Any Freelance/Contract IT workers here?

Society Business and Career
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I’ve just come out of a permanent position in IT Support, and i want to work with servers but there were no real career prospects at my old place.

Am currently studying for my MCP, but i want to be able to get into Freelance/Contract IT work, where either each contract last for say 6-8 Weeks at a time, or its part time work, eg 2 Days a week, that way i can take on say 2 or 3 different contracts at different companies.

Does anyone know where i should register, and what i need to get into contract work.
Except for programming, im a very good all rounder when it comes to IT.

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eemo, so u've finally managed to get away from your thick-headed obtuse boss eh... good going buddy!

Anyways, freelancing can be a difficult feat in itself... you typically find projects through word of mouth... you should definitely spread the word around your circle of friends and family - come up with a portfolio that described the types of projects you've worked on and what you're looking for... put all of this up on a website somewhere and have other people advise you on it.

When you register with a service such as guru.com, dice.com or freeagent.com, the companies look at how well you present yourself. Also, the rate at which you make your services available tends to be a determinant of early success, so maybe starting low to penetrate would work best... once you build your portfolio with a variety of tasks, then you could start charging more.

Finally, working on your MCP alongside is a great way to show off your potential... industry endorsed certifications work well with employers because they look at you relatively more favorably without having the benefit of meeting you and getting to know your actual capabilities.

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eemo what is your skill set and where are you located?

select subscription in admin support at elance.com could be another option but try to find some local agency that can work best for you. good luck :k:

edit: also if you are in creative services AWN.com lets you see the available work positions and send your portfolio free of cost. and for rest of the services try finding forums like webmaster forums.

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Umar Bhai and Chodhry Bhai, thanks ever so much for your replies.
Very sincere replies from you guys.

My greatest stregnth AND weakness is that im an all rounder.
I started off working in a computer shop building PCs, my last position was on an IT Helpdesk.

But in between, i've been working on my own supervising the development of 2 different pieces of software.

I came up with the idea myself, and also found the people to put the programs together, and i've been steadily working on these 2 for the past 2 years. I've also done a few websites for some small companies.
But neither the programming nor the web site design has been done by me, i have some good associates who do the work for me if i get a contract for such a job.

My dilemma now is, do i sell myself as ME, eg Khuram Malik (my real name), or do i sell myself as XS-PRO, which is the company name i use when doing websites for people, and is also the name that is going to back my 2 pieces of software i been working on.

If i sell myself as me, the advantage is the company see me as an individual contractor and take me on for my personal skill set, but then i dont get to show off the best of my abilities because some best website work we put together wasnt done by me, but me as XS-PRO.

If i sell myself as XS-PRO, then i guess i have to market myself as a company? It also means perhaps, companies wont take me on in individual capacity for work as they see me as an establishment? and even if they do, the fact that im working on my software on the side may put them off because they may feel that they wont get my undivided attention for their project at hand?
These are all unanswerable questions in my head at the moment.

Im a little confused as to how i should go about this, once i have some direction i know i can do a good job.

Im working one day a week at a school at the moment, doing basic IT support, and then 1 day a week for Sheffield Computer Services (my dad) meeting small businesses for quotes, and also working on their server upgrade to win2k3 (we're jst learning as we go along).

Check out my websites at www.xs-pro.co.uk and www.dotledger.com , it shows my knack for understanding exactly what a project needs and seeing it through.
The web design and installation of the content management was done by 2 people i hired, but the idea for how the sites should look, the navigation, and ALL the content was done by myself for both of these sites as well as those mentioned in the portfolio.

If you can help clarify the issue for me a little further, i would be grateful

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pretty neat stuff eemo :k:

well I think you can use any of them as needed. Listen, there would be two kind of jobs. one which you can handle on ur own and second for which u be needing a team. so sell urself accordingly.

There are feew benifits which are associated as an establishment as you portfolio becomes bigger and better and the client takes you more seriously. I dont see any problem meeting with clients as company representative. regarding the thing that they will think that you are into other things and wont pay the required attention to their project is little too over concious thought. You current projects are your portfolio, no matter how much work is done by you as long as its a significant part of it. rather it builds the trust that you can get the job done. got my point?

dont fear and just do it. May Allah be with you.

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Ahh,

Well i just spoke to a guy at an IT Consultant Agency outfit, he said initially i would be better off selling myself AS myself.
i.e send in my CV, and explain how much time i have available etc and what my personal strengths are.

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by the way, i forgot to mention, im based in the UK and my general skill set is in IT Support 1st line and 2nd line, but to be honest i want to move away from that.

Ive been responsible for overseeing the development of some software as well, but thats between myself and my programmer, its not something that ive done in a corporate environment, thats why i dont know whether its worth listing?

What do you think is a good daily/hourly rate?
At first i was going to put £70 daily, but then i thought perhaps thats a bit to cheap and doesnt show i have any confidence in my own abilities so i have upped it to £105 a day.

What do you think?

I'll post the link to a website with all my details on, in a bit.
also , if you get a chance, please have a look at my other post titled 'copywriting/content writing'

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