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. Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the advantages of being an independent IT consultant is that you can deduct expenses. This doesn't make purchases free, it just means you don't have to pay income tax on the amount of income equivalent to the expenses. In effect, this means that everything that you buy that is a valid expense is essentially purchased at a 30% (approx.) discount. Read the rest of this entry »

If you've done any reading on salary negotiations you've probably come across the advice that the first person to mention salary is the one that loses the negotiation. That isn't necessarily the right tactic if you ask me. Read the rest of this entry »

Many people think that applying to job postings on sites like Monster and HotJobs is a waste of time. I think this idea comes from having applied to many jobs and never getting an interview for any of them. Back when I used to use job boards, I had similar experiences. Even when a recruiter contacted me, it was never for the job I had applied for. Read the rest of this entry »

References are often required to land a job. But you should do your best to guard them. Don't give out references until you're well in to the hiring process. Ideally, you won't give them out until there's an offer on the table that you've accepted. Read the rest of this entry »

Remember that recruiters work WITH you. They don't work FOR you. To put the relationship you have with a recruiter in perspective think of it this way. As a consultant, you are likely to only generate one, relatively short-term stream of income for the recruiter. Read the rest of this entry »

After all has been said and done, any recruiter that helps you get a consulting gig is a good one. The problem is, you don't know which of the thousands of recruiters out there are actually going to be of value until you've spent time working with them. Here are some things I used to look for when initially contacting a recruiters. Read the rest of this entry »