How to get your CV to the top of the agency's pile and other top tips.

By understanding how to fit your skills to your client's advertised needs, you CV can present you as the perfect solution.

The basics of negotiation and establishing what rate becomes a 'deal breaker' for you.

What to include: layout and content.

Now you have the information down on paper, how best to present it?

Recruitment experts suggest that every application should be followed up within 7-10 days if you have not had a personalised response.

One way to leave a positive impression is to follow up with a 'thank you'.

Dos and Don'ts of interviews.

Making the most of last stage of the interview.

One of the hazards of going for contracting interviews is that you often meet clients who have no idea what they are doing.

Supposing you have made a good first impression and have not yet lost the contract, how do you proceed?

Long before you park the car in the visitors' section of some giant corporation and linger tentatively in the glass-boxed reception before being escorted to the lifts and the interview room, your preparation should have started.

The decisions we make about liking or disliking somebody are made phenomenally quickly.

Umbrellas may be liable for agents or clients who change payments terms on a whim.

Owen spots the permies, discovers where not to log the vitals, and knuckles down to embrace IT contracting.