

Ask HN: What's your experience of contracting through recruiters in the UK? - panamafrank

I&#x27;m considering contracting through a recruitment company or at least finding clients through one and I&#x27;m interested in seeing if any of you have any advice or tales to share.
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PhilWright
I spent four years as a contractor between 1997-2001 and all my work was
sourced from recruitment agencies. Remember that the recruiters have no idea
about anything technical. They match the buzzwords from your CV against a
company and if they look close enough will forward it to the company. I once
had a recruiter call me up to ask what 'API' was. Not sure he was capable of
understanding it was a generic term and not a specific technology.

Use them to find companies to work for but apart from that you should ignore
their advice. Be willing to work for a lower than standard rate for the first
job in order to get some experience on the CV. If you work somewhere and you
really impress them, become indispensable then you can up your rate when the
contract is renewed. Make sure you keep contact details for other contractors
so when looking for a new contract you can ring around to find out who is
hiring.

