Contractor Ken Burrell successfully established his new contracting business, Brilliant Baselines, in 2011 by winning his first contract with a major financial service client after a six-month contract search.
He says he made the successful transition from permanent employee to contractor by playing it ‘by the book’: “Once I’d decided to become a contractor, it was ongoing mentoring from a former boss-turned-contractor, my copy of the Contractors’ Handbook and online resources such as ContractorCalculator, the PCG and specialist recruiters that helped me succeed.”
And it also became clear in the exclusive interview Burrell gave ContractorCalculator that his determination, persistence and highly developed organisational and project management skills probably played the greatest role.
Why go contracting?
So what was the path that led him to start his own project and programme management office (PMO) contracting business? “After ten years in a range of technical roles in the brewing industry, I gradually moved into project management,” explains Burrell, a graduate in chemical and bioprocess engineering. I then became more involved in project infrastructure, creating and managing project management offices.”
In his most recent employed role as a Project Management Office Manager with a global financial services firm, Burrell took the opportunity to gain professional credentials, becoming a Project Management Professional (PMP) with the Project Management Institute (PMI). It was also when he started thinking about a more flexible and fulfilling career beyond employment.
Burrell explains: “I was finding that I did not have the opportunity to use the full range of PMO skills I’d acquired, and I wanted to find out what good PMO looks like in different organisations.
“It was after having some serious conversations over a coffee with some of the contractors hired by my then employer that I realised that contracting might offer me opportunities to utilise my full skill set in a way that employment didn’t.”
Doing it ‘by the book’ – the Contractors’ Handbook
Once he’d decided to make the transition into contracting, Burrell’s first step was to start researching. This took the form of extended chats with contractor colleagues, conversations with a former boss who made the transition into contracting some years earlier, and a search online and on Amazon.
“I went to Amazon to find a ‘contracting for dummies’ style book, but found something much better – the Contractors’ Handbook,” says Burrell. “I also found the ContractorCalculator, PCG and recruiter Arras People’s websites, which were to prove invaluable.”
Burrell confirms that he followed the procedure to make the transition into contracting laid down in the Contractors’ Handbook in almost every respect: “For financial reasons I found my first contract while still in full-time employment, which is not the ideal solution. This was tough, doing a full day’s work and then spending several hours each evening on contract search.
“And it was also tough juggling contract search demands during working hours, because I refused to allow my contract search to impact on the demands of my day job.”
Successful contract search requires persistence and organisation
Burrell applied the same high standards of organisation required in his project management profession to his contract search: “As recommended by the Contractors’ Handbook, I signed up with online jobsites to get a feel for assignments and rates, wrote my high impact CV, and started applying for roles. I also created a spreadsheet to document all my contacts, applications and follow-up.”
Burrell ‘optimised’ his LinkedIn profile and joined numerous LinkedIn groups to improve his visibility, particularly to specialist project management recruiters.
“The contract search stage requires real discipline, especially if you are working full-time throughout. I have to admit that on one or two occasions I nearly gave up, because I appeared to be making no progress,” says Burrell. “But I learned that by focusing on four-week ‘sprints’ of activity, I seemed to build a critical mass that resulted in responses and interviews. It definitely pays to be persistent.”
Acquiring a contracting mindset
Burrell admits that it took time to get used to how recruiters operate, and understanding this was part of the process to acquire a contracting mindset: “Recruiters aren’t great at getting back to you, but in a recruiters’ market, there’s no incentive for them to do so. But you have to respond every time a recruiter calls you, because that means they already think you are a good fit for a role.
“And if, after the follow-up call, the recruiter still thinks you are a good fit, then that means you’re top of the CV pile, ahead of the hundred or so applicants who sent their CV in response to an ad, and not because the recruiter contacted them.”
Burrell says his first taste of contracting interviews was surreal, but he acknowledges it was all part of the mindset learning curve: “My first interview involved me being interviewed for another role before the main interview, just because the client project manager happened to be available!
The contract search stage requires real discipline, especially if you are working full-time throughout. I have to admit that on one or two occasions I nearly gave up, because I appeared to be making no progress
Ken Burrell, Brilliant Baselines
“I was then interviewed by contractors, one of whom I was destined to replace, and the interview seemed incredibly superficial. Having only previously interviewed for permanent roles, I initially found this experience surreal, but quickly understood this is normal.”
Lessons for new contractors securing their first contract, and contract renewal
At the time of writing, Burrell has just signed a 12-month extension to his initial 6-month contract with a major financial services client, working as a PMO for a Solvency II project.
“The guidance on the ContractorCalculator website about negotiating contract renewals was spot on,” he says. “I also used a solicitor to help iron out some issues with the renewal contract, as PCG and the Contractors’ Handbook recommend.”
Burrell has the following advice for new contractors thinking of making the transition:
- Buy a copy of the Contractors’ Handbook and read it. Twice. And then talk to contractors in your workplace to find out what being a contractor is really like
- Take advantage of free online resources available from ContractorCalculator, PCG and recruiters
- Optimise your LinkedIn profile and join relevant LinkedIn groups where recruiters are likely to hang out, so you are visible to them
- Be organised and ruthlessly efficient; this includes always responding to calls from recruiters as soon as possible, and get used to them never returning your calls
- Don’t give up. Try four weeks of consistent activity to build up that critical mass, and then take two weeks off.
Burrell concludes: “If you’ve researched your market and have the right skills, then follow the process detailed in the Contractors’ Handbook, you’ll soon be starting a new contracting career.”
