10 Top Tips for Contractors

Over the years, we’ve worked with many professional contractors. Most have been successful and happy.

Here are some tips for a successful career in contracting:

1. Always keep your recruitment agency up to date with your current assignment, availability, new projects and skills.
2. Think ahead. What do you want to be able to do with what you learn on your next project?
3. Know your strengths. Be able to tell people quickly what you have accomplished and what you are good at. But don’t go on and on about it!
4. Keep a cash float. Don’t get so tight on cash that you feel pressured to accept a job that’s not right for you.
5. On the other hand, it’s better to work 12 weeks at $75 per hour than 8 weeks at $80 per hour and spend 4 weeks twiddling your thumbs! Be realistic about the returns on your time.
6. Appreciate and be responsive to each client’s individual preferences and ways of working; adapt to fit into their organisation.
7. Make friends! The public sector community is a very close-knit place. If you get offside with someone, you never know when you’ll be paid back in kind.
8. Go the extra mile. You will get out of your work only what you put into it.
9. Get your time sheet in on time! And let us know at once if you have any problems with obtaining the client’s sign-off on it.
10. Don’t put off dealing with problems: talk to us before things get serious.

Bonus tip: Don’t sign anything you don’t understand. Contracts are legally binding and you should know what your commitments are.

For more great tips, check out the Business Govt Website.