As a consultant, you need to spend a good percentage of your time looking for work. Even if you have a gig, you still need to be prepared at any time to get another one since contracts can sometimes end without much notice.

The standard recommendation is to build a network that you can tap in to when you need to find work. This is a good advice and there's nothing like a referral to help you get your foot in the door. But sometimes your network has nothing to offer. Or if you're moving to a new area your network may not be of help to you. In such situations you'll probably resort to using recruiters a.k.a. headhunters.

Recruiters can play a valuable role in your contract search. Good recruiters have established connections in their geographic areas and have a good understanding of their client's needs. Bad recruiters, on the other hand, are just looking for quick turn-over. You want to look for and work with the good recruiters. Let your instinct be your guide and make specific not of who you think is good and who you think is bad. Eventually, you'll learn the signs that mark each group. In a follow-up posting I'll go over some of the things that make a recruiter good or bad.

Some very dedicated and smart software developers have created WordPress, a blog publishing tool. This software is at least as good and in many cases better than the commercial solutions out there. Written using PHP and architected to allow for customizations as needed, there really is no limit to what can be done with WordPress. Other content creators have noticed this extensibility and there are libraries of plug-ins, themes, and how-to articles. A simple search in your favorite search engine will direct you to the most popular of these libraries. [...]

Welcome to the Information Technology (IT) Consulting Guide. Hopefully you're a consultant in the information technology industry. The alternative is that some search engine has brought you here after you've searched for something I've written about. Either way, I welcome you. [...]

Employees often wonder about going out on their own. Part of this desire comes from the grass is greener on the other side of the fence syndrome, but part of it also comes from a true desire to be independent. Not to long ago I read about a business analyst that wanted to become a consultant. He was bright and he carefully considered his approach before making any moves. Here's his story as I remember it. Note that this isn't intended to be a guide for becoming an IT consultant, but rather an example of the kind of thinking you should do. [...]

I'm a fan of Nick Corcodilos' Ask the Headhunter newsletter and have been for a few years now. I even picked up his book a while ago to get a deeper understanding of his recommended approach to job hunting. And so I was pleased once again to see Nick take on the video resume movement and completely deflate the balloon of hype. [...]