FAQ’s – Contractors

Contract Job Search is a job board dedicated solely to advertising contract jobs. We provide contractors one of the UK’s most effective channels of searching and applying for contract jobs across the UK contract job market.

Contracting is about niche skill sets. Start by decide what you like, where your main skills are, and that you have demonstrable experience to back this up.
 
You can search on the homepage of contractjobsearch.com for jobs in your area of subject expertise by typing in the search box or clicking on the sectors and searching from there.
 
Check out the contractor resources for our published guides and posts in the contract job news blog.
 
To contract you will need either a limited company, or the services of an umbrella – read more here: limited company or umbrella?

Contractors find that contracting provides them more flexibility; shorter term assignments provide the ability to mix periods working with time off, interesting mix of assignments that build up experience faster, and higher rates of pay.
 
Another set of advantages of very few to none of the requirements of permanent employees to comply with such as annual reviews, career targets or performance, mandatory training, limitations of holiday or working time.

IR35 is a UK government tax legislation to combat tax avoidance of workers providing their services to clients through an intermediary such as a limited company where they are deemed to be ‘disguised employees’, and whose relationship with their client is such that had they been paid directly they would be employees of the client. There has been much written about IR35 and how it is assessed and applied.
 
If your contract is deemed to be ‘within’ IR35 you are most likely to be required to use the services of an umbrella company to ensure to the company hiring that tax is paid in full as would a permanent employee, and therefore the hiring company is not liable for the tax payment. There are still many of the advantages of contracting even if IR35 is applied, and many contract jobs offer higher rates of pay to compensate for IR35 tax legislation.
 
If the contract is not deemed to be within IR35 then you will run your own limited company and pay due tax via an accountant, with the tax advantages of travel, subsistence, and dividend etc. that a company director can take advantage of.

Visit the contractjobsearch.com homepage and type the job title or keyword you would like to search for. The search results will display all the jobs associated with that job title or search term. Alternatively search by category.
 
On the search results page you will see how many jobs are listed against that job title, category or search term.
 
You can filter the results further by selecting location and category from the right menu.

Once you have found the contract job you are interested in applying for, on the right you will see the job overview and at the footer in a green box apply for job.
 
Click apply for job and follow the on-screen instructions to apply for the contract job.
 
The contract job advertised may accept applications directly, or you may be requested to follow a link to another site outside of contractjobsearch.com

Yes, this is correct in some cases for jobs listed on contractjobsearch.com
 
The recruiter that listed the contract job advertisement has a choice as to whether to request applications directly from contractjobsearch.com or request the contractor to redirect to another site i.e. such as the recruiting companies internal HR system.
 
They do this to easier track applications in one place. If this occurs, please let them know you saw the job advertised on contractjobsearch.com

Contract job CVs are different from permanent job CVs. They need to get directly to the point of demonstrating your skills and experience applicable to the contract job advertised. They also need to clearly show you contact information.
 
The company advertising in most cases has an immediate or impending problem or need, and the contractor is there to solve the problem. Your CV should point directly to applicable skills and sector experience to solve their problem and needs.
 
For further guidance on contents and layout of a contractor CV visit our blog post: How to Get Hired With an Ultimate Contractor CV, or see our service: Contractor CV Done For You.

Visit the contractjobsearch.com homepage and locate the top right menu. Select sign up and follow the on-screen instructions

After you have applied for a contract job on contractjobsearch.com the recruiter should provide you an update in respect to your application.

Contractjobsearch.com makes its money through selling contract job advertising to recruiters and not through the sale of contractor information. As per our privacy policy if contractjobsearch.com was approached for any merger, sale of company assets, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business by another company, or in the unlikely event that Contract Job Search goes out of business or enters bankruptcy, user information would likely be one of the assets that is transferred or acquired by a third party. If any of these events happens, we will take any reasonable steps to notify you and this Privacy Policy would continue to apply to your information and the party receiving your information shall continue to use your information, but only consistent with this Privacy Policy.
 
With Your Consent – with your explicit consent or at your direction we may share and disclose information you have authorised us to with third parties. We will not, however, sell, rent, share or otherwise disclose personally identifiable information for commercial purposes in any way that is contrary to the commitments made in this Privacy Policy. We will take all reasonable steps to notify you when and what information might go to third parties and you will be able to choose whether to share it or not.
 
Please see our policy here: Privacy Policy

Contract Job Search takes user privacy and the safeguarding of personal information seriously.
 
The site is hosted under a verified https secured connection.
 
We have SSL Secure Certificate in place for the site providing by encrypting communications between the server and the person visiting the website.
 
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) turns a website’s address from HTTP to HTTPS, the ‘S’ standing for ‘secure’. On many browsers you will see a padlock next to the website address.
 
We take site security very seriously and conduct regular quarterly reviews to ensure continued protection of the site; along with running surveillance software to monitor site security.

Visit the contractjobsearch.com homepage and locate the top right menu. Select sign up and follow the on-screen instructions

With every mail from Contract Job Search you will find a link to be able to unsubscribe from communications.

The recommended resources we have listed we believe to be useful to contractors. However, in all cases please do your own research and take advice as necessary as the these are only suggested resources and are not meant as advisory. Please see our terms of use for more information.

This is a personal choice. In many cases where the contract role is deemed within IR35 it is required that the contractor contract through an umbrella service to ensure that tax is deducted and paid.

For limited companies you will need to invoice either the company you are contracted to, or the agency.
For umbrella contracts the umbrella company will manage contractor payment.

Please follow the following link to view our terms of use and policies

If this is the case please use the password rest. You can find this link when you click log in located in the top right menu bar. This will present you with instructions to change your password.

Click on log in and follow the link to reset your password. Your reset will be sent to your registered email address.
If you no longer have access to that email address please email us to remove that account, and please make a new registration using a current email address that you have access to.

Some Internet browsers allow you to save your password when you register on a website. This might be set up so that your old/inactive password is being prefilled; try deleting this and entering your new password.

Please check that you have not misspelt your email address or password. The password is case sensitive, which means that if you entered it with a capital letter during the registration process, you will need to use the capital letter here.

Information about the Employer can be found either under with the contract job advertisement or by performing a search online. If you want to get feedback on your application, you need to contact the employer directly. If you have registered and applied online, you will be able to access your old applications when you login to your account.

Contractjobsearch.com is an online contract jobs board and does not act as an employment agency on your behalf, as such we do not accept CVs or job applications by email or post.

When you apply for a job using the online application form, the information is available for the employer to review and assess using their recruitment process.
 
Contractjobsearch.com is not involved in the selection process for any contract jobs listed on the website, this is the sole responsibility of the individual employer. We cannot provide you with information on the number of applications for a contract job or any further information on the listed vacancy, you will need to contact the employer directly.

For further information on contract jobs advertised you will need to contact the employer advertising the contract job. Information about the employer can be found either within the contract job advertisement, or by performing a search online.