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Becoming a Successful Contractor

Being a contractor is undoubtedly different than other ways of employment. Deciding to become one requires not only strategic thinking and a results driven approach, but most importantly making the most of your time and skills and treating contracting as a way of life. Most contractors share the same personal and professional characteristics that add up to success in the contracting world. Even though you may be well-qualified and have a great set of skills you may still fail as contractor simply because you lack some crucial features. Below, we have listed what it takes to be a winning contractor:

Don’t be afraid to ask questions
It will mainly be your responsibility to fill in any gaps in your knowledge and expertise, therefore in order to avoid making serious mistakes, especially if you are new to contracting, early on in the role ask plenty of questions, even if it may feel intimidating and you are reluctant to do so. Remember that with more knowledge and experience you will to settle in almost instantly.

Be ready to hit the ground running
Because contractors are paid for their skills and knowledge to work on certain projects, most organisations will not be prepared to train them to fulfill a role that they are supposed to know already. Apart from a general introduction to the company’s corporate structure and the location of the basic facilities and resources, you are pretty much expected to adapt to the culture, working environment and procedures yourself.

Stay focused
During your first week at a new client’s site you will have to be attentive. This includes for instance observing how people dress, recognising acceptable lunch times and breaks, listening to what most people you work with discuss to establish the unspoken boundaries.

Be a part of the group
When contracting you probably want to focus mainly on doing an exceptional job, but do not let it alienate you from the rest of your colleagues. You may or may not like permies, but your interpersonal skills are also being assessed while you work for a client. If you are unable to adapt and bond with others, you may find yourself losing the contract at the renewal date.

Determine dos and don’ts
As soon as you start your assignment, find out the important people you need to be wary of, as well as different dos and don’ts within an organisation. What may be helpful at this stage is to find somebody trusted, for example another contractor who has been with a client for a while whose advice may keep you out of danger.

Learn to like permies
In most contracting roles, you have to cooperate with both contractors and permies. Learning to deal with these people effectively, especially permanent employees, is crucial to being a great contractor. From the moment when you have an interview with a client to the end of your contract you are judged on how well you fit into the organisation. How you interact with others and how much other people like or dislike you, are points that are taken into consideration when your contract is being reviewed. Therefore alienating people and making permies dislike you will not do you any good.

Be a part of a social circle
It may sound like the last thing you want to do, yet it is important. Depending on type and size of an organisation, as well as the characters of its employees, it will be either easy or time consuming to get into a departmental social circle. You may either have to build individual relationships with each person in the department, or you will click with all of them straight away.

Show genuine interest in others
The last thing you want to do is to come across as somebody who is not bothered with the people he or she is working with. Busy as you may be, you should always find some time to have a word with permies and fellow contractors, inside and outside work hours. When having a conversation with anyone be an active listener and show some genuine interest in what is being said. Keep in mind that when you are genuinely interested in others you will become even more interesting to people you work with.

Be friendly
It is almost impossible to work in an organisation and team where everybody likes each other. It is generally thought that contractors are grumpy, have a huge ego, are difficult to deal with and basically are not helpful. You can easily change such an opinion by being friendly towards the people you are working with.

Be helpful
Most contractors fear that being helpful may be looked upon negatively by an organisation, as a contractors is engaged to undertake a specific task or project. However, by sharing and adding to the organisations knowledge and skills base, you will prove that it is worth retaining your services for longer. You will upset less people if you are humble concerning your abilities and skills and instead act in a supportive way.

Act modestly
It should be your actions and achievements, not your tongue, that prove your skills. Discuss only things that you know will not get any of your colleagues jealous of your income. Don’t show off and talk about your expensive belongings around your permie colleagues. It doesn’t take a long time to make them feel envious of you and you stand a great risk at angering your permie colleagues, most of whom may be performing the same or similar role but for much less money than your daily date.

Do not undermine and make permies insecure
Be helpful to your permie colleagues and also, even if it may seem humiliating, be prepared to learn from them. It is tempting to show off with your enormous knowledge and experience however, try not to give advice to people if you are not being asked for it. Permies often tend to lack confidence and feel humiliated when a knowledgeable contractor is around. If the situation is quite opposite i.e. a permie is trying to show his or her superior knowledge in order to crush your self esteem, refrain from making any comments and do not try to prove he or she talks nonsense.

Share your knowledge
Contracting at various companies means that you will hear of different problems that you may be able to offer some guidance or solve. Even though you will not be paid to give an advice to a 3rd party, being willing to help could lead to a contract extension or the start of a new contract. This is a great way to let as many people as possible know what a great contractor you are.

Invest in yourself
It’s important that contractors invest in their own development. The ones who invest the most in improving their skills are in the best position to take the pick of contracts available. The more you know, the more value will the organisation gain when engaging you.

Keep an eye on market trends
If you have not changed contracts in a while, you may get out of touch with market trends and fall behind with the latest technology across different industries. You need to stay ahead of the market trends, and in order to achieve this you should consider moving around different projects.

Network with others
Finding a new contract is much easier if you have many contacts in the industry. You make these by networking and collecting contact details of permie colleagues, agents, managers, HR personnel, decision makers and executives in past organisations. Networking is only useful if you keep in touch and update people of your current situation, future requirements and availability. It is easy to get into the habit of only calling your contacts when you need them, which is why it is better to stay in touch regularly and build a social and professional friendship with them. You should also take every opportunity to help your contacts find the resources they are looking for, even when that does not directly benefit you. Other contractors, agencies, managers etc will be more helpful to you if you are helpful to them, too.

Work on your reputation
If you were a client, would you take on a contractor with bad reputation? Unfortunately, some contractors are not bothered about their reputation and that is when they lose. By making clients and permies unhappy about the quality of your job you will find it very difficult to secure your next contract. The amazing thing about contracting, is that it is surprisingly, a very small world and word quickly gets around amongst agencies, contractors, and permie managers. If you do a really bad job at one organisation, exhibit no interpersonal skills, are unwilling to help, your name will soon be passed around other agencies, clients and contractors, making it very difficult for you to secure your next contract.

Do not anger the agent
If because of you, your agent loses business or you act unprofessionally whilst working for him, it will be remembered and you will be badmouthed wherever you go. A really bad scenario is that your CV may get blacklisted and no agent will be interested in taking you on.

As a contractor, your priority should be to deliver top quality work not forgetting to be enthusiastic about it. By proving yourself and working hard you will make yourself invaluable to an organisation, increasing your chance of contract renewal.

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