Good on ya crm250, it's a big move. I'm an Aussie here in the UK and have been here for 2 years. I've got MCSE in NT 4 and win2k (although i've had enough to be honest ...) and left my fulltime job in Aus to bring my family over here and go contracting. I worked for Australia's premier integration company until Dimension Data came along and bought us and spent 6 months seconded to Microsoft working as a consultant. I've been contracting the whole time I've been here, took me three weeks being in the country before I was working for Accenture, stayed with them for 9 months and I've been with BP for 15 months and two weeks ago signed up for another 6 mths.
It can be stressful but it can also be very rewarding financially. You just need to do your numbers (assume you already would have seeing as you are handing in your notice) and make sure you know how long you can go without work for, understand your target market and what rates you think you can get and how low you are prepared to go if times are tough. I would also advise you to use a management company that can supply you with an IR35 friendly tax vehicle. It's worth cheking that out straight away because there are clauses that will need to be in any contract you sign.
I've always used
www.jobserve.com as this seems to be the best used website that IT recruiters use. My tip would be to look on there and find a contract that looks good, send in your CV, and then call them 10 minutes later and ask to speak to the recruiter and say that you weren't sure if the CV got through or not because you have a dodgy web connection or something. Reason being is that they receive so many CV's that you need to get yours to the top so they will put you forward to their customer, otherwise you miss out.
Give me a call whenever you want - 077 9502 5018 and I'll give you whatever advice I can. Just make sure you're doing it for the right reasons and that your numbers add up.
Good luck and welcome to the world of self employed people
Cheers,
TP
[Edited on 18-4-2004 by tp-996]