Friday 27 May 2011

Company Contacts Directory!

http://www.jigsaw.com

You can find all software companies in London with their contact details easily!

Sunday 22 May 2011

Writing a Good IT Contractor CV

What is a CV?
  • Writing a good CV is a Science not a chance!
  • CV is only a marketing document whose Purpose is only to get you an interview!
  • Create and maintain a Core CV which contains list of all the skills, achievements, etc; it can be even 10 pages but you don't send it to anyone! it's for your own benefits and to create the specific CVs from it.
  • Your Specific CV should not have more than 2-3 pages. If you have lots of experience, use 3 pages that'd be fine. Your CV should target one specific job advert; tell them what they want to hear not your life story! Show that you're precisely the perfect person they're looking for (Well, assuming you are).
  • Best fonts: Tahoma for body and Arial for headers (if you want more readability) - Times New Roman (if you want to get the job!)
CV Structure:
  • First page should contain; Profile, Expertise and Key achievements
  • The Profile section should also be targeted for the specific job; only 3-4 lines.
  • The Expertise section should be about 10 bulleted items. Don't write "years" beside your skills, it will work against you listen to me. Just list your skills without mentioning how many years!
  • The Achievement section should be about 3 bulleted items. Saving time, money or made more money. business value? it's not about what you did, it's about what value/benefits what you did added to whom.
  • You only have 20 seconds of the reader’s time to make an impact, otherwise it goes to bin!
  • The second page should contain: Career History, Education, Training, Interests
  • References should not be written on CV and should not be given to agencies until after the initial interview.
  • Why a generalized CV is Bad!
  • Target your CV
  • Killer CV Template
  • Writing a Killer CV
Examples:

Tuesday 17 May 2011

Agency Contractor Invoicing

X = contractor rate per day e.g. £300
V = VAT e.g. 0.2 currently
A = Agency commission rate e.g. 0.15

How much the contractor invoices the agency including VAT?

X (1 + V) = 1.2X = £360

How much the agency invoices the client including VAT?

X (1 + A) (1 + V) = X (1.15)(1.2) = 1.38X = £414

How much the agency earns excluding VAT?

AX = 0.15X = £45

How much the agency earns including VAT?

AX (1 + V) = £54

A simple calculator should be developed for this to calculate with different rates quickly.