mOjO
Member
Yesterday I got an email from a professional acquaintance about how to manage an independent consulting business. I found his advice extremely helpful and wanted to share with anyone who's interested in doing some part-time/full-time consulting work. Here it is:
(1) Look for networking opportunities by joining LinkedIn groups. See what groups other peers, supervisors, or colleagues on LinkedIn connections are signed up for. Some updates and threads from those groups lead to opportunities.
(2) Always document the company/client/project, work you did, and people you work for...somewhere. If it's easiest to just connect with them on LinkedIn soon after - do it. Let the document or technology remember the details for you, so you can recall it later. Chances are - if they move somewhere else, you can follow them or ping them later for advice.
(3) Follow companies on LinkedIn and look at their jobs tab, or subscribe to email updates through your profile.
(4) Create accounts on Meetup.com or Eventbrite.com to get notified about local conferences or events (often free) that are either relevant to your skill set or industry niche of interest. Similarly you could join techmasters (toastmasters for techies) or other tech-oriented associations to keep connected with industry trends and opportunities.
(5) Create an account on elance.com or odesk.com. Create your own estimates and bid proposals for jobs. NOTE: Most projects are US clients looking for offshore (cheap) contractors, so you may get underbid. But, even if you don't win, it's good experience and practice.
(6) Get familiar with industry bill rates, to know what you can command, so that if you do get a potential gig - your range is reasonable and credible to the client. 1000:1 ratio for FTE vs. Contractor is fairly common. Otherwise, create an account or research anonymous median salaries submitted on payscale.com or glassdoor.com
(7) Create accounts on job posting board aggregator sites. Create saved search criteria (perhaps 'QA Manager' and 'Contract' or 'Consultant'), and set your notification permissions to receive email updates on relevant matching opportunities to follow up on, as desired. Doonanza.com
Dice.com
BrazenCareerist.com
TheLadders.com
Experteer.com
(8) Apply for a short-term roles, even if you're not really interested. Practice the interview process so you can do it easily, frequently. Ask the recruiter questions that gets more details on what they're expecting. Read between the lines, and go back to "SEO" a version of your resume with keywords that highlight those skills, tools, processes, applications, methodologies, etc. - as they're relevant to your experience.
(9) Submit that resume (from 8) to tech recruiting firms if you're comfortable with it (perhaps Robert Half, Genesis10, etc.). Let them (the recruiters) spend time finding the roles for you - they'll match your resume keywords against the role descriptions. Unfortunately, your resume will be permanently saved in their database, but, at least you don't have to spend as much time searching yourself.
(10) Consider training or certifications. Sometime you have to spend money to make money. It may end up being that resume differentiators point that give you greater credibility to lock in the contract or increase the rate.
(1) Look for networking opportunities by joining LinkedIn groups. See what groups other peers, supervisors, or colleagues on LinkedIn connections are signed up for. Some updates and threads from those groups lead to opportunities.
(2) Always document the company/client/project, work you did, and people you work for...somewhere. If it's easiest to just connect with them on LinkedIn soon after - do it. Let the document or technology remember the details for you, so you can recall it later. Chances are - if they move somewhere else, you can follow them or ping them later for advice.
(3) Follow companies on LinkedIn and look at their jobs tab, or subscribe to email updates through your profile.
(4) Create accounts on Meetup.com or Eventbrite.com to get notified about local conferences or events (often free) that are either relevant to your skill set or industry niche of interest. Similarly you could join techmasters (toastmasters for techies) or other tech-oriented associations to keep connected with industry trends and opportunities.
(5) Create an account on elance.com or odesk.com. Create your own estimates and bid proposals for jobs. NOTE: Most projects are US clients looking for offshore (cheap) contractors, so you may get underbid. But, even if you don't win, it's good experience and practice.
(6) Get familiar with industry bill rates, to know what you can command, so that if you do get a potential gig - your range is reasonable and credible to the client. 1000:1 ratio for FTE vs. Contractor is fairly common. Otherwise, create an account or research anonymous median salaries submitted on payscale.com or glassdoor.com
(7) Create accounts on job posting board aggregator sites. Create saved search criteria (perhaps 'QA Manager' and 'Contract' or 'Consultant'), and set your notification permissions to receive email updates on relevant matching opportunities to follow up on, as desired. Doonanza.com
Dice.com
BrazenCareerist.com
TheLadders.com
Experteer.com
(8) Apply for a short-term roles, even if you're not really interested. Practice the interview process so you can do it easily, frequently. Ask the recruiter questions that gets more details on what they're expecting. Read between the lines, and go back to "SEO" a version of your resume with keywords that highlight those skills, tools, processes, applications, methodologies, etc. - as they're relevant to your experience.
(9) Submit that resume (from 8) to tech recruiting firms if you're comfortable with it (perhaps Robert Half, Genesis10, etc.). Let them (the recruiters) spend time finding the roles for you - they'll match your resume keywords against the role descriptions. Unfortunately, your resume will be permanently saved in their database, but, at least you don't have to spend as much time searching yourself.
(10) Consider training or certifications. Sometime you have to spend money to make money. It may end up being that resume differentiators point that give you greater credibility to lock in the contract or increase the rate.