agents and recruiters it's better to have some certifications under your belt - the agents skim through looking for buzzwords like MCSE so if you have it you probably will get more interest than someone who doesn't, how you fare in a technical interview however is a different story...

My take is that yes certification does help you get a job - but only if you can actually back it up with genuine knowledge. Technical interviews can be tough and they're designed to test your real knowledge not your ability to memorise exam answers.

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April 21, 2007 09:47 - Is Double the Money Really Worth Twice the Hassle?

We all like money don't we- money's great - well the things that money can buy are great anyway. We all want more of it and the vast majority of us have to get up every morning and go and work at something to bring in enough of it just to get through life.

So why not see to it that you make as much of it for the time you spend working as you possibly can? Seems like a simple concept but it's something a lot of people dismiss as 'too much bother' and even 'not worth the hassle'.

To me that's alien because I think going to work for only half the amount I could be getting paid for what I do is too much hassle and not worth the bother. The way I see it I could choose an average wage in a not very motivational environment where I just turn up and put in the bare minimum - or I can work for myself and contract my services out on a per contract basis for an hourly market rate that reflects my skills and abilities.

Cutting out the middle man

I was outsourced for 3 years - sent to different clients, sometimes up to 3 in a day and know I have the ability to walk into an environment I've never been in before, quickly get to grips with what's going on, diagnose and fix a problem they're having.

Not just that but sometimes under extremely high pressure when their systems are down and the business owner is standing over my shoulder asking how much longer before it's fixed every 5 minutes.

For that service those clients paid my employer a fairly handsome hourly rate - of which I saw about 1/4-1/3 in my monthly salary check. So what is the difference between me getting a fraction of the value of the work I performed then and getting all of it now?

Value Yourself Highly - Because You're Worth it

I learnt then the value of my skills and abilities - and faced with a salary of only a small amount of that value I found it de-motivated me and I didn't progress in my career as quickly as I could have.

Now several years on I'm working or myself and getting all of that pie - and it's great, I've never earned so much - my income has effectively doubled in a couple of months just by changing the capacity in which I work - but I do the same job as I was doing before, nothing has changed in that respect.

Working Harder vs. Working Less Hard

As a contractor I work harder than I did in a permanent job. I really do go out of my way to impress and do a noticeably good job. The motivation to do this is completely different now my business, reputation and livelihood is on the line.

If I don't do what's expected of me and more someone else will - no micro-management, no friendly pep talks that's it I can be replaced in the blink of an eye - and if I don't work I don't get paid...

Faced with this reality you switch into a different mode at work. You want either a contract extension (preferably with a rate rise) or an excellent reference and a future client who will call you back should they need you. That is one serious motivator.

The good news is that putting in 120% instead of maybe 60-70% isn't hard to do. I actually find that working harder and getting more done gives me more energy and increases my productivity in a positive cycle.

Making the Jump Isn't That Bad

It took me about 6 years to finally become a contractor after I first worked alongside one and realised I could do exactly what they do for twice what I was making as a permanent employee - so why so long?

Fear of uncertainty and extra responsibility. Also the 1 month notice period of a permanent job meant my availability was a bit of a stumbling block but when I really wanted to switch I found a way around that.

The main reason many people cite for not contracting is the possibility of being without work and not being able to meet financial commitments. That is the risk/reward factor that comes with higher financial gain. It is possible to minimise that risk by making sure you perform well enough to get contract extensions and good references/reputation - a lot of it is in the mind.

It is a hassle contracting - especially at the beginning setting up your company and book keeping systems. There are also expenses in the form of accountants, insurance and other things. But the rewards are definitely worth it.

Why get up and work 8 hours a day for £12/hour when you can do exactly the same job for £25/hour? What's more hassle?

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April 28, 2007 09:43 - Do Computer Books Still Rule Self Study for IT Certification?

Studying for your IT certification is no small task - especially when you look at those huge great fat computer books. Reading one of them from cover to cover is no small task, especially when faced with the less daunting alternative of interactive software, video training and practice tests.

But books still seem highly popular among exam candidates despite their unwieldiness, lack of computerised search facilities and overall scariness due to their sheer size.

Having tried many forms of certification study I still find a good book is the cornerstone of my study materials. Mainly because I can read on the train going in to work and back and because the act of studying from a book and taking notes I find is more effective than using an on-screen method with all its potential distractions.

That being said it's good to use some of the more innovative forms of interactive study that are available - in some cases it's essential to watch a video of something being demonstrated, and when it comes to testing your readiness for the exam - practice questions will make the difference between passing first time and having to pay for the exam all over again.

In the self study certification route the most effective mix by far is to invest in a good computer book or 2, get some proven high quality test questions - preferably with some extra training videos and other digital supplements and join some good certification communities.

The books aren't all that bad when you crack into them - and they're not meant to be read cover to cover anyway - the good news as well is that almost all of them come with a software CD with videos, test questions and other helpful material, so are books still king?... We think so!

Check out a wide variety of certification books in the computer book store.

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