Top,1. Years experience is less relevant than what you have done in that time. Twenty years of testing wil not get you a system design contract, but two years of testing will get you a testing contract. Agencies and clients go for exact matches when taking on contractors, so if you have two years test experience all on windows servers, all in credit cards., you might well get the nod over someone with 10 years test experience, but only intermitently in FS and no credit cards work (for example).2. Have a look at the bulletin board on www.contractoruk.com. I believe testing is an area where there is an over supply at the moment and rates in the north have been cut.3. Yes. See point 1 above. Clients hire you because you've done it before, not because you have the potential to do it. In good markets (lack of contract resource) you may find clients taking you on because you have done 70% of the job before, and so you get to learn the 30% on the job. However the 30% os not always somthing you want to learn! and also we're not in a bouyant market - not by a long way.However, contracting does not have to be for ever. You could use it to finance you move back to where you want to be. Do a few projects and in 18 months move back into consultancy.And of course you might find that a lot of consultancies use contractors (call them associates cos it sounds better), so you coudl actually find yourself staying in the "consulting" market but with a differetn employment status.Good luck.
