it'll depend on the firm, their current situation & what client projects they have lined up.
As a permanent employee of a consultancy, the consultancy takes on the liability of having to pay you a wage even if they run out of billable projects to deploy you on, so you shouldn't expect to make as attractive an hourly rate, compared to if you are contracting directly with a client or being some kind of sub-contractor or casual/temp employee of the middleman agency.
In some labour markets (australia, UK) contract IT work is quite common. If you can't find leads for contracts through people who can vouch for you in own professional network, hop onto the popular local job search website, set the filter for "contract" work, plug in some keywords, see what ads pop up. It can also be interesting to dial filters for salary/daily contract rate way up to get a feel for what skills or technology has the most market demand. If there are advertisements that look interesting, reach out and talk to people.
You will rapidly find yourself talking with recruiters at consultancies/agencies/bodyshops -- if they think you might be a good fit for their client, they will of course generally be aspiring to purchase your labour for as low a cost as possible so they can pocket the largest spread between what the client is willing to pay and what you are willing to work for. But there's a bunch of skill and time in finding clients, negotiating pricing and contracts, sorting out admin and compliance stuff -- you either figure out how to do it yourself or rely on another person or firm to do some or all of it on your behalf, and let them capture a share of the value.
As a permanent employee of a consultancy, the consultancy takes on the liability of having to pay you a wage even if they run out of billable projects to deploy you on, so you shouldn't expect to make as attractive an hourly rate, compared to if you are contracting directly with a client or being some kind of sub-contractor or casual/temp employee of the middleman agency.
In some labour markets (australia, UK) contract IT work is quite common. If you can't find leads for contracts through people who can vouch for you in own professional network, hop onto the popular local job search website, set the filter for "contract" work, plug in some keywords, see what ads pop up. It can also be interesting to dial filters for salary/daily contract rate way up to get a feel for what skills or technology has the most market demand. If there are advertisements that look interesting, reach out and talk to people.
You will rapidly find yourself talking with recruiters at consultancies/agencies/bodyshops -- if they think you might be a good fit for their client, they will of course generally be aspiring to purchase your labour for as low a cost as possible so they can pocket the largest spread between what the client is willing to pay and what you are willing to work for. But there's a bunch of skill and time in finding clients, negotiating pricing and contracts, sorting out admin and compliance stuff -- you either figure out how to do it yourself or rely on another person or firm to do some or all of it on your behalf, and let them capture a share of the value.