Infrastructure Engineer work - not much around? or is there?

**antihippy** · 11 July 2014, 14:50

I've actually been thinking the same thing. I am based in Edinburgh and the jobs just aren't around. A few permie roles come up but I am at a different level from them.... and I'm not clear on the contracting. The agencies I've been speaking to have all been contradictory in what they're looking for. I'm happy to tailor my CV but getting concerned that my CV isn't getting the nibbles I would have expected. Especially as I have been getting good interviews (with good feedback...) but not securing the position. I'm find it all slightly frustrating at the moment.

**sal** · 11 July 2014, 15:02

Originally posted by Brenning View Post

Hi All,

Long time lurker, first time poster. I'm an infrastructure engineer based in the north west with around 10 years experience and was hoping to get into the contracting industry. After looking around though, there doesn't seem to be too much work out there at all. At first it looked good but after sifting through all the cv harvesters and bs agencies the one or two odd jobs I found were relatively short contracts, around 6 weeks. Does anyone else on here contract in this sector and can offer an insight? I have a lot of experience with the Microsoft stack and some routing and switching although not cisco.

It really depends on your rate and the location you are looking. Most jobs seems to be in London, can't comment on the NW. Usually there are decent amount of them paying low rates of £200ish/day, finding one for £300+ takes time and skills. On top of that the market is not that great during the summer, you have a much better chance September/October, before it dries up again for the X-mas.

The market is flooded with pure Windows engineers, you have much better chance by branching into "adjacent" technologies like Exchange/Citrix/VMWare/SQL as the better payed contracts usually demand broader range of skills. Basic understanding of SAN and experience with IBM/HP/Dell Blade hardware is almost a must, as in most places the support of the hardware is handled by the Wintel team.

Originally posted by Brenning View Post

Another question leading on from this, how do you guys go about keeping your experience up to date? I see a lot of jobs asking for experience in upgrading something to the latest platform in large scale enterprise environments etc, question is, if its a brand new product how do they expect you to already have that experience? have any of you guys picked up new skills whilst contracting or had any training? relevant to infrastructure / networking...

MVA is a good start for self learning. Owning a Dektop/Laptop with 16GB+ memory and a lab environment goes a long way. In most cases you pick up the experience with new technology while on the old job. When Server 2012 came out the permies at ClientCo refused to touch it before they go to training, i stepped in offering to do the PoC for them and then pass some knowledge back to the permies and bingo - free Server 2012 / Hyper-V 2012 experience.

IMO formal training is for permies, any contractor worth his salt should be able to self-learn at the very least the new version of product he knows. If not a new technology from scratch.

Originally posted by Brenning View Post

Sorry if any of these are n00b questions. Just trying to work out if its worth moving from a perm job into the freedom of contracting. The money side of things would obviously be a bonus if one could find enough work I guess. would hate to quit a perm job currently working for a managed services provider only to launch into a contract world where there aren't any contracts longer than 6 weeks or enough work, sounds like a bad combination.

Brenning

No one but you can take this decision for you, there are many discussions about this, with the most recent being:

http://forums.contractoruk.com/busin...it-my-job.html

**Brenning** · 11 July 2014, 15:27

Thanks for the replies antihippy and sal

sal - you must have fast fingers, that was a pretty sharp reply and appears quantity with quality!

Agree with the self taught - training is pretty much non-existent where I work at the moment so most of mine I learned myself and then validated it when I rolled it out to customers. Couple of questions for you as it sounds like you know your stuff:

Would I be correct in thinking the infrastructure contracts are almost seasonal? i.e they dry up at certain times of the year. or is this no more than any other area for contracting?

Are longterm (9 months +) contracts in networking / infrastructure engineering unheard of or uncommon?

Assuming you are a contractor, do you find yourself away from home a lot and living in hotels etc?

How long have you been contracting?

Do you see yourself contracting in another 10 years? (assume not retired)

Branching out sounds like a good way to go, I do have exchange certs and experience but I see a lot of places asking for citrix and other techs so might try and look into this.

Brenning

**northernladuk** · 11 July 2014, 15:36

Originally posted by Brenning View Post

:

Would I be correct in thinking the infrastructure contracts are almost seasonal? i.e they dry up at certain times of the year. or is this no more than any other area for contracting?

Mind if I ask why on earth you think infrastructure contracts are seasonal? They don't run them in winter because infrastructure contractors hibernate?

Same for any other area of contracting.

**TestMangler** · 11 July 2014, 15:38

Offshoring. Especially things like infrastructure, environments, 3rd line etc etc

it's gone, all gone I tells ya !

**sal** · 11 July 2014, 15:42

It's Friday afternoon and everything is quite on the Eastern front

It's not so much that the contracts are seasonal as that the management can't be bothered with starting new projects / hire new people around the holidays, always someone that needs to approve the cost or do the interview etc. is on leave. It has also to do with the financial periods / new budgets etc. So July/August and December/January are usually slow.

Plenty of of 6m+ contracts out there. My first one was 3m with 4x3m extensions for a total 15m and the current one was for initial 7m but was already extended twice and is until April now.

I live in London, so no long distance traveling for me.

I can see myself contracting for more than 10 years, it really depends. As i want to move away from an engineer role to a Technical/Solution Architect and this might require me to swallow a permie position for year or two.

**sal** · 11 July 2014, 15:44

Originally posted by northernladuk View Post

Mind if I ask why on earth you think infrastructure contracts are seasonal? They don't run them in winter because infrastructure contractors hibernate?

Same for any other area of contracting.

Probably something to do with

Originally posted by sal View Post

. On top of that the market is not that great during the summer, you have a much better chance September/October, before it dries up again for the X-mas.

**northernladuk** · 11 July 2014, 15:45

Which is also rubbish. Clients dont hold off on projects that deliver cost savings and enhance their business just because it's a bit close to xmas etc.

**vwdan** · 11 July 2014, 16:40

Do you have a skill beyond 'Microsoft'? Everyone and their dog claims to know the general MS Infrastructure stack and while there is a HUGE variance in quality it's tough to compete on skill in a crowded market.

Infrastructure Engineer work - not much around? or is there?